"Wacamaw River and Brookgreen Gardens" Murrells Inlet by grandmaR

On our third visit to Murrell's inlet, we finally made time to visit Brookgreen Gardens.

One of the guys working at the marina took us over and dropped us off using the marina truck. We had a couple of hours here to look at the statuary and really didn't even scratch the surface of what could be seen. The gardens were beyond beautiful.

Live oaks in the fall

After the first trip when the weather and stress of going through the Rockpile more or less forced us to stop here, we've tried to stay here each other time.

MM 377.5 There are many nice anchorages on the Waccamaw River, particularly off Bucksport. (see Bucksport page). Watch out for gill nets which may be strung across the river.

We did skip Wacca Wache on the way down in 2001 when we had our friends on board.

But it wasn't until April 2002 that we finally visited Brookgreen Gardens (above).

Waccamaw River

We take our time leaving Georgetown because we have only a short distance to go today.

As we head under the fixed bridge and up the Wacamaw River, I see a tug with two barges behind us. It is going a little faster than we are, and is pretty far back. We decide to let them pass, so we hold up a bit. It is ISLAND BOY from Tampa and he has two barges of I beams. We 'draft' on him, staying as close as possible.

I had previously heard on the radio about a gill net strung across the river up by marker #77. Pretty soon, the tug and barges get to this point and the fisherman quickly moves his net for the tug to pass. We go by too. A sports fishing boat coming down the river is vigorously herded over to our side of the river by the net tender. As soon as we get by, he pulls it back across.

We got to Wacca Wache by noon, after 20.4 miles at 5.4 miles per hour for a total of 642 nautical miles. SUN CHASER and GOOSE CHASER are also here. GREAT LADY (a large motor boat) and JAGUAR (a sailboat from MD) come in after us, and SQUIRT, a trawler with dark blue topsides comes in after 6 and ties to the fuel dock.

We had barbecue from the lunch counter for lunch and ate dinner in the cockpit because they are not open for dinner at the marina.
-------
April 6, 2001

We started the engine at 7:30 and I spilled the juice from last night at dinner that I left in the cockpit and forgot. There is virtually no wind.

We came to the Socastee Bridge. SQUIRT and JAGUAR are already there waiting for it to open - also ESCAPE IV from Mass. and SEA BONDS from Tilghman Island MD (both sailboats). A trawler named MATILDA II from Maine came up and passed and a Bayliner named MOONBOW from Crisfield also went by.

Next: Little River