First night sleeping ON the water

The last two days have gone pretty well… mostly uneventful on the water. From Capers Island, I had a nice easy paddle about 24 miles to McClellanville where I planned to meet Sarah Burden at the public boat ramp. Sarah used to work for Outside Hilton Head too and over a decade ago, she and another friend from the shop hiked up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine and then got in kayaks and paddled back down to Hilton Head. It only took them 8 months for the whole trip, which is very impressive. It was great to get to hear some of her stories, get some insight from her and also to pick her brain on things I could be doing differently. There were a lot of similarities between our trips that we noticed, but the biggest difference between the two were the levels of technology incorporated into each one. She said she didn’t carry a cell phone with her and she only checked her email a few times during the trip. Its remarkable how much technology has changed and how I am able to use (and rely on) my GPS and solar panels etc. Unfortunately, Sarah was graduating from nursing school the next day and her family was in town so she had to spend time with them. She introduced me to her friends, Hayden and Richard Geere who live on about 25 acres right in town. McClellanville is cool, it’s very old and it’s the shrimp capital of South Carolina, there is a huge fleet of boats. The Geere’s have about 25 acres surrounded by woods where they keep horses and dogs. They really took care of me; I refueled my engine and rested it in a nice soft bed.

I passed the most obnoxious boater yet yesterday. He totally waked me after blowing his horn about a dozen times from a quarter mile away, warning me to move over. Then he comes flying by, totally wakes me and gives me the salute wave. Along this stretch of the Santee and Waccamaw Rivers, there are supposed to be a lot more gaters because the low levels of salinity. Richard told me at low tide they lined the bank and I would be able to see them so I envisioned the scene from temple of doom, where the crocs are lined up at the bottom of the rope bridge, waiting to devour anything that comes toward them. I did see a few, but the ones I saw were all swimming, with their whole bodies in the water. I’m such an idiot. I thought I saw a log in the middle of the channel; I was going to go move it until I saw that it was paddling away from me. Yesterday, Thursday, I got a late start but I had the perfect combination of tides and wind and I was bale to paddle 30 miles in less then 6 hours and I got to Georgetown, South Carolina. Richard came through big time by calling one of his friends father Jim Hills who arranged to let me stay on his boat: Bob’s Boat. I got to sleep on the water which was awesome and walked into the town for a great meal last night.

I am about to get some breakfast before I leave for the day!So, I am leaving Georgetown now, I just had breakfast at Thomas’s café. Delicious. I am going to go up to Buck Post where I have a camping site picket out. It is about 24 or 25 miles. Hopefully I can have as easy a day as I did yesterday when I averaged 5 miles an hour. I have the wind on my back and the tide change is only about 4 feet so I should be good.