Our Current or Most Recent Trip

We were off the dock at 7:30 in a lovely sunrise with the moon still showing on the horizon. Shortly after, we noticed white smoke coming out of the exhaust so we pulled into the ne y marina which luckily was not very far down the ICW. Bob the diesel engine guy replaced the gasket in the engine intake strainer and poof, the smoke was all gone. Th

We got through the two tricky areas just fine but being a very nice Saturday there was an incredible amount of “pleasure craft” traffic. Read that as lots of fast motor boats zipping around and not giving a shit about the amount of wake they were creating for the slower moving boats. The area we were going through was quite highly populated so I’m sure that contributed to the traffic.

The final tricky spot I was concerned about is called Rockpile – sounds lovely doesn’t it. When the Army Corps of Engineers were working on the ICW, they encountered this area of granite so they blasted a channel wide enough for traffic on the ICW. The granite sides of this channel are still there and are visible only at low tide. So it’s important to stay in the middle of the channel and hope you don’t meet a barge coming towards you!  In fact, it’s recommended that you announce that you’re entering the Rockpile on channels monitored by commercial traffic so they will either wait until you’re through or tell you to wait until they are through if they are already in the channel. There are curves in the channel, which is about four miles long, so you can’t see what is coming towards you. Our Rockpile trip was fine, we were passed by a few motor boats but traffic had reduced significantly once we got closer to Rockpile.

Were staying at a marina a short distance from the Rockpile so all in all, a good day.

Got lots done today, I did laundry, Bob did boat stuff. Then we started the search for a grocery store. We knew that we might have to go to a Walmart superstore – last choice. After lunch at a little pub we started walking, the first choice store no longer existed and since we really needed to get some meat we walked to the Walmart, two miles, and got an Uber back to the marina. It’s amazing how much I can fit in our little freezer when I remove the store packaging and put things into baggies. Got a nice steak and several pieces of chicken, so many BBQ meals for when we’re anchored.

After that oh-my-gad lecture yesterday about the perils of shoaling on the ICW, we plotted out tomorrow’s trip taking the tides into account and decided that we’d probably be just fine as we were leaving on high tide and would hit the two shoaling problems areas way before low tide. I of course had freaked out wayyyyy more than Bob so it was good to do the planning and see things weren’t really that dire, we just had to be careful in certain areas.

After a few WHAT! comments during the talk, it happened to be all sailboat owners at the meeting, Hank the meteorologist did scale back a bit and say don’t worry, boats with a 7 foot draft do the trip – we draw 4.5.

Dinner on the boat tonight, we want to be off the dock at 7:30 tomorrow.

 

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

Today was the day of frustrating swing bridges. There were three of them, two opened on the hour, one every half hour. The first bridge was an hourly opening. A group of boats had left around 7:30 and around 9 we all started to slow down so as to reach the first bridge at 10 but not much earlier as we’d all have to bob around, avoiding each other, waiting for the opening, in other words, being stuck in a holding pattern, in a narrow bit of water!

There is  protocol about the bridges where you have to request an opening. Even though they are to open on a schedule if there are boats waiting, you must contact the bridge master on VHF to ask for an opening and identify your boat name. The bridge master acknowledges with something like “roger captain, we’ll get you through on the 10 o’clock opening. Then, as one is going  through the opening, most boats will say something like “Finnish Line clear, thank you for the opening” and usually they will reply with a “have a good day”.  We read in a guide that at some bridges if you don’t ask for the swing, they don’t open even if it’s scheduled.

So, back to today. We got through the 10 am swing, and the next bridge opened every 30 minutes. We started picking up speed as the current was pushing us into the high 7s and we thought we might be able to make 12 pm swing. Bob throttled up to higher rpm’s than our normal cruising speed to try to make the 12pm opening but after a while the current dropped and we knew we wouldn’t make it. So then we slowed down  for the 12:30 opening at the Figure Eight Bridge.

Unfortunately the next bridge was on the hour, 4.8 nm away and there was no way we could do it in 30 minutes for the 1pm opening, meaning we’d be stuck waiting for the 2pm opening.  This meant we had to cover 4.8nm in 90 minutes in order to not to be doing the bob & avoid dance at the bridge for very long. If one thinks that’s easy, it’s not. Trying to move at not much more than two knots with a 1+ knot current behind us, meant we were often at not much more than 1,000 rpms and sometimes in  neutral. We achieved a whole new level of patience and at least it was a lovely sunny day.

