A Day Off In Georgetown

We have been on a bit of a good luck streak. A couple of hours after we passed through a shoal area around an inlet, a four-masted 100' schooner drawing 9 feet ran hard aground. They brought traffic to a complete stop and had no choice but to wait for high tide later that night. They came into our anchorage in the dark and anchored just in front of us. That was scary for us, having a tall ship anchoring so close. Our luck continued the next day when a swing bridge had mechanical trouble opening for us. They got it open, but after our clearing, it was then closed for maintenance for at least a couple of hours. We have now stopped in Georgetown for a day off the waterway. We have now covered 402 statute miles on the ICW. The waterway is just fascinating. Neither one of us takes a break to do something else for fear of missing something. The experienced couple we are traveling with take turns and read or do chores, or as they did the other day, preparing pizza so it would be ready when we all got settled in and they asked us over. They set the pizza dough near the heat of the engine to rise. Georgetown is very cruiser-friendly, and everyone stops here, so the anchorage is quite crowded. The two boats we are traveling with are at the far end, well out of our line of sight. Georgetown is a wonderful small city, and we wish we could stay longer. We did get caught up on laundry and shopping and had a very nice dinner at the River Room Restaurant, which was highly recommended in Claiborne Young's cruising guide. He was spot on, and we really enjoyed it. Linda had shrimp and grits, which they are known for. I went with a more traditional grouper, but we shared, and it was all very good. We look forward to returning to Georgetown in the spring and staying a little longer. Linda did pick up some shrimp at the fish market, so we are looking forward to grilling them.