A Georgetown Christmas

Happy Boxing day, everyone. Also Chag Chanukah Sameach, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Yule/Saturnalia (sorry, no standing skyclad before the tree in this weather). I know that still does not cover everyone, so maybe just Happy Holidays. We are underway southbound on the ICW in a holiday caloric stupor, with Georgetown behind us and Charleston on the horizon.

Vector at anchor in the entrance to Cow House Creek across from Wacca Wache marina.

This is not the latest we've been in this part of the country, yet this season seems to be the coldest. We were comfortable at Bird Island, where last I posted, but yet another cold snap was coming. That, in part, led us to settle on Georgetown for the holiday. I spent a good part of Friday's cruise through Myrtle Beach on the phone, trying to find a holiday meal in Charleston, with no success, and we'd be facing a very cold dinghy ride and/or a couple of Uber rides to get anywhere there in any case.

And so it was that we decided to stick with the reservations we already had at The Independent in Georgetown for Christmas dinner. There's a good anchorage there with a very convenient dinghy dock, but with more sub-freezing nights on the way, I called the marinas to see if there was a spot. Harborwalk, the nicest of the lot and closest to town, had a spot open starting Sunday, and we booked it, figuring that was when we'd arrive anyway.

The broken grill element I wrote of in the last post, on its way to the trash.

I had set my sights on Enterprise Landing, a familiar anchorage, for Friday night, but we got an early start in the morning on account of the cold, and we absolutely rocketed through the normally chaotic Myrtle Beach area with basically zero traffic all day. It was the least we'd ever seen here, and a stark contrast to the absolute zoo that it was when we last passed in the other direction on a holiday weekend. We hit Enterprise early in the afternoon, and decided to just press on.

That let us get all the way to Wachesaw Landing, on the Waccamaw River, where we anchored in a familiar spot across from Wacca Wache Marina (map). There is a tongue-twister in there somewhere. The later arrival gave us more heat into the evening, and we were able to tender across to Walters at the marina for dinner and a nice draft beer.

Georgetown has a "cat cafe" where you can pay to hang out with adoptable cats.

Saturday we got underway first thing to catch the last of the ebb as far as it would take us, figuring to end the day at Butler Island. We first swung over to the marina to top up our fuel, at the best price we'll see until we are northbound out of Florida. We were only able to fit 200 gallons, and in hindsight we could have saved 75 bucks or so by taking on 500 fewer gallons back in Virginia, but that kind of gambling is a fool's errand; the price could just as easily have gone up in the intervening month.

We had a good push all the way to Butler, where the ebb ran out and we found ourselves against the flood. But even with the fuel stop we were now so early in the day that even the uphill climb the rest of the way to Georgetown would make for an early afternoon arrival, and on plenty of tide to get us over the entrance bar. We again to decided to press on, even though we'd be a day ahead of our slip reservation, knowing we could at least get ashore for dinner. We ran a slow bell the whole way to conserve fuel and have a bit more tidal help on the entrance.

I stopped at the Indigo Bakery on my first walk for some breakfast pastries for the cold morning.

We worked our way all the way back to the steel mill and dropped the hook in a new spot for us (map) with a bit more room. This early in the day I bundled up in my winter gear and splashed the tender to go ashore for a walk and to scope out dining options. I did not get far; halfway to the dock the overheat alarm came on, and I noted that there was no water coming from the tell-tale that lets us know the cooling is working. I nursed it back to Vector and we hauled it on deck ass-end-first so I could work on it.

Fortunately it was sunny out and the warmest part of the afternoon, so I was mostly comfortable in my coveralls with my sweater underneath. I replaced the impeller, to no effect, checked water flow by removing the thermostat housing (flow was good), tested the thermostat in a pot of water (it was fine), and put it back together with the thermostat out. That did the trick and restored water flow and operation, if a bit rough with no 'stat in the bitter cold. This all involved dunking the tender back in the water like a tea bag three times, but it was running well enough to go to dinner and I could work on the 'stat in warmer climes.

