18 April 2026
Depart: Butler Island anchorage SC 8:30 a.m.
Arrive: Conway city docks 1:10 p.m.
Depart: city docks circa 3:30 p.m.
Arrive: Waccamaw River, Cox Ferry Lake anchorage 4:40 p.m.
Distance: 49 nm
Today's journey started out very similar to trips on the Waccamaw River in the past with familiar scenery.
Reflections on the Waccamaw River ...
 |
| see pictures below |
 |
| SC Public School "Bus" |
 |
| Tour boat remarkably similar in design to the "bus" |
 |
| General Store with a dock |
We passed a pretty sailboat on the ICW.
 |
| S/V Vagari on Waccamaw River |
We thought about stopping at the Wacca Wache Marina to explore the local area and decided against this idea for this trip. Maybe next time, there is supposed to be Bookgreen Gardens nearby.
with lots of locals swarming around the area.
Shortly after Buckport Marina, we decided to be like Robert Frost and "take the road less traveled", at least less traveled by non-locals to the area. We turned down a side channel for a side trip to Conway, South Carolina. I thought about entitling this blog entry "in search of a loaf of bread" but decided to be a bit more pragmatic in my labeling choice.
Not knowing when we might stop at a marina and find a grocery store, I had mentioned to Clark that my only provisioning concern for the trip was the rapidness with which our bread supply was dwindling. At our current rate of consumption, I would need to start rationing sandwiches. After considerable research (he appeared to be on a mission), Clark came up with the idea of visiting Conway in hopes of finding a store of some sort where we could purchase bread. Spoiler alert: we failed the mission! However, we had an interesting adventure as we searched for the not-to-be-found loaf of bread.
The snapshot of the chart below shows our diversion from the ICW - follow the dark black line to our boat on the river.
Our detour took us through 16 miles of bucolic scenery. On the unfortunate side, we arrived on a Saturday with beautiful weather so all the natives were out on small, and often extremely noisy, boats zipping up and down the river. Many of the small boats were camouflage in color; I expect they get a lot of use during hunting season.
I asked Google about the trees on the Waccamaw River and learned that besides "Bald Cyprus", the trees consist of "Water Ash", "Oak", and "Water Tupelo".
.jpg) |
| Trees growing in the river |
 |
| 2 kids being towed |
We were traveling through the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge as we motored towards the city of Conway.
 |
| One of a multitude of fishermen |
 |
| Spanish Moss is a familiar sight |
 |
| Osprey nest on top of denuded tree (common sight) |
Some places we found plants growing on the river like the waterlily-like plants below.
 |
| Yellow buds adorn the green pads |
After miles of only greenery, we would come to populated areas.
One we noticed was tiny and floating on the river.
 |
| Canal to Conway, SC |
Sometimes we had to navigate around obstacles like dead trees reaching out into the river. The big unknown with a tree in the water ... how far out does it reach and will the props find it!?
Sometimes the obstacles were the myriad boats buzzing by. One small, cigarette-type boat made a horrendous noise as it whooshed by up and down the river. How the people who live here can stand the relentless, unmuffled noise is beyond me.
We saw many decision points on our adventure and followed the chart carefully to be sure we didn't find ourselves down the wrong path or a dead end.
Twice we found road signs to help guide us on our way!
 |
| "Historic Downtown Conway" that-a-way! |
Finally, we came to the docks at Conway. We had hoped to find space at the town docks. They had more dock space than Clark anticipated as they had three large docks. Unfortunately, small boats "littered" the docks - spread out such that no space could be found for a larger-sized vessel like our own.
We thought there was hope of space as two jet skis hovered at a dock and looked like they would leave at any moment. However, when I yelled to ask if they would be leaving soon, they said no. They were saving space for their family coming in soon in a pontoon boat. If we wanted to see the town, we would need to make alternate arrangements for getting off our boat.
Along the water's edge, the city has built the "River Walk", so in addition to the floating docks, there is a very long and high off the water fixed dock. Clark decided that we could tie our stern to a floating dock and our bow to the fixed "River Walk". I'm like, "Okay. Tell me what to do!"