The turn to the anchorage at Wrightsville Beach was shortly after this bridge and we achieved another first for this trip. We anchored in a large area where there were already quite a few boats but lots of room. We dropped the anchor but after watching the boat settle didn’t feel comfortable about how close we were to one of the boats. Up came the hook and we went to choice number two with the same result, didn’t feel comfortable after a while so we moved again but it was third time lucky. We dinghied over to the town dock with the plan to pick up some groceries. The pickings at the grocery we’re pretty slim, they didn’t have meat of any kind so we bought some salad fixings with the plan of having a light snack at a restaurant we’d seen near the dinghy dock and have  salad for supper.

Karma was very kind to us, we figure thanking us for our bridge and anchoring patience. We ended up eating very early, food arrived shortly after 5pm and was one of the best meals of the trip so far. I had Flounder Francaise and Bob had an eggplant & shrimp stack – both really really good, we forgot about the light snack and will have the salad for lunch tomorrow.

A number of boats had arrived at the anchorage while we gone, including a boat from Quebec City we’d chatted with at Oriental. It really is nice running into boaters we meet along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After an unsuccessful wait to get fuel this morning, the fuel dock was supposed to open at 8am, we gave up waiting and left. We have two full fuel cans and a fair amount in the tank so we’re not worried about running out.

The ICW for first bit was quite industrial bit soon changed to a lot of beautiful big houses along the west side of the channel. We saw a few shrimp boats, a barge or two, before we got to Camp LeJeune which is a marine base. We saw what we assumed were target tanks and landing craft on the east side of the channel. The ICW is now hugging the Atlantic Ocean. There is usually a fairly narrow strip of land to the east of the ICW and then the Atlantic.

We anchored in Mile Hammock Bay, which is a basin kept dredged by the military, they use it on their exercises. I counted 14 boats in the anchorage before we closed our hatch. I was sitting in the cockpit reading when I saw a woman in a dinghy going around to all the boats in the anchorage. She was delivering “Happy Hallowe’en” goodie bags, what a nice surprise. She was from a beautiful Grand Banks motor yacht called Waterlily. I know the type of boat because she included her boat card with the goodies. We don’t think it’s at all common in Canada but here most boaters have boat cards, which is like a business card,  to exchange. Bob had some made for us last year, partly in preparation for this trip. We’ve already given out a few.

There was a beautiful sunset and we expect it to be a very calm night. We did read in one of our guide books that there may be some noise from the base, I heard at least two helicopters before we went to bed, they sounded like they were going to land very close to us. Bob had downloaded Lady in a Van (with Maggie Smith) when we were in Oriental with a good wifi connection, we watched it tonight. A very good movie and based mostly on a true story.

It was still pretty breezy this morning, sunny but not warm. Bob had to wear gloves and a toque especially for the first 45 minutes when we crossed the Neuse River to Adams Creek. We had 15 knot winds on the crossing and the waves made it a bit bumpy but since it was a short crossing we got to calm waters quite soon. We were a little ways into the creek when Bob called out, dolphins! I tried to get some pictures as there were several and one popped up right beside the boat but no luck. I did get a video but can’t post that due to size.

Our stop today was a marina at Beaufort. The trawler that had been our neighbour at Oriental and helped us in and out of our slip we’re also going to stay at the same marina. They gave us a good tip about locating the turn in the channel – look for a sign on a post in the water. We saw a sign but the colours on the logo of the Marina are not conducive to being able to read the sign until you’re right beside it. The name is in yellow on a white background – ok for a ball cap, not so great at a distance more than a few feet. We could also see a big sign for the marina on land so we figured we were heading the right way.

Tim and Susan from the trawler arrived shortly after us and we got together for drinks on our boat, turns out it was Tim’s birthday. Another interesting American couple who in the flow of conversation volunteered they were aghast that Trump was president, The others were Trish & Jeff who we met at Coinjock Marina. I’m thinking the big Canadian flag on our boat encouraged both couples to say this. I suppose they were taking a bit of a chance as there are some Canadians who support Trump but I’m thinking they are in the minority.

It’s too bad we didn’t have more time to walk around Beaufort. We did go out for dinner and saw a bit of the town which is really charming. Most of the houses we saw were painted white and many were from the 1800s.

At the end of the day we’d passed 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 statute miles).

