Sot reaches sea with hesitation (7)

I believe the answer is:
drinker
'sot' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sea with hesitation' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'hesitation' could be 'er' (sound made while hesitating - um, er) and 'er' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'drink' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'reaches' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drinker that I've seen before include "Tippler" , "Consumer of liquid, probably alcohol" , "Imbiber, toper" , "Inebriate" .)