We put on our headsets to talk because I would be standing on the swim platform while Clark maneuvered the boat, and we would not be able to see or hear each other. I had two lines - one to wrap around a dock pole and the other to tie to a cleat. Once that was done, the bow would be attached to the riverwalk structure.
As Clark backed the boat towards the dock, I yelled out the distances - 15 feet now 10 feet ... now at the dock where I stepped off the boat to the dock holding one line in had to tie to the pole. (Clark had instructed me to do this line first!) As I waited to step over to the dock, I noticed I had an audience watching my actions. I thought, "Oh great! They are expecting a show!"
I got both lines tied to the dock - one to the pole and one to the cleat without putting on a "show" as I did it. Then it was time to get a bow line to shore. I had tied one of our longest lines to the bow cleat per Clark's instructions. Once I was in position, he would throw the line to me to tie to the fixed dock. It was an amazingly long way from where the boat sat to where we planned to tie the bow line. Meanwhile Clark used the bow thruster to keep the boat in position.
 |
| Me tying the bow line to the dock |
Finally, I had the lines tied as instructed. However, I definitely need more practice tying a bowline as my end result was not going to come undone any time soon, but it was not pretty! Once I had the three lines secured, Clark shut down the engines and then walked around and adjusted all the lines I had put in place. The two stern lines were moved to the one cleat at the end of the floating dock. Clark retied the bow line, and we were ready to go find lunch.
 |
| Stern lines to floating dock cleat |
 |
| Bow line to fixed dock |
The first thing Clark saw was a railroad trestle, and he ran off to explore!
while I was still on the Riverwalk dock.
I decided I better climb up there to get a better view.
As we motored into town, we saw a very large farmers' market underway in town. I hoped I could pick up some fresh vegetables there. By the time we had the boat secured, the time was 1:10. The market closed at 1:00! Dang! Too bad it took so long to get the boat secured!
Knowing we would arrive in town mid-day, we decided to hold off on lunch and find a place to eat in town. I had a small snack to hold me over, but with the heat, humidity, and the exertion of running around tying the lines, etc. I was not doing well and needed water and food.
We headed off into town to find a restaurant.
I had found one on Google that sounded like a good choice, but as we walked the streets, I could not remember the name or location of my choice. We walked past an Italian restaurant, and Clark said, "Let's eat here"! Sounded good to me.
 |
| Leone's Italian Restaurant |
 |
| Picture on the wall |
 |
| dining area |
We enjoyed our lunch, and while there, we looked on Google to find a place to find that loaf of bread I so desperately wanted. Google showed a place down the street with excellent reviews; however, the route shown to walk there looked like it took me down the street and back to where I started from!?
We asked our waitress, who asked another waitress, and they both said that there was no convenience store in town to their knowledge. Our waitress looked old enough to know everything about the town! Interesting! One of the waitresses said they could sell me a loaf of bread for $4.00 and brought out a loaf to show us. Unfortunately, it was the kind of loaf that makes good garlic bread; not the kind that Clark likes made into sandwiches. We passed on that offer.
We left the restaurant and attempted to follow the Google instructions to the convenience store. It was beyond me, so I gave my phone to Clark to follow the path indicated. We did not find any convenience store at the spot indicated by Google, but where we ended up, we found an ice cream store instead!
I had seen another in town as we hunted for a restaurant. We read the reviews on line and opted to walk to the other ice cream store. Big mistake given our interests. When we walked in, the man behind the counter said, "The menu is on the wall!" I looked up, saw "meatball" as a topping, turned around and saw it was a 'creamery" style ice cream, and told Clark, "We're out of here!"
We walked back to the other ice cream store for more normal "homemade ice cream".
As we walked through town, we noticed that the town seems to like murals.
 |
| Coca-Cola |
 |
| Railroad mural |
 |
| General Store mural |
 |
| Indian mural |
 |
| Mouse in doorway mural |
 |
| Riverboat Mural |
By now it was after 3:00 and we both thought it would be a good idea to walk back and, given the unconventional tying up, check on the boat. I thought we should head straight back to the boat, but Clark wanted to check out more of the Riverwalk, so we took the long way back.
