Hygge Adventures: 057: The Low Country Part 4:

We left Charleston, S.C. on March 25^th, for the run to an anchorage near McClellanville. The day was very windy and quite nasty, but thankfully there was little traffic--only the Fort Sumter tour boat that we could see in the distance. We passed the Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms area--these form the barrier islands and are the closest beaches if you live in the Charleston or Mt. Pleasant area. It was a pretty quiet run, and we reached our intended destination, an anchorage area outside of McClellanville off Town Creek. This area was quite exposed because it was a grassland, and although we tried to anchor, we were not happy with the swing room or wind protection. We made a quick call to Leland Oil Company and Marina and were able to secure dockage for the night, although space was tight. KatMat ended up rafting off to us.

The town was a short way up Jeremy Creek where we could see a large shrimping and crabbing fleet. McClellanville was founded in the late 1850's as a summer retreat from inland heat for planters of the Santee Delta. Today it has a population of about 600, and no downtown to speak of, but Matt, Kathy and Nancy took a walk to the Carolina Seafood Company, a local fish market with seafood right off the dock. Nancy bought some crab dip, which came highly recommended from previous Looper comments.

An old tree::

Shrimp boats:

On the 26^th, we left first thing in the morning for the run to Georgetown, S.C. Georgetown is another Looper favorite stop. The plan was to anchor right off downtown, where there was a convenient city dinghy dock for day use. On approach to Georgetown, you can't help but notice the huge industrial complex, which is comprised of the Georgetown Steel Mill, which is responsible for the majority of manufacturing jobs in the area, and the Georgetown Paper Mill, owned by and operated by International Paper. We are told there is often a bad odor in the air, but the wind must have been blowing in the right direction, because we never smelled it.

A reading of the Waterway Guide revealed that the holding in the Sampit River anchorage right off downtown was "sketchy" due to a more "fluffy" or silty bottom. The anchorage was also crowded with 6-8 derelict boats and many more live aboard locals taking up valuable real estate. It was difficult to squeeze in between those already anchored, staying out of the navigation channel but also far enough away from any shallows on the opposite bank, and we rode around for some time scouting out locations and testing depths. Matt and Kathy moved further upriver and anchored there.

Lots of shrimp boats in Georgetown:

Once settled, Nancy and I headed into town by dinghy. There is a boardwalk, known as “the Harborwalk,” along the waterfront. We toured the small downtown and took a a guided tour of the Kaminski House, a Georgian Style Antebellum house on a bluff overlooking the Sampit River with a rich history. The home was built sometime between 1750 and 1800 by Paul Trapier, a leading merchant of French Huguenot decent, who later deeded it to his daughter, Elizabeth, to increase her marriage prospects. It must have worked because in 1778 she married a widower, Edward Martin, who was a "merchant" in Charleston, active in the importing of slaves. In 1931 by Harold Kaminski, the son of Heiman Kaminski, one of Georgetown's most prominent merchants during the latter part of the 19th Century, and his wife Julia. Harold had many successful business interests and also served as Mayor of Georgetown. He was a Navy officer during WWII and was on duty at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. When Julia died she donated the home and all its furnishings, but stipulated that nothing be moved, added or subtracted in perpetuity. So, it hasn't, down to the placement of the knickknacks on the shelves

Unmoved knicknacks (I have the whole set of these monks in a box from my mother. Syrup, milk, sugar, and salt and pepper):

Afterwards, we toured the Maritime Museum, which was free to enter: bonus! We finished up our day with dinner at the River Room Restaurant on the Harborwalk. We sat at a table overlooking the water and it was a very pleasant evening.

Georgetown:

On the 27^th, I was starting to feel ill (cold) as was Matt. I gave Nancy and Kathy a dinghy ride to town, and they went touring. Highlights:

-Rice Museum on Front Street: before cotton was king, it was rice in this area. As much as 236,000 acres of previously untouched land was transformed into about 120,000 acres of tidal rice fields and roughly 116,000 acres of inland rice fields. Enslaved people did the work. These areas are natively cypress swamps or upland pine forests, and the slaves had to first perform the back-breaking labor of clearing the land using hand tools and oxen to cut down and remove the trees, pull out stumps, and then backfill the swampy areas with soil moved from elsewhere. It took at least 8 years for a native cypress swamp to be cleared--the work was so difficult and the ground was so wet and soft, that the oxen had to wear special "shoes".

-Gullah Museum, which is a small organization dedicated to remembering the Gullah history and culture. Gullah history is told through story quilts and artifacts--many of which were made by the museum's founder Bunny Smith Rodriquez. Her quilts are prized and sought after and her Michelle Obama Story Quilt is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. (Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather on her father's side, Jim Robinson, was born into slavery in 1850 on Friendfield Plantation near Georgetown)

On the 28^th we left Georgetown and headed up to the Wacca Wache Marina, a small marina with only sixteen slips (and fewer transients) right on the Intracoastal waterway. It was a very peaceful setting, with unspoiled views up and down the Waccamaw River and an unobstructed western exposure for sunsets over the cypress swamps.

By Friday, the 29^th, Matt and I were both in full-blown sick mode and we stayed on the boats while Nancy and Kathy rented a car to sight see. We all went to dinner in Murrell’s Inlet (has to be the highest concentration of restaurants anywhere) but I was not really “felling it.”

Sights from the area:

Sculpture museum:

Everywhere George Washington went is celebrated:

On Saturday, I had to replace the gasket on Hygge’s water heater as almost a quickly as we filled the water tank, it emptied. I had seen this problem before and thought to have a spare gasket on the boat. Matt gave me “moral support” as I crawled under bunks and took out access panels to get to the water heater. Leak fixed, we left the dock and took a short ride over to a lovely anchorage and dropped the hook in the Bull Creek. Nancy and I went exploring via the dinghy up several creeks and found a wildlife refuge to walk around for a bit. Later that night my hopes of Illinois making the Final Four in the NCAA tournament were bashed in the first eight minutes of the second half of the game against UConn.

Anchorage: