A Very Unique Thanksgiving

 We left Holden Beach on November 23rd. That is the day before Thanksgiving. We spent that day cruising along the ICW. Right through Myrtle Beach, SC. We opened a bridge along the way and the bridgetender warned us the following bridge was doing maintenance and could not open. We slowed down and crept along for about 5 miles. Then we heard the job had been completed and we could get through. That is just the way it goes when you travel along the ICW in a sailboat. 

The ICW through Myrtle Beach is large homes on one side and untouched wetlands on the other.

There are some very large homes along this stretch. I understand that they get more traffic by their backyard than the front. So, they do their Christmas decorations along the back more than the front. 

After the first 30 miles, the ICW turns inland along the Waccamaw River. What was large homes turns to beautiful large Cypress trees and nature. We love this portion of the ICW. After 45nm, we arrived in Enterprise Creek. This is another place we have stayed before. It is an oxbow in the river that is protected on all sides. The forecast called for some wind, but we did not feel any of it. 

We have the anchor down and it is very quiet.

More of the same out the other side.

There was no place to go to land, but the serenity was awesome. 

One of the biggest downsides of our crazy lifestyle is the time we spend away from our family. That downside seems to multiply when we spend the holidays away from the ones we love the most. This year, we have no plans to be with family during the holidays, so Kim and I will make due together, all by ourselves. In this beautiful place surrounded by birds, turtles and the old cypress trees. 

We had a dinner of a pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes and I had just barely good enough TV reception to watch some football games.  It was a pretty good Thanksgiving weekend.

I took a bunch of pictures in this beautiful place. What else was I going to do?

We did have a few boats stop and spend a night or two, but we only greeted them when they came in to give them advice on anchoring.

If you look closely you can see the large cypress tree just left of center has a number of large burls on it. I wonder how old it is.

We were watching the weather closely. There was a pretty big blow coming in on Saturday. We were about 30 miles inland and the wind was mainly along the coast. Our next stop was Georgetown, which was about 26 miles away. The problem with going there is that I expected to have a number of other boats in the harbor that is notorious for having poor holding. In a blow you would have boats running into one another. We decided to just stay in our little slice of heaven...for 5 days! By the end of it, I was getting a bit stir crazy and I was ready to move on. 

While I was in Enterprise Creek, I ordered my Christmas present. It is something I have wanted for a long time. The problem was how to get it to us? I made those plans and now we were suddenly on a schedule. That is bad! The next 4 days were a bit hectic and crazy. In my next entry, I will write about it and tell you what I got for Christmas.