We took a few pictures as we walked to and along the Riverwalk. We missed taking a picture of the "Historic Peanut Warehouse" as we walked by the back of the building. Otherwise, we saw the sights along the river.
 |
| a "wimpy" water fountain |
 |
| Conway Water Tower |
 |
| Bear Sculpture |
 |
| One of many plants with windmills spinning |
 |
| View of the river |
 |
| Riverboat |
 |
| Cyprus Tree |
 |
| Kayaks on the river |
 |
| Live music at a restaurant by the riverwalk |
By the time we got back to our boat, space had cleared up on each of the three town docks. It looked like a great place to spend the night, but Clark said the literature referred to them as "day" docks, so we had to leave!
We agreed that Clark would release the bow line, and I would release the stern lines. I walked around to the bow line, untied it from the fixed dock, handed it off to Clark who wrapped it around another post within reach of our boat, and walked back to the stern to remove the lines there when instructed to do so.
Clark told me to remove the black line first, but it was under the white line, so they both came off together. I could have put the white one back on, but by then Clark had the bow free. I told him I had both lines off and he hurried up to the helm to take full control of the boat. Fortunately, we weren't drifting anywhere fast. I quick climbed back into the boat from the swim platform, and we were on our way.
Clark decided we should anchor nearby tonight in case we wanted to come back the next day to see more. Other than the rooster shown below, which I hadn't noticed earlier, as we were retracing our route, the view was the same as we saw earlier in the day.
 |
| Osprey nest |
We traveled a short way down the river to Cox Ferry Lake where we dropped anchor just before 5:00. We had an interesting day, but I was still short a loaf of bread! The big food stores like Publix, Food Lion, Walmart, etc were 7 to 8 miles away on the highway. Given our lack of transportation, unconventional dockage, and limited timeframe, those options were out of the question of feasible.
Regarding going back to Conway, I could not imagine what more Clark would want to see, but no matter, he would do research and decide the plan. I had no energy in me to care what we planned to do. I was too tired to think about it. After we got anchored, Clark did research on the town and ultimately decided that there was not enough of interest to make it worthwhile spending another day in Conway.
For my part, the heat and exercise had sapped all the energy out of me. I managed to make dinner for Clark tonight, but I had no interest in food. All I wanted was sleep! Even so, I looked for a sunset but saw nothing as any view was obscured by the forest surrounding us on all sides. Finally, I grabbed my book and climbed into bed and rather quickly fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Clark seemed fascinated by the sounds of the night life coming from the woods surrounding the boat. He recorded the sounds.
Clark also took pictures and posted something on Facebook. Here is his summary of the excursion.
"We've been to Enterprise Oxbow and Landing area many times, but instead of heading north to the canal leading eventually to Southport, we made the turn to port and continued up the Waccamaw River and landed in Conway SC to explore. For the Adventure lovers, there were many twisty-turny passages.
Generally, there was good water on the outside bends but as little as 4' on the inside ones with 12' being typical in the middle of straight sections. At one point, there's a canal with a width of about 42' in one section so it can be a squeeze. Some places you could reach out and grab the Spanish moss off the trees.
Being the weekend, there was tons of boat traffic. All the boats, except us, were bass boats or small outboards. I think many of them came around the hairpin turns and were surprised to see us. For those that complain about the Manasquan inlet and RR bridge on a summer weekend, try visiting the Waccamaw. Most are going fast and create a lot of turbulence. It is a good 16nm from Enterprise to Conway so it's a long trip at slow speeds and probably buggy in the summer season.
With all the speed came a lot of noise. Many outboards sounded souped up and were very loud. There are sections with mostly trees, but there are sections with waterfront homes. I don't think I would want a home along the river with all the noise. Most of the boats did not slow for the private docks.
It is a cool trip, but not one for the faint of heart if you're in anything bigger than a dinghy. Sonar charts are essential."
