Georgetown, South Carolina

McLellanville, SC to Butler Island anchorage north of Georgetown, SC

Days on Cruise:    22

Today’s Trip: 39.8 miles

Travel Time:  5 hrs, 11 mins

Total odometer:  623 miles

It’s noteworthy to us that we’ve now traveled well over 1,000 miles on “Next to Me”, counting our shake-down cruise to the Florida Keys (500 miles round trip) and the distance we’ve covered on the Great Loop so far. We’ve lived on the boat full-time for 3 months and continue to find it comfortable.  We think the boat is well-prepared for the journey, as the only two problems we’ve had other than the malfunctioning windlass were caused by us.

Today we cruised to the town of Georgetown, SC for lunch at “The Big Tuna” and a walk-around. We’d never heard of Georgetown, but Jerry and Jenny in Charleston said it was a town we should stop for, if briefly.

We had delicious fish sandwiches at “The Big Tuna”, which had sort of a fish-shack ambiance and is located at the confluence of the Waccamaw, Black and Pee Dee rivers, at the head of Winyah Bay.  Downtown Georgetown is another National Historic District and has more lovely, if less grand than Charleston’s or Beaufort’s, old homes. The local C of C claims that  First Lady Michelle Obama has family roots in this area. (We’ve heard a lot of inventive claims on this trip, so we take most of them with a grain of salt.)

The city has a Harborwalk along the Sampit Riverfront that lines Front Street.  We enjoyed Georgetown and are glad it was recommended to us.

We continued 7 miles further north and dropped anchor adjacent to Butler Island in the Waccamaw River, a beautiful, serene spot which we’re told has nesting eagles. There are also abandoned rice paddies in the area, a major export crop for the area until the 1980s.