Georgetown, SC and up the Great Pee Dee?

S

snal

New member
Has anyone cruised this area? Jo and I are trying to plan a trip that we intend to take as soon as the temps take care of most of the bugs. It'll likely be a 3 day weekend trip, but Georgetown is only about 4 hours away (trailering time)...and we might launch a bit further inland.
I can't find much info online, but it appears that the Great Pee Dee can be navigated for at least 70 miles inland. I've kayaked the Lumber/Little Pee Dee, and love the seclusion and natural beauty. From what I have been able to gather...this river gets fairly secluded after only a few miles inland.
 
Larry and Jo --

This is a marvelous cruise. We've been up the Great Pee Dee both on our sailboat and in Halcyon. An outstanding cruise and it will take all the three days you are allocating. Quiet, secluded nature with some outstanding birding. We have only a brief touch about it on our website (should have put up much more, but little time for extra writing on that trip since we were mostly simply enjoying). See the following for our writeup:

http://www.geocities.com/bill_fiero/carolin.htm

This site has lists of launch sites and a good description of the river. Wow, if we were in your neck of the woods we'd sure love to join with you on this cruise!!

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/water/envaff/rive ... eedee.html
 
Thanks El and Bill! I had bookmarked the SCDNR site...that was about the only usefull information that I could find, other than your site.
Thanks again!
 
Have a great trip, if you're able to go. And, please post about your cruise after you complete it so we can all hear your reaction to that river. Thanks.
 
I've crossed the Little Pee Dee many times in route to Wilmington. I always commented that it would be a great trip from Nichols down but like you the only information I ever found on it was what El and Bill have on their site. Please post your trip and have a great time.
 
I will indeed post a trip report. I think we're gonna try to go down to Georgetown in a couple of weeks to scope the area out, and decide whether we want to put in at the coast and go upstream, or put in up the river and go down to Georgetown.
We have friends in the area that can shuttle our truck/trailer to either end for us.
It's still early as far as the bugs go, and if the Great Pee Dee is anything like the Little Pee Dee...the bugs can carry us...and the boat...away!
 
Well...Jo and I were talking this evening, and have pretty much decided to just take the boat down rather than do a pre-plan visit to the area.
Jo says as long as I supply morning coffee, and everything needed for cooking meals...then we need to go ahead and get our first taste of "cruising" and staying overnight on the boat.
 
Good for Jo!! Sounds just like El -- give her a steaming cuppa hot coffee, help fix meals, and off we go -- take a little time to look around Georgetown -- interesting place, we thought. Got a tooth fixed with a local dentist and it's still hanging in there. The dock is a dinghy dock, but we could tie there to visit town. We anchored out just a short way from the dock. Hope the water levels are ok and the weather fine.
 
We've only been to Georgetown once, several years ago, and mostly just walked the waterfront (dreaming of docking there at some point).
Do you guys happen to have the "Cruising Guide to Coastal SC and Ga."?
I hope to pay the local bookstore a visit to see if they have a copy.
 
Sorry, we have given away our copy of the Cruising Guide. But we have kept the Waterway Guide Chartbook from Norfolk to Jacksonville. It is somewhat dated (there may be changes in marks, etc) and shows only the ICW and no more of the Great Pee Dee than the bottom three or four miles. It does remind us though that we accessed the GPD thru Schooner Creek from the ICW with depths around 6-7 feet and that the GPee Dee has some shallow stretches. We cruised with one engine up (to protect the prop and lower unit) and moved very slowly with the second engine driving us but tilted at the highest angle possible (to still get water circulation but give us the least draft possible).

If you would like to use the Chartbook, we'd happily mail it to you today -- you can keep it for your use until our next trip back to the se ICW.
 
Point of Interest:
I once heard a charming lady of the south (Charleston, SC) say that " it's where the Ashley and Cooper comes together to form the Atlantic Ocean"

I found the statement very inlighting.
 
Lori Ann":2e0y0f1f said:
Uh... a question from the left coast: What the heck is the Great Pee Dee?

Inquiring minds want to know.
Warren
Click to expand...

The Great Pee Dee River is the lower section of Little Pee Dee, and the culmination of several rivers down near Georgetown, SC
 
snal":3f7lhiqp said:
The Great Pee Dee River is the lower section of Little Pee Dee, and the culmination of several rivers down near Georgetown, SC
Click to expand...

So it is not a nickname but an actual river name? Wow.

Warren
 
This is a good website to access information on the geography and the history of the Great Pee Dee River. (And, it predicts river stage for the next week into the future)

http://www.greatpeedee.com/Musings/RiverLanding.htm

The town of Cheraw is at the Fall Line, and was the end of steamboat navigation. The Fall Line remains the most significant obstacle for boaters along the southeastern seaboard. To tune in on the geology of the Fall Line, visit:

http://www.geocities.com/bill_fiero/fallline.htm
 
Lori Ann":3epvtdlj said:
snal":3epvtdlj said:
The Great Pee Dee River is the lower section of Little Pee Dee, and the culmination of several rivers down near Georgetown, SC
Click to expand...

So it is not a nickname but an actual river name? Wow.

Warren
Click to expand...

Actually...the river was named after the "Pee Dee" indian tribe.
 
I sent an email off to one of the SCDNR guys, asking about safe landings where we could leave our truck/trailer. Got a reply today, and the gentleman is going to offer suggestions (now that he knows a bit more about our intended trip).
I'm getting excited!
So far...Jo has assigned porta-potty duty, morning coffee, and "do not get lost" duty to me.....geez I hope I don't let her down! :lol:
 
In an effort to prepare the boat for our upcoming trip, I removed the deck cleats, nav lights, and VHF antenna, so that I could finish the application of "poly-glow". Low and behold...the antenna fell free of the cable as soon as it got the slightest nudge! It seems as though the cable had been repaired at the base of the antenna at some point, and the repair failed. Best that I found this out now I suppose. I do have another unit from one of our other boats, so I'll replace this one with it.
We plan to launch in Georgetown on October 26th...early in the AM, then cruise up the Great Pee Dee on Friday and hopefully find an anchorage, or sand bar for friday night. Saturday we'll continue upstream, and either stay the night upriver, or head back to Georgetown. We'd like to have a few hours on Sunday to walk around Georgetown and see the sights before heading home, but our priority is to spend alot of time cruising on "Thelma Lou".
 
Thanks El and Bill!
My "Cruising Guide to Coastal SC & Ga" came in yesterday. Not a whole lot of info for the GPD, but it also covers the Black River, which sounds interesting.
It does mention some interesting side trips off of the GPD that aren't mentioned anywhere else that I've looked, side canals ect.
We've decided to launch at Georgetown early on a friday morning, cruise to wherever Thelma Lou will take us, and return to Georgetown early sunday morning so we'll have some time to walk around town. Wish we had more time, but maybe 3 days will suffice for our first cruise.
 
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