These enormous inflatable ornaments adorned the yard of the Kaminski House Museum, which was also nicely lit at night.

I had just enough time to make it ashore for a half-hour walk, which involved stopping in to every decent restaurant to see who was open Christmas Eve. I ended up with three reservations for discussion later. Where I expected to find a Mexican place that we enjoyed with friends Dorsey and Bruce on our last visit, I instead found Alfresco Italian Bistro and booked a table. I later learned that the Mexican place had literally just closed early in the month, and I had walked in to Alfresco on their second day open.

We returned ashore for pizza and drafts at SoCo Wood Fired Pizza, which was decent if a bit charmless. The temperature plummeted into the 30s overnight, and by the time we were weighing anchor for the short trip to the dock at noon on Sunday we had run the generator four hours, whereas we normally run only two, and seldom even that for just an overnight. We were glad to be heading toward a power outlet.

I remembered this curved bar from when it was Marker 42 Cantina.

By 12:15 we were tied up at the south end of the face dock (map) and all signed in. I put the e-bike together and made a cold pilgrimage to Walmart before the Christmas Eve chaos to fill our provision list. We walked down to the familiar Corner Tavern for a casual dinner and a draft beer. This was the first place I had scored a reservation for Christmas Eve, when they close at 5, and I canceled it, with better options in hand. Overnight temperatures were again in the 30s and we blasted the heat all night.

Christmas eve I again struck out on the e-bike to both the Piggly Wiggly and the Food Lion, hoping beyond hope that one would have a small pumpkin pie left, a holiday flavor that I crave. Sadly, both were sold out. I settled for some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and a few bagels for breakfast. The stores were crowded but the town was empty.

For Christmas cheer I had some of the wonderful home-made Limoncello gifted us by our friends Dorsey and Bruce aboard Esmeralde.

When dinner rolled around we strolled to Alfresco Italian Bistro for our reservation. The food was pretty good and they had some nice drafts, but here on day four of their existence they were still going through some teething pains. Despite being, I think, the very first reservation in their book when I made it on day one, they marched us right over to the worst table in the joint, which we promptly declined. All worked out in the end and we will be back.

The town was quiet on Christmas eve, and even quieter Christmas day. We had a nice walk around a deserted town, and then I went for a longer walk out to the Pee Dee River and the big sportfishing marina there. We had a lovely dinner at The Independent, in the upscale George Hotel right next to the dock. We completely forgot to show our marina receipt, which would have taken 10% off the food portion of our bill.

We both found whimsical holiday socks under the tree. Little magnets let them "hold hands." My pair was identical but red.

This morning, wanting to save the last of our bagels for at anchor, we walked across the street to the Grit & Grind for breakfast sandwiches. They were decent but I would ask them to cook my egg longer next time. While we were in line we ran into our dock neighbors Donna and Larry from the Hatteras 58 Ethel-M, who had tied up behind us Tuesday.

On my walk to the Pee Dee I passed this, umm, sculpture out front of a restaurant supply. They sell new and used fixtures, so perhaps this was decor for a now-defunct tiki bar.

We would have loved to linger at the dock until checkout time, sucking up watts from the power pedestal, but the tide was falling and we wanted to leave the harbor with a bit of water under the keel. We contemplated first using the pump-out, but that's uncomfortable in the cold and we learned our neighbors had trouble with it, so we passed. We dropped lines at 9:30 and left while we still had 19" under the keel. That means we'll be most of the way to Charleston Harbor when we stop today; we don't want to stop too early because it will mean running the generator a lot longer for heat.

The whole town was festively lit, and we enjoyed passing this fat tree each evening in the town square.

All of that will have us passing Charleston before lunch tomorrow, and on this pass we'll sail right on by. The spot we like at the Maritime Center is unavailable, and we're not really going to enjoy the city in this cold anyway. We'll time our arrival to Elliott Cut for the noon slack and continue south, anchoring somewhere along the Wadmalaw I expect. We should be in Georgia by the weekend.