Day 58 – Nov 2, 2017 – Southport, NC

It was a calm night with very little local boat traffic although  there had been warnings about the locals speeding through the anchorage. There is a large high pressure area sitting over this part of the coast so we are continuing to have sunny, low wind days. Several very large ships passed us when we were on the Cape Fear River, they had some pretty amazing bow waves.

Big ship!

It was a pretty straightforward run to get here, no swing bridges ! We expected to arrive around 1-1:30 pm but thanks to the amazing current, at times 4.3 knots, we got here before noon. We stopped at the fuel dock to fill up with diesel & empty our holding tank, as it appears even if we open the valve, (which we’re not supposed to do) nothing is coming out. The fill up and emptying rules are very different in the US, you have to do both yourself, vs Ontario where you are not allowowed to do either and must even get off the boat when its being fueled.

Bob was not able to empty the holding tank but the mystery was solved by the yard manager of Zimmerman’s Marine which is part of the marina. The tank had emptied when we opened the valve during today’s trip, but the holding tank gauge was not registering properly. He thought it was due to interference from metal near the holding tank. So at least we know it is emptying but even after Bob moved the metal objects around the tank, the % full went down but not to empty – sigh.

Trish & Josh from Full Circle pulled in a few hours after we got here so we made arrangements to have dinner with them. Before dinner we attended a talk from a local retired navy meteorologist which we thought was just on the weather. It turned out to be a 90 minute talk concentrating on the hazards awaiting us between here and Savanna. We are now in high tide, 6-7 feet, country. Ok, not Bay of Fundy tides but more than enough when travelling the ICW where we are warned about not doing certain stretches at low tide  because of shoaling that sometimes has a depth of 3 feet at low tide. Sure made me feel excited – not – about getting through South Carolina and Georgia which are the high tide areas – not just high tides but tricky currents coming in from cuts to the Atlantic or large rivers flowing into the ICW.

We’re going to stay here one more day, need to do laundry, find a decent grocery store and Bob wants to do some boat maintenance stuff.

 

 

 

 

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