We are finally out of Wrightsville Beach. The wind has abated and now blowing 10-15 from behind us giving the boat a little push with the jib up. Our next stop is the Shallotte River (N33 54.9540 W078 22.2309) where we have a quiet night at anchor. We are off in the morning for Barefoot landing, a mall complex adjacent to the waterway, Terri insists. We have more dirty clothes than clean and are in need of a “real” shower where Neal can turn around without barking his shin on the mast so we take a slip in the marina there (N33 48.1080 W078 44.7720). This is very fortunate because we have the second affair of the head. Terri has been commenting all day that she smells sewerage, but I keep poo-pooing her overly sensitive nose. As it turns out she is correct, because we see a stream of sewerage from our holding tank (that’s where we pump out loo in between having it pumped out) streaming through the main cabin. It turns out that we have overfilled the tank and have blown the cover off along with about a cup of raw sewerage. YUKE Well it’s roll up your sleeves and muck it out. Plenty of bleach, water and soap along with one roll of paper towels does the trick along with 2 hours of hard work. This takes us into the night and we are both so exhausted that I eat a peanut butter sandwich for dinner and for Terri nothing. Note to self, buy a gauge to tell when the holding tank is full. Barefoot landing will go down in the annals as a crappy part of the trip. It is said that cruising is where you fix your boat in exotic places.
We were rewarded by a stay the next night in the beginnings of the Waccama River (N33 40.3410 W079 03.8319), which starts in a cypress swamp. The water is deep up to the banks and you can anchor in very narrow side channels (see picture). It was truly enchanting in there, dark as a coal pit and very still. You almost felt that the creature from the black lagoon would soon rise from the depths. Spooky but enchanting. Our journey the next day continued to Georgetown SC (N33 40.3410 W079 03.8319), which is nothing like Georgetown, DC. An old southern city with rich history and a beautiful downtown if you can ignore the stench from the nearby paper mill and the airborne crap from the steel mill. Needless to say we did not stay for very long, but got on the “road” to Charleston with an overnight stop in Whiteside Creek (N32 52.3090 W079 42.8569).
It was a short trip the next day to Charleston, SC (N32 46.8190 W079 57.5400), an outstandingly beautiful old southern city. Much of the architecture is still pre-civil war. Apparently Charleston was never razed by that union general with the unmentionable name so the buildings survived. Post war (the Yankee aggression one) saw the fortunes of Charleston plummet because of the collapse of the plantation economy (no slaves to run them). As a result they fixed up the old housing stock rather than tear it down and rebuild, which is generally how we work as a nation. Thus some pretty amazing houses now restored to their former glory are to be seen all over the lower historic part of the city.
While here we also took the obligatory trip out to the starting point of the war of Yankee aggression, Fort Sumter. Note to southerners: you fired the first shots. We heard some interesting tidbits, including that the fort was built on a foundation of Yankee granite from Vermont and New Hampshire, the Abner Doubleday of baseball fame was stationed there and for all the shooting no one was killed.