Catamaran Delivery, Day 10: Bucksport, SC to Georgetown, SC
Very easy day today - we set off later than usual, and moved only 25nm or so down to Georgetown, SC. Some of these quieter, easier days are because of the nature of the ICW, where longer jumps require that we be staged appropriately the day prior.
I took the helm for most of the day, and opted to hand-steer us down the Waccamaw River. The river was wide, and filled with floatsam - mostly logs and the tops of bushes, which were fun to pilot around. The boat felt like it was on ice, skidding around the turns, and I put on a playlist and enjoyed the experience. I continue to build confidence with the autopilot disengaged.
Georgetown is a charming little town. We walked into town, had lunch, and then separated for while; I enjoyed the time alone, off the boat, exploring the town. Much of the economic activity here is from the International Paper mill across the river, which sadly is closing in the near future. Like many mill towns, the hardship is apt to be felt by many; 600 jobs will be lost, the mill will go quiet and like rust away, and many will lose their pensions.
There is a rich maritime tradition here, as well. I walked through the Maritime Museum, where there was models and descriptions of how ships blockaded (and ran the blockades) during the Civil War, and where the first US naval ship was lost to a submarine, piloted by doomed Confederates who perished after sinking their prey.
There were glasses, plates, and a telephone from the Andrea Doria, a luxury transatlantic liner built who famously sunk in 1956 of the coast of Nantucket, in my home state of Massachusetts.
There was also an extensive set of exhibits detailing the Sea Cloud, originally built as a private yacht (Hussar V) for Marjorie Merriweather Post, once the wealthiest woman in the United States, the original owner of the dubious Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FL, and a famous collector of art. Post was married to Edward Francis Hutton, her second husband, in the 1920s, and he spent millions of dollars building the Hussar for her. She divorced him in 1935, kept the ship, renamed her the Sea Cloud, and set off on a honeymoon with her third (but not final) marriage to Joseph E. Davies, a Washington DC lawyer and later ambassador to Russia.
The Sea Cloud would go on to serve in the United States Navy in WWII, her masts removed, before being turned back into a private vessel after the war. She was the presidential yacht for the Dominican Republic, where she left a trail of decadence and violence in her wake, and in the late 1970s was made into a cruise ship. She still sails the Caribbean as such today.
After wandering through the museum, I poked into a little bookstore, buying a copy of Bob Raynor’s Tracing The Cape Romain Archipelago, detailing his years exploring the numerous wild islands between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Cape Romain is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and it’s interesting to read about these places we’re sadly motoring past too quickly to truly explore.
I turned in early, as tomorrow would be another 60nm day, as we steam for Charleston, SC.