The Swamp Fox

Before we left, our friends on Alexia graciously gave us the lat/lon of places they anchored in NC and SC. One of the locations had a cryptic note: “for an adventure on a windless day…” Well, it wasn’t windless, but with a note like that we had to check it out. So yesterday, we worked our way up Thoroughfare Creek and then launched the dinghy to go find the adventure Alexia recommended. Well, it may not have been the middle of nowhere, but I think we could almost see it from there. Turns out it was an abandoned canal-based housing development, with almost no houses. We rode around in the dredged canals, some with very primitive houses and docks. Most looked either abandoned or like they should be. Then we saw a small fishing boat with 2 guys zooming around. We stopped alongside them and asked about the place. Turns out a developer with more dreams than sense dredged out the canals, laid out the housing plots and then failed to get the sewer permits. And the land was too wet to perc. So it was abandoned. They told us, “a few hardy souls have built here anyway. Some of them are a little shady.” As we rode away back to Paperbird, we weren’t sure if our 2 new friends were in the hardy or shady category.

Then today we stopped in Georgetown, SC for lunch. Downtown Georgetown is full of quaint little shops and restaurants. While walking along the street, The Swamp Fox tour trolley came by giving a narrated tour of downtown. The tour guide stopped in mid-sentence and called out to us “I know you guys. We met up on Thoroughfare Creek yesterday.” Sure enough, it was our hardy friend from the Creek. As he drove away in the trolley, we could hear him narrating to his small tour group all about meeting this couple on a sailboat while out exploring abandoned rice fields. I wonder if he told them we were in the shady category?

 

 

 

 

 

 

But if not