Yesterday we finally passed over the border to South Carolina. We spent last night anchored in Calabash Creek. There aren’t a lot of anchorages to pick from in that area so we had to pick someplace we had already anchored in last year. There isn’t a lot of room there either but we managed to find ourselves a spot. We anchored next to a power boat that had passed us a bit up the river. When we were searching for a spot to drop our anchor the guy on the power boat called out to Bill with some warnings about the big shrimp boats that come up the river early in the morning. That is when Bill realized it was a salesman he knew well from our local West Marine. Once we had anchored, and grabbed quick showers, we went over to say hello. He is cruising alone from Annapolis to Marathon, Florida.

This morning when we finally were ready to go we realized we were the last boat in the anchorage. It just meant that we didn’t have anyone to have to jockey around with as we went through the three opening bridges today. The bridges we were going through all opened “On Demand”. In other words, when you get close you call them on the VHF – Channel 9 in South Carolina, not Channel 13 like in Maryland – and ask them for an opening. I called the first bridge and requested an opening and he said “in a little bit”. Well fifteen minutes later we were still sitting there waiting. There wasn’t even really much traffic going over the bridge. My theory was that he was using his bridge tender power to not do what a woman was asking him to do. Turns out he is just a really bad bridge tender. We heard on the radio that he did the same thing to another boat later in the morning and that time it was a man requesting the opening. The other two bridges went a lot better. There wasn’t much waiting time for them.

Once we got through the last opening bridge we had to go through “the Rockpile”. It’s a relatively narrow channel with rocks on both sides. Last year when I drove through there I remember “the fight” about how I didn’t know what “the middle” meant. Well, today is my birthday so as my birthday present Bill offered to drive through the Rockpile so there would not be a fight. I guess that, and my shower last night, are going to have to suffice until we do my “birthday observed” tomorrow in Georgetown, SC. Tonight we are anchored in a little creek off of the Waccamaw River. The cruising guide promised alligators but we have not seen any. Too bad, that would have been a nice birthday present too. It is pretty though, as you can see from the picture above.

Tomorrow we will go to Georgetown where there are restaurants, a supermarket that will drive you back to the waterfront, and a Laundromat that people just seem to need to drive you to and back. We hope we have as good experience there this year as we did last year.