The challenges of exploring....
Ever since we came across several books and articles on “off the beaten path” waterways, we’ve wanted to explore South Carolina’s Waccamaw River. From the Intracoastal Waterway just south of Osprey Marina, this river leads to the city of Conway. After reading an article on the exact trip we would take, we were ready for our expedition.
We proceeded up the Waccamaw, a wide river meandering through the countryside west of Myrtle Beach. Surrounded by cyprus swamps and remnants of by-gone rice plantations, we felt like Lewis and Clark. Every bend in the river was picture-perfect. The reflections of towering ancient cyprus trees topped with osprey nests were especially outstanding.
Last year at this time, more than 16 day markers led boaters safely up the river. For our foray, however, only the first 4 were still in place. The others, we were told, had been removed by the U.S. Coast Guard due to the cost of upkeep.
Just after the markers ended, we were faced with a “fork in the road” decision. We proceeded straight ahead, when the river actually made a sharp right-hand turn. Who knew? It wasn’t long before we hit a submerged object!! We immediately felt a vibration in the prop. What had felt like a soft-grounding, turned out to be more significant... a soggy log lurking just below the surface, perhaps. We turned “Summertime” around and limped at a low rpm back to Osprey Marina. Miles, the well-known dock master at Osprey Marina, went to work putting his local knowledge connections to work. It wasn’t long before a diver and a prop shop had been contacted and arrangements made.
While we waited for the repair to be carried out, Miles had another great idea. He suggested that we make the 16 mile trip to Conway in our dinghy. Our 8hp Yamaha outboard powered our 10 ft. Achilles RIB dink 15 mph on plane...amazing speed for trawler people! We tied up at one of the Conway’s River Walk floating docks. From there we strolled around downtown, finding great fresh lunch food at K.C.’s Deli near the courthouse.
Upon learning that our diver Nick Triplett had arrived back at Osprey Marina, we scooted for “home”, making the 16-mile trip in one hour. Our 3-bladed prop with its 2 bent ears was off the trawler and on the dock. Nick delivered the damaged prop to Coggeshall’s Marine in Little River and returned around 4pm the next day. Our prop had taken quite a whack as the normal pitch of the blade is 13.5 but in its damaged state it was 1.5. It is now back where it should be and all balanced.
Time to catch our breath and enjoy a social evening with the other cruisers who are waiting out some cold, rainy, windy weather headed this way. Whew!
We proceeded up the Waccamaw, a wide river meandering through the countryside west of Myrtle Beach. Surrounded by cyprus swamps and remnants of by-gone rice plantations, we felt like Lewis and Clark. Every bend in the river was picture-perfect. The reflections of towering ancient cyprus trees topped with osprey nests were especially outstanding.
Last year at this time, more than 16 day markers led boaters safely up the river. For our foray, however, only the first 4 were still in place. The others, we were told, had been removed by the U.S. Coast Guard due to the cost of upkeep.
Just after the markers ended, we were faced with a “fork in the road” decision. We proceeded straight ahead, when the river actually made a sharp right-hand turn. Who knew? It wasn’t long before we hit a submerged object!! We immediately felt a vibration in the prop. What had felt like a soft-grounding, turned out to be more significant... a soggy log lurking just below the surface, perhaps. We turned “Summertime” around and limped at a low rpm back to Osprey Marina. Miles, the well-known dock master at Osprey Marina, went to work putting his local knowledge connections to work. It wasn’t long before a diver and a prop shop had been contacted and arrangements made.
While we waited for the repair to be carried out, Miles had another great idea. He suggested that we make the 16 mile trip to Conway in our dinghy. Our 8hp Yamaha outboard powered our 10 ft. Achilles RIB dink 15 mph on plane...amazing speed for trawler people! We tied up at one of the Conway’s River Walk floating docks. From there we strolled around downtown, finding great fresh lunch food at K.C.’s Deli near the courthouse.
Upon learning that our diver Nick Triplett had arrived back at Osprey Marina, we scooted for “home”, making the 16-mile trip in one hour. Our 3-bladed prop with its 2 bent ears was off the trawler and on the dock. Nick delivered the damaged prop to Coggeshall’s Marine in Little River and returned around 4pm the next day. Our prop had taken quite a whack as the normal pitch of the blade is 13.5 but in its damaged state it was 1.5. It is now back where it should be and all balanced.
Time to catch our breath and enjoy a social evening with the other cruisers who are waiting out some cold, rainy, windy weather headed this way. Whew!
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