An excess of birds
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Our position is 33:40.919N 79:02.520W ICW miles to go: 373.2 The following morning we went alongside the nearby marina pontoon
for a couple of hours so we could explore the town a bit. It was charming in a
slightly touristy way but what we could walk to was very limited. We visited a
newly opened museum which had a set of old photographs detailing the building
and service of the “City of It was a sunny afternoon but the journey was slow as the tide was against us. This day we saw a lot more wildlife – every channel marker seemed to have a bald eagle nesting on it and the vultures were wheeling overhead. We also spied little turtles (more like large terrapins) sunning themselves on logs along the side and always there are one or two dolphins. The early reaches of the Waccamaw river run through the heart of the old rice growing area and abandoned rice plantations line its banks. Further on the river winds its way through mile after mile of dense forest giving a sense of wilderness. The banks are very soft and the constant wash created by passing boats is eroding the soil round the tree roots and leaving them isolated in the water until they die and collapse. There were a lot of other boats on the waterway as everyone was out enjoying a sunny Saturday so we had firsthand experience of the wash the fast sports boats generate. There are a lot of side creeks off the main river which
can provide rather shallow anchorages but we decided to head for Osprey Marina,
which had advertising boards up along the side of the river and seemed to
promise cheap fuel and free pump outs. By the time we arrived it was after hours
for the office but we tied up to what appeared to be a visitor’s pontoon in a
delightfully sheltered lagoon just off the main waterway. It was impressively
still with more of the small
turtles swimming round the boat and the surrounding trees full of the sound of
birdsong while frogs croaked nearby.
We didn’t see any ospreys though. Fortunately it was dark before the
threatened thunderstorm broke and we were safely below cooking dinner before
settling down for our most peaceful night yet.
  Historic house in
Georgetown
Community herb garden
  Some interesting street
benches
  Nice little park leading to the
boardwalk
The old fish market in Georgetown is now a bikers bar
  Abandoned irrigation channel off Waccamaw
River
The rice now grows wild
  An eagle on every channel
marker
  Handy to have a nest
light!
Isolated (and dead) trees due to wash from boats
  The river offers lots of recreational
opportunities (and you don't even have to have the kids in the boat with
you)
  The local way of getting to
school
and church
  Strange place to
park
The waterway wimding through the forest
  Moorglade in Osprey Marina before thunder and
lightning
small turtle swims by the boat
  Stillness in the
marina
not all the birds were eagles
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