Shrimp Country
18 November 2010 | Georgetown, SC
Jill (Second Hand)
It was a good run today. Bud and Rick left the dock at about 6:30 AM. They had 3 or 4 bridges to make and hit all of them with no wait time. A good portion of their run was on the Waccamaw River and they were going with the current. Even keeping the engine revs down they were doing almost 8 knots for a while, and over 6 knots for most of the day.
Their goal for the day was Georgetown, SC and they got there in the middle of the afternoon. Again, this was a situation where they probably could have easily anchored, but they didn't know it. The problem with anchoring for us is that we have to get Fuzzy to the shore. We have a dinghy and an outboard for it, but we didn't get the outboard until 2 days before we left. We decided not to register the dinghy in New York because we are going to be changing our official residence to Florida, where our mail forwarding service is. We also couldn't find the recommended oil for the new outboard. So we are trying to only use it with the oars. Rowing is only going to work if there's not a lot of either wind or current and if the distance isn't too great. So even now, when it is warm enough that Bud would consider anchoring, he's not been able to identify good anchorages ahead of time. (He also doesn't have me on board right now to research all that stuff for him.) We have probably spent more on marinas than the extra registration would have cost. Ah well, hindsight and all that...
Anyway, they are in a marina that is about half transients and half commercial fishermen. There is also a packinghouse at the marina and they sell fish. They had grouper, croaker, oysters, frozen crab cakes and garbage cans full of fresh shrimp. Bud and Rick bought 2 pounds of extra large shrimp for $7/lb. I think they are going to be eating well tonight.
The town also boasts a paper mill. So far the wind has kept the smell away. They are hoping the wind holds.
They made about 58 statute miles today. The log on the boat said 50 nautical miles, but that's not correct because it can't correct for the current. They think they have about 50 miles left to Charleston, so they should be there tomorrow. I hope they enjoy it. I'm a big Tim Conroy fan and have wanted to visit Charleston since reading South of Broad. Hope I get to see a bit of it before we leave.