We woke up somewhat early and departed our mooring. We wanted to get going with a high tide and didn’t even take Frank to shore because we weren’t going too far today- only about twelve miles. Once we were clear of the creek we continued up the Waccamaw River, which is the ICW route to our destination. We came upon the turn off and worked our way back to the anchorage. I noted the water depth was between ten to eighteen feet all the way back, which made me feel good about it. As we came to the last bend, we could see the large sand dune/ beach and started looking for a spot to drop the anchor. We dropped anchor and let out quite a bit of scope due to the current that was running through. We ended up being about fifty feet from the beach and yet we still had about fifteen feet of water under us. There was a couple of small pontoon boats beached with people walking around. Once I was sure we weren’t moving I took Frank for a quick trip to land but avoided the people. I walked up the large dune and saw we were in the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. There were trail running in both directions, and it looked like we had a lot to explore later! We returned to the boat and I told Lauren about our scouting mission. We wanted to stay away from people, so we decided to have lunch and see if the boats left. Eventually we went to shore and went for a hike. Frank probably enjoyed this anchorage the most because he could run free without a leash as there was no one around. There was plenty of forest and trails we hiked through, even finding an old, what looked abandoned cemetery in the middle of the forest. There were trail signs so we wouldn’t get lost and informing us of local wildlife. We knew we had to stay another night…
Day 2- we were the only boat there on our first night. The sounds of wildlife came alive at night and it was awesome. The morning was nice- we were so close to shore I just rowed in instead of starting the dinghy engine. Frank got to run free and we explored some more. We noticed there was a rope swing from a cliff by us, which I checked out the first day and was thinking of doing today. Another trawler pulled in in the afternoon and anchored past us up river. At least they stayed pretty far away so we didn’t feel crowded. A few other pontoon boats came and went throughout the day and we relaxed on the boat. Frank got a few walks in and we explored more trails, looking for the wild pigs and other wildlife the signs told us about. As much as we enjoyed this anchorage, we figured we should continue moving northward, and the forecast for the next couple of days was not looking good. High winds and some rain was expected. We called a well known marina which a lot of Loopers stop at due to the cheap fuel prices and docks. We made a reservation for a few days so we could be safe during the storms.
The following morning I took Frank to shore for a nice long walk before we left. I realized I had not actually jumped from the rope swing, so I decided I was going to do it now before we leave. Our neighbor trawler had left earlier in the morning and so we were alone. I stripped down, grabbed the line and swung out to the water while Frank was probably wondering “what the hell is he doing!?”… Lauren may or may not have video… After we made it back to the boat, we readied for departure and pulled anchor. The wind was starting to really pick up, but we didn’t notice it until we were back on the ICW…