Video Transcript

We’re 550 miles into a 6,000 nautical mile journey known as the Great Loop Waterway, and by anchoring the entire way aboard our 1989 motor yacht, we estimate that we’ll cut the loop cost in half. But first, why don’t you join us at one of our favorite Loop anchorages ever.

Good morning, today is cruise day number 16 on the Great Loop. We’ve been on the Loop for 28 days now.

We’re currently in the Waccamaw River. I was doing my engine checks and heard a bunch of birds so I looked around, and the barn swallows are just flying everywhere. It is so beautiful.

Now this spot was super pretty last night. We heard owls, we saw lots of osprey, we saw an alligator, we’ve even seen some Atlantic sturgeon breaching, which is kind of cool. Lots of gar.

I did a little fishing, see barn swallows. What else have we seen? Great blue herons, tons of wildlife here. We listened to a bunch of turkeys this morning.

Absolutely gorgeous spot. This anchorage is located within the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, which is almost a 23,000 acre preserve. It’s absolutely beautiful in there, so be sure to pack out whatever you bring in.

We anchored just a little bit up Bull Creek, and there were owls, turkeys, ospreys. I mean, it was crazy with wildlife. The beauty was absolutely stunning.

It was very secluded and quiet. There was no light pollution, which meant the stars at night were absolutely gorgeous. We wish we could have stayed longer, if not forever.

It was an easy anchorage to get in and out of. You know, the depths weren’t an issue, plus the wandering banks are just fun to check out by dinghy. If you want to see more of that, check out the previous video.

Now we did have a few small fishing boats pass us on occasion, so make sure you have your lights on overnight just in case one comes through in the middle of the night. We did not experience that, but you never know. In the morning, we did have some mayflies on board.

Maybe that’s why the barn swallows were going crazy, but it wasn’t terrible. There wasn’t a lot of mayflies on the boat, like we had to clean off or anything like that. It was just some of them that we had to deal with, so I want to bring it up because I’m sure when the mayflies are in like full season, that can be a tough spot in there.

There are several anchorages in this area, but as you get closer to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, it gets harder and harder to find anchorages. So if you’re cruising through the area and don’t have specific plans for Myrtle Beach, this is a great stop. We truly wish that we could have stayed longer, but since we had just spent five days in Charleston, we really needed to get some miles in, so we chugged along.

Future Tom here, now 2,500 nautical miles in, and the Waccamaw River in South Carolina is still one of our all-time favorite anchorages. If you want more information about where to find these anchorages, well it’s free at greatloopwaterway.com. For those of you who prefer marinas and want to check out the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, I would suggest Wacca Wachee Marina. Now there’s no affiliation with them or anything like that. They’re just rated very well, and we stopped there the day prior to get some fuel and water, and they were very friendly. So I just want to mention that they are close by.

This area is absolutely stunning. The water here is referred to black water, and it’s really dark because of all the tannins in the water. So kind of like tea, if you ever make tea, the leaves and all the stuff falling out of the tree decomposes in the swamps and in the low water areas, and you get this stained water like tea. So it’s referred to as black water.

Some people think that it’s, you know, nasty, and you know, they prefer say like crystal clear water, you know, either maybe in Canada or the Bahamas, somewhere in the Caribbean, something like that, which those are beautiful, don’t get me wrong. It’s just a different type of thing. To me, this is like more woodsy.

You know, I grew up going and fishing in areas like this, so it reminds me of Lake Kissimmee and the black water that’s there, which is my favorite lake in Florida. So to me, it’s just so beautiful in its own way, and you know, it’s kind of more like how some people like mountains and some people like the beach. Well, I like both.

So to me, this is more woodsy, and the Caribbean, you know, is more beach vibe with the crystal clear water. Just a different type of beauty. I absolutely love it.

Do you think these anchorages are really saving us money? We definitely do, and this is why we think so. If you take the length of our boat, the LOA is 50 feet. Now, that’s from the pulpit to the dinghy that hangs off the back.

We are only 38 feet at the water line, but our LOA is still 50 feet. But if you take 50 feet and multiply it times $3/foot, which is a very common price to find along the Loop, that works out to $150 per night. So if we get to an anchorage in the afternoon, we’re going to pay $150 just to leave there the next morning.

That’s kind of steep in our personal opinion, especially since we have an off-grid solar system that we installed ourselves, and we don’t need to pay for the electricity at the marinas. And honestly, we just love being out in nature. So to us, marinas are kind of like RV parks.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them. They’re just not our vibe. If we’re able to save the $150 every night for 365 nights or one year, that would be $54,750 in savings.

Obviously, we spent some money on our solar system, and we upgraded our anchor to a nice mantis, so it’s not exactly $54,000 dollars or anything like that. And the marinas might be higher in price or lower in price depending on where you are. But speaking to other Loopers, when we were about a thousand miles in, several Loopers mentioned that they were averaging spending about $150 per night.

So to us, that feels like we’re on the right course.

Not everything can be as amazing as the Waccamaw Wildlife Refuge, which was just a stunning location to spend our night and a beautiful morning of cruising. But once we left that area, honestly, we entered an area that we probably never want to cruise ever again, and that was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We ended up covering 35.5 nautical miles this day, which took us about six hours because it was kind of slow cruising, and it was slow because it’s just crowded.

There were tons of boats and the banks were just crowded with three-story houses that all basically looked the same and docks filled with boats. We went through there on a Monday, so I can’t even imagine what it would be like on the weekend because we experienced our fair share of discourteous boaters. I’m not trying to be negative.

That’s just how it is when you’re traveling. You’re not always going through absolutely beautiful, breathtaking areas. You have to get from point A to point B. Because personally for us, this area is just not the type of cruising that we enjoyed.

Oh my gosh, he’s precious.

But we were able to find a small, tight, shoaly anchorage where we tucked in for the night. We were about 500 feet away from the next state on the list, which is North Carolina.

Hopefully you enjoyed this video. If you did, give it a thumbs up. Leave us a comment and hype the video if you don’t mind. And again, don’t forget there’s free information on greatloopwaterway.com. Thank you so much for watching, and we’ll see you next time.