March 28 to April 1: We spend more days than we want to in a pleasant South Carolina town.
Sometimes things go the way you plan and sometimes they don’t. Our extended day in Georgetown, SC is an example of when they don’t.
Maintenance and Repairs
Here’s the situation: when Capt John picked up the boat and got it put back in the water, there were two outstanding problems that needed attention.
One was some striping that needed to be replaced on the upper part of the boat. We were delayed in Charleston partly because the guy who was supposed to do it kept putting it off. It’s funny how some people who have a service based business think you can work your schedule around their whims. He offered to do it on Sunday, but by the time he made that offer, we were already packed up and ready to go. So it still hasn’t been done, although John does have the vinyl to make the change.
The second was a bit more serious. It was an electrical issue that reared its ugly head when John ran his radar unit. It would run for a while and then trip a circuit breaker that took down all the navigation systems. This wasn’t enough to keep us in Charleston because John didn’t need to use the radar and, if he did and it happened, he could always reset the circuit breaker. But he did want the problem resolved and he’d scheduled an electrician in Georgetown to meet with him and take care of it.
Brian the electrician arrived on Monday. After some troubleshooting, he concluded that the radar unit was broken. John ordered a new radar unit, which would be overnighted to us. Brian would return on Wednesday morning to install it.
The unit arrived on time. So did Brian. He installed it on Wednesday morning. But now the chart plotter wouldn’t work. He concluded — after talking with technical support at Garmin — that the broken radar unit had damaged the chart plotter. John ordered a new chart plotter, which would be overnighted to us. Brian would return on Friday morning to install it.
The unit arrived on time. So did Brian. He installed it on Friday morning. But the radar unit wouldn’t talk to the chart plotter as it should. He concluded — after talking with technical support at Garmin — that the system needed some sort of interface — a little box that went between the two units so they could talk.
At this point, it was midday Friday. There was no overnight service for weekend delivery to Georgetown, SC. That meant getting it on Monday and having it installed on Tuesday. We’d arrived in Georgetown on Sunday so now we were looking at 9 days in town. I was already 10 days into my trip and had traveled a total of 55 miles. I was not a happy camper. I had come for a boat trip, not an extended stay at South Carolina’s marinas.
John wasn’t happy either. After exploring all options, he decided to rent a car and drive up to the GPS place, which was 2 hours away in North Carolina, and pick up the box we needed. Brian would come back on Saturday morning to install it.
Brian gave John a lift to the car rental place. I stayed behind. John returned at 5:30 PM with what should have been the last piece of the puzzle.
Brian returned around 9 AM on Saturday. He installed the box. The chart plotter didn’t see the radar unit. He called Garmin. He updated the chart plotter. No joy. He called Garmin again. He concluded that the radar unit had arrived broken in the box and needed to be replaced.
At this point, I was ready to rent a car and do a road trip. At least I’d see something other than Georgetown, SC, which I’d grown weary of.
But John wanted to keep moving, too. We were traveling up the coast. If we started moving again, soon we’d be near the GPS place that had sent us the bad radar unit. Brian offered to meet us in either Myrtle Beach or Southport during the week to finish up the repair. He told us he “wanted to see it through.” And I think he does.
So we finally left not long after noon on Saturday. But that’s another blog post.
Killing Time in Georgetown
I didn’t keep day by day notes about what we did in Georgetown. I did take a lot of of photos and I’m relying on them to help jog my memory with highlights.
On Monday morning, I watched them lift a very large boat out of the water with a Marine Travelift. That was fascinating to me.
Later that morning, I did a brisk walk into town, making a few stops at shops that were open. (Most had been closed on Sunday when John and I took our walk in town.) I actually walked past the historic marina area, thinking there was more town beyond it. There was, but it wasn’t within walking distance. (We never saw it.) I turned around after a mile and walked back.
I toured the South Carolina Maritime Museum, which I thought was informative but a lot more interesting if you like models of old boats. I think I ODed on maritime museums during my Erie Canal Trip. I bought a t-shirt.
I had lunch at Aunny’s: shrimp and grits. It was a local restaurant and not fancy at all. When I opted to eat outside, my meal came on styrofoam plates. The food was good. John and I returned on Wednesday for lunch.
I did some shopping at local shops. I bought a few things — mostly gifts for friends. Cast iron coat hooks shaped like fish. A bourbon drink mixer. Silly things like that. I also scouted for shops where I might be able to sell my jewelry. I’d brought along a bunch of shiva shell stones and enough sterling wire to make 10 pendants. What better place to try to establish wholesale accounts with ocean-themed items than gift shops along the ICW?
On the way back to the boat, I stopped by the Harborwalk Marina, which was a long boat dock close to town, the “must-stop” in Georgetown. I wasn’t impressed. Although we were about a half mile from downtown at Hazzard Marina, it had a lot more going for it in terms of clean, well-maintained facilities and, best of all, quiet. I didn’t mind making the walk into town; in fact, I enjoyed it. The residential streets had live oak canopies, flowering shrubs, and wandering chickens with wood framed homes built in the 1700s. The folks who dock at Harborwalk miss all that.
On Monday night, I attended a Zoom meeting of artists who will be teaching classes at Gallery One in Ellensburg, WA this year. I’m teaching two classes in May and am tentatively scheduled to teach four more this autumn. The marina had excellent WiFi and attending the meeting was easy. It got me thinking about doing a livestream for my personal YouTube channel from the boat.
On Tuesday, I began hanging out in the Captain’s Lounge near the marina office with my watercolor paints. I’d been watching watercolor videos in the evenings and was eager to try out new things. The lounge was bright, with windows on three sides, and airy when I opened at least one window on each side. I occupied the round table, spreading my art supplies on at least half of it while I sat in a seat facing the water. The bathrooms were only steps away when it was time to clean and refill my water cups. I practiced a lot of things on three or four sessions that week but the only thing I seemed to get good at was painting color samples. Still, it was nice to do something so new to me and to take a break from the boat, writing, and thinking about my upcoming cherry drying season and what I’d be doing afterward.
I went into town again on another brisk walk for exercise. Of course, stopping at the bakery (which had been closed on Sunday and Monday) was probably not the best idea since it concluded with me eating a slice of key lime cheesecake pie. Delish!
Wednesday started out as a nice day with light clouds and filtered sun, but as the day progressed it got more and more overcast with dark, threatening skies and strong winds. Bad weather was in the forecast.
That’s the day we took the bikes to Piggly Wiggly, a supermarket about a mile and a half from the marina. Capt John had bought two Dahon folding bikes, which he wisely kept in canvas carry bags when not in use. We got them off the boat, pulled them out of their bags, and unfolded them. Mine was brand new; I’d be the first person to ride it. I adjusted the seat and the handlebars for a good fit, put my day pack on the handlebars, and was ready to go in minutes.
We rode into town with me in the lead because John had a blinking tail light on his bike. We stopped at Aunny’s for lunch and continued on, riding on a pleasant back street for most of the way. (Seriously: Georgetown has some gorgeous residential streets and homes.) About halfway there, we had to get on a busy road, so John opted for riding on the sidewalk. We passed the supermarket, made a quick stop at a liquor store for bourbon — they don’t sell hard liquor at supermarkets in South Carolina — and doubled back to the supermarket. We bought more food that I thought we’d be able to carry in our backpacks, but we somehow got it all to fit. Laden with the extra weight — my backpack had to weigh at least 30 to 40 pounds — my bike’s seat kept slipping down each time I went over a bump; I had to stop twice on the way back to adjust it. I was very glad to be back at the boat.
Later that evening I made two shiva shell pendants so I wouldn’t have any excuse not to try to sell them.
By Thursday, we were in full storm mode with wind out of the south blowing right up the Sampit River. Fortunately, Capt John had had the boat fueled and turned around at the dock on Wednesday, before the weather got really bad, so we took those waves on the bow instead of the stern. Reed, the head honcho at Hazzard, had been extremely helpful in getting all this done, including helping us secure extra lines to keep the boat in place. We’d moved up to a new position along the dock and two boats had pulled in behind us to get out of the approaching storm. On Thursday, we were all bobbing alongside the dock and I retreated to the Captain’s Lounge with my watercolors to try to paint some flowers.
That’s where I met the folks who had pulled in with the sailboat behind us, Jim and Shawn. They came in to eat leftover sushi from a restaurant in town they’d eaten in the night before, and settled in at the other side of the table. While they ate, we chatted. They’d been down in the Bahamas for the winter in their sailboat and were on their way home to Virginia (I think). Because they’d taken a slow route down with lots of stops along the way, they were trying to go north at a faster pace and had come into Georgetown to wait out the storm. John popped in for a short while and we made date to join them for dinner at the place they’d gotten the sushi, Rollin Local, which I had been wanting to eat at since I checked out its menu earlier in the week.
John and I went into town together, wearing our rain jackets against the wind and occasional rain shower. We wanted to tour the Rice Museum (not a typo) which was highly recommended by quite a few folks. They had tours on the quarter hour and we were two of four folks on the 12:15 tour. Our guide described herself as a historical anthropologist (I believe) — someone who studies history through anthropology. She brought us up to the third floor of the museum, talked to us for a while, had us watch a short video from the 1970s about rice growing in the Georgetown area, and then took us to see a few of the artifacts. Those included the remains of a boat from the early 1700s, referred to as the Browns Ferry Vessel, that proved that shipbuilding in the area had begun earlier than historians originally thought. It was an interesting tour. We both bought bags of locally grown rice in the gift shop. (We had some later in the week and it was very tasty.)
We split up after that. I’d made two shiva shell pendants the previous night and decided to try my hand at selling them wholesale to one of the gift shops that specializes in “gifts from the sea,” The Ship’s Booty. Inside, I met the owner, Fox. I gave him my sales pitch and I could tell he was interested. But, at the same time, he knew his customers and the kind of “budgets” they had. It’s the same old story: people want cheap souvenirs and don’t care whether the metal in jewelry is real silver (which mine is). In the end, he took one of the two pendants I’d made, along with a chain, as a trial. I got his card and gave him one of mine. I would not consider this a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. I got some lunch money, anyway.
Back at the marina, John and I took turns doing our laundry. I took a good, hot shower and dressed in clean clothes. My laundry wasn’t done before dinner time, so I left it in the dryer. We walked with Jim and Shawn to Rollin Local for dinner through the same strong wind and rain showers we’d been having all day. John had made reservations so we were seated right away. The menu was mostly Japanese food, which I really like. I had some tuna tartare — the biggest portion I’d ever had — and a sushi roll. The food was excellent but it was very weird to be served sushi by a waiter with a distinct southern drawl. We had a great conversation with our fellow boaters and learned a lot about their adventures in the Bahamas. It really got me wondering whether the boat I’m hoping to buy would make it down there one day. It’s only 60 miles from the Florida coast.
The weather was much better on Friday, although the wind was still blowing pretty hard. Jim and Shawn made an early departure and, because they were kind of wedged in between us and the boat behind them and the wind was blowing them toward the dock, we joined two other folks on the dock to help push them out. They got out on the second try and were soon motoring away down the river.
Meanwhile, it was Day Five of the navigation equipment repairs saga (see the beginning of this post) and, after getting the bad news about the situation and seeing Capt John off on his four-hour errand, I retreated to the Captain’s Lounge with my watercolors again. I’d been watching different videos with different styles I liked better than those in the book I’d been trying to follow. I played around with flowers and started to get results a lot more in line with what I wanted. But I still needed work on the actual technique; I had “hard edges” where I didn’t want them and my color mixing needed a lot of work. Practice!
By around 4 PM, I was done painting and trying to decide on a nap or a walk. The walk won — I’m not getting nearly as much exercise as I should. But instead of doing the same old walk into town, I decided to walk in the opposite direction. I went down yet another tree-lined street and found myself in an area full of parks with a boat ramp and a walking bridge across some marsh area to the point of land jutting out into the confluence of the Sampit, Great Pee Dee, and Waccamaw Rivers. It was a pleasant walk on a warm day. Not many people were out and about and Morgan Park, where I could access the point, was completely deserted. The whole walk was less than 2 miles, but it was nice to go someplace different; after four full days in Georgetown, I was going a little stir-crazy.
Back at the boat, I stretched out for that nap. But Capt John returned a short while later. We chatted for a while and had something to eat. Then I went up to the cockpit and stretched out on the back bench for a while facing the setting sun. The wind had finally died down and it was a very pleasant evening.
I didn’t realize it then, but it would be my last evening in Georgetown — at least for a while.
I really need to live on a coast – 2nd only to lamb, I LOVE seafood. Tuna tartare? Count me in!
We’ve been having some pretty good seafood lately. Myrtle Beach, where we are now, has a ton of good restaurants.