Day Four – The Big Fire

Current Position: 33° 10' 26" N 79° 18' 26" W

A shorter day on the water due to strong currents on the Waccamaw River.  It moved us along at a good clip.  Going back up will take more engine power! 

We started out much different than the last couple of days.  The ICW has been dredged out or carved out in places to make more of a straight highway.  Today we joined up with the Waccamaw River's original path.  It wound around this way and that! 

Then she opened up to the widest and deepest body of water we’ve been on yet.  

We crossed under a LONG bridge, passed very few boats and bounced along on some mildly choppy waves.  

We saw an interesting sight of a small boat towing a very large tree root. 

The trees here have very large root systems and we saw one root ball floating down the river.  One of our friends said root towing is common in South Carolina.

Do you see the nest in the tree?

It looked to be a non-eventful day until we neared our anchorage and saw huge smoke clouds in the sky ahead of us. 

It was a wild fire on the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Preserve.  We just caught the edge of the smoke on our way to our anchorage.   I actually saw flames down near the water but mostly lots of smoke.

You can just make out the flame just above the shore line.

We are anchored in a fairly open waterway on the North Santee River.  It’s got a good current flowing but our anchor is holding fast.  We saw three dolphins after dinner – our first.  But they were shy and wouldn’t let me take their picture.  I did get a good one of a pelican.

Thunderstorms are predicted tonight so it will be an early bed.

May your night be more peaceful than our will probably be!

Anchorage just east of the ICW on North Santee River