2020: Butler Island to Duck Creek Anchorage SC

 27 October 2020

Depart: Butler Island Anchorage 11:05

Arrive: Duck Creek Anchorage 3:05

Distance: 18.8 nm

Conditions: Sunny, Cool Breeze, Hi 79 (mid afternoon) and Lo 61 (night) degrees

Knowing we had another short day planned, we lounged around in the morning and finally got going just before lunch time. I quickly realized that our timing was bad if we wanted to eat lunch around noon. About an hour was the amount of time it would take us to reach Georgetown where we planned to stop for fuel, water, etc. Given our extended agenda at the dock, I made lunch early to get it out of the way.

As we started our travels this morning, we could see smoke in the distance. 

Given the eye-watering scent that accompanied the smoke, we knew we were rapidly approaching Georgetown and their odiferous paper mill. Sadly, the wind was not in our favor today!

Georgetown Paper Mill Puffing Away

We used the Waterway Guide fuel listing to compare prices and decided that Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown was our best bet. The Guide showed the price at $1.90 per gallon compared to some others than were over $3.00 per gallon. It sure pays to shop around! The actual price per gallon we paid was $1.80!

In addition to filling up on fuel, we filled up our water tank, emptied our holding tank, and got rid of the bags of garbage that had piled up since New Bern, NC. What a great feeling to have a fresh start on everything! We have not stayed at any marinas on this trip thus far. I stuffed the fridge, freezer, and cabinets with food, but I ran out of fresh vegetables and am running low on bread. We will have to find food provisions sometime in the near future.

We arrived at the fuel dock at 11:55 and finally left the marina at 1:25. Filling the water tank took a chunk of time. Since we were occupying valuable fuel dock space, Clark asked if we should move to an alternate spot to finish filling the water tank, and they gratefully agreed.

While waiting for the provisioning to be complete, we noticed a couple of boats with interesting names nearby.

Since sailing vessels are generally pretty slow craft, the name "Escargot" seemed quite apt here!

S/V "Escargot"

Stern of "Escargot"

M/V "Be Kind"

Finally, we completed our dock chores and were on our way once more. On our travels today, we came to a floating bridge!

"Caution Floating Swing Bridge"

"Miss Ellie" Floating Swing Bridge Vessel

"Miss Ellie"

Looking down the road on the
other side of the water from swing bridge

Out tax dollars are definitely at work on the ICW. We have seen several dredging operations.

Dredging Equipment

Grinding / Digging tool on bow

Dredge "Hazel C" as seen from stern

The landscape along today's route was pretty consistently marshland with a few trees and shrubs thrown in for good measure.

Little Black Dot and Ripple in the Water
is an Alligator crossing the canal!
Only the head is partially above water.

ICW Mile Marker 415

Lookout Tower - not near any buildings
What a great view it must be from up top!

We arrived at the Duck Creek anchorage about 3:00 p.m. whereby I spent the rest of the afternoon and up until dinner time doing Medicare Open Enrollment research for both Clark and I. What fun that was!

This evening we watched a great sunset!