A great day on the Waccamaw

Goats on the ICW?   We saw a second herd of goats on the small islands before entering Myrtle Beach.   Never seen these before on the ICW.   There really isn't a lot of land to these barrier islands so I can't imagine how they survive.  The weather was predicted to turn cold and rainy so we spent two nights at a dock in Myrtle Beach waiting for rain that never came. The temperature did drop to 37 at night (the coldest night to date!) so we were grateful to be plugged in with heat.

Goats near Myrtle Beach

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  Swing bridge and ICW parade of boats

The section of the ICW after Myrtle Beach is one of our favorites. For us, the real beauty begins with the Waccamaw River and ends with Winyah Bay near Georgetown, SC. The Waccamaw River is wide and very undeveloped (the little house in the picture below is one of very few houses to be seen for miles).  

Life of the Waccamaw River

There are literally osprey or eagle nests everywhere you look along the Waccamaw River.   At one point, we could see 4 large nests without the aide of binoculars and we easily saw 3 dozen nests as we wound our way down the river.   For the first several miles, we didn't see any birds; just nests.   Then we started seeing Turkey and Black Vultures and finally Bald Eagles.   In one 3 hour stretch, we counted 29 Bald Eagles.   We also saw a very large brown eagle-like bird and are not sure what that was (young Golden Eagle?).

Turkey Vulture nest shopping

We anchored for the next two nights in "quiet" creeks off the rivers.   "Quiet" is in quotes because although the anchorages were undeveloped and marshy with lots of wildlife, the current through the creeks was at least 3 knots at the peak.   Considering that our typical speed of travel is 6-7 knots that makes for a very interesting night at anchor.   At times we also had 15 knots of wind against the current so Short Walk was a bit confused.   The boat actually gets pushed and pulled between the current and the wind.   At the change of tide, we could hear the 75' of anchor chain dragging across the bottom of the boat.   Trust me when I say this is not a pretty sound nor something you can sleep through!   However, the journey down one of the prettiest rivers on the ICW and the multitude of eagles sitings were worth the loss of sleep and anchor anxiety.