South Carolina’s Low Country

Sunrise on Awendaw Creek

 

Brunelle heading north on the ICW

Father and son spending Easter morning fishing

     We pulled anchor to a very beautiful sunrise.  As we entered the ICW it was so peaceful and still.  That should have been a warning, but the beauty around us was captivating.  Once we passed the Georgetown area and onto the Waccamaw River, we were in Cypress and abandoned rice field country.  We had bypassed this area on our way down with the ocean passage.  This area is one of the prettiest if not the prettiest on the ICW.   Pete said that this area reminds him of boating on a lake. The cypress trees, with their flowing moss come in such varieties.   
The lighting, the color variations and the textures leave me wanting to just stop and try to capture them with my sketch pad and pencil. Even at 7 knots, we are moving too fast to take in all the subtleties.  Even though it is driving our allergies crazy, the air is sweet with something that is blooming.  We have not figured out just what it might be, but it would be nice to bottle the scent.   

     However, there is a dark side to all this beauty. .  .  .  They have wings and bite!  With all this swampland, the various species of flies are prolific.  We were inundated by horse/deer flies (which didn’t get a chance to bite) and a biting black fly on and off for hours. They came in clusters.  Andiamo was lucky with their screens. We were very busy with fly swatters.  We had to wash down the cockpit once we dock of all the dead flies we didn’t discard during our trip.  Pete had the worst encounters as I was able to hide down below for some of the trip prior to Georgetown to work on the blog pictures.

I couldn't make out the type of birds,
but they had multiple nests in the tree.

     After lunch, Brunelle developed engine problems and wound up sailing the remaining 2 1/2 hours of our day.  They eventually had to take a tow from Andiamo to the Marina; then Pete was able to do a hip-tow with the dinghy into the gas dock at Osprey Marina.

This old tree is completely hollow
yet there is growth on the top.

One of the many ospreys' nests we saw along
the water's banks

    The staff, here at Osprey Marina, was extremely helpful. The facilities are great, the service super, even on a holiday.  The marina stay is $1.00/ft. and the welcome package is equal to about 1/3 of our payment. They deserve the wonderful reviews they have received in Active Captain.

    Once secured, Dan spent about an hour replacing the fuel pump.  Thankfully, he had a spare. 

    We had the steaks, John made a wonderful rub using coffee as a base, and Pete cooked them on the grill. Betty and john had the potatoes, the green beans with bacon, and French bread. Martha added the Pound Cake to the strawberries Betty and I brought.    We had a wonderful impromptu Easter Dinner with “our cruising family”.    

~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete