South Carolina

The ICW route through Georgia and S. Carolina can be quite confusing.  There are no signposts at the river intersections telling you which way to go.  I've found that plotting out a route on our iPad the night before really lowers the stress level when it comes to navigating through these waters.

The reward for this area is the wonderful anchorages.  They are remote from civilization and very serene.  Every one we had was better than the last.

But you still have to be careful of the tides.  Here we are in a side river anchorage, alone as always.

 When the water goes down the width can also shrink dramatically.

We have dolphins show up by the boat every once in a while.  And the osprey are building their nests all along this stretch of water.  We also saw several bald eagles; they sure are impressive.

For a bit of history we cruised by Fort Sumter, near Charleston.

We've always stopped in Myrtle Beach since it has nice marinas on the ICW and the beach is close by.  This time we stayed at Grand Dunes Marina for two nights.  A 1.5 mile walk to the beach was on wide sidewalks and little traffic.  Spring just started and we are seeing new green leaves and a few flowering plants.

The beach is wide and quite long.  We walked 4 miles along it until our bare feet got sore.

Stopped at grocery store on our way back to boat for more fresh stuff.  A total of 7 miles walking felt good after 5 days straight on the boat.  We've come almost 400 miles since leaving Jacksonville.  Only 600 more to reach Washington DC, the goal for this leg.