Today has been the first day of all day rain since we left Kingston. It’s 4pm,  it’s raining and it sure doesn’t look like it’s going to give up anytime soon.  That means it’s  been mostly an inside the boat kind of day. However, Bob braved the elements to walk to West  Marine to return an item we bought yesterday, it’s not cold out, just wet.

Bob did some boat maintenance stuff including vacuuming the water out of the bilge. In the process he discovered that  storing beer cans there, which was a hint from our Catalina twin Chris, didn’t work out so well for us.  Beer had leaked out of several cans so the aluminum must be really thin. Out they came and I washed the non perforated cans in soapy water but even with that I think we will not be drinking directly from the cans – they were pretty slimy.

I’ve pretty much vegged all day, I figure that what rainy days  are for. Bob managed to download Lady in a Van so we’ll have a movie to watch either tonight or anytime for the next few weeks.

Here’s a picture of the fishing trawlers on our side of the marina.

We got the call from marina office around 8:30 that they  were ready to move us to our new slip. Tying up to pylons is still very new to us so we were grateful for the help from the dock master and the boat next to where we were going. The pylon method is good, we’re just not very good at it yet. We are now truly among the fishing trawlers.

We had coffee and excellent bagels at a coffee shop 30 seconds away from our new slip and met some friendly locals and their dogs. That was followed by a 20 minute walk to the West Marine store for Bob-essential supplies and back to the marina just in time to participate in the local theatre company’s fundraiser. It was a chili contest  with participation from 12 local merchants. It was great fun, we voted on our favourite chili, there was an audience prize and a judged prize. Great timing for us to be here.

We finally have good wifi so I’ve been updating the blog and    Bob has been putting the purchases from West Marine to good use. If the weather forecast is accurate it’s going to rain most of tomorrow so it’s going to be reading and a bit of “housework” tomorrow. Bob is planning to make another trek to West Marine so he’ll get to wear his rain gear. Here’s a few pictures from the chili event.

Another long day today as not so great weather is forecast for Saturday/Sunday. We’ll spend a few days in the small town of Oriental to avoid the weather and check out the town. It was highly recommended by Ursula & Jeb who were here last year on their trek south.

We had planned to leave at sunrise as it was a 38 nm day but the weather had other ideas. It was dead calm last night   and we woke up to heavy fog. Luckily it was to be another clear sunny day so as the sun got  bit higher it burned off the fog and we were on our way shortly after 8:30.

Bob had been warned to wear gloves, the same ones we used on the slimy lock walls, when pulling up the anchor anywhere in the Chesapeake. He hadn’t needed them so far but yuk, he sure needed them this morning.

There was hardly any wind today but we had the main up for a little while. For Bob,  alas, just motor sailing. One really has to pay attention to the charts on the ICW. Today we were both on fairly wide rivers and a canal but always made sure to stay in ICW channel showing on the chart plotter and kept track of all the warning notes on the Garmin GPS on the iPad, as we were moving along

A larger sailboat flying a Canadian flag passed us on the canal. Within an hour we saw it slow down ahead of us but a bit off to the left and then stop. Bob radioed over to ask if they were ok and got a quick reply “don’t come over here, we’re stuck”. They had veered off the channel and in this area it was immediately very very shallow . That did show on the chart so I guess they just weren’t paying atttention. We heard them on the radio ask  a passing motor yacht to give them a lot of wake but it was so shallow there it didn’t help.

There are  lot of fairly big commercial fishing boats in this area. We saw a couple on the Neuse River with huge flocks of birds following  them but the birds really only visible with the binoculars – I left my real camera with a good zoom at home  – not intentionally – so no pictures!

We got to the Oriental Inn & Marina around three and are now on the overflow long dock. We’re moving to the very protected Inn dock tomorrow morning – rotten weather coming in, not as much tomorrow but definitely on Sunday. There are a lot of the large fishing boats docked here among the sailboats and motor yachts/trawlers – will take pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is going to be a three day blog to catch up due to iffy or no data access for several days.

Oct 24 – Tuesday at Coinjock Marina was a windy but mostly sunny which made for a pleasant day. We were told when we arrived on Monday we’d probably have to raft or be rafted to on Tuesday as there were a lot of boats coming in on Tuesday. First we were told that Jeff & Trish’s 42 foot Catalina, Full Circle, would raft onto us but then they decided to move us to a smaller dock further down from the main dock, which was just fine with us.

Bob had to pull in in front of small sailboat and also avoid an even smaller dock sticking out in front of where we had to go. There was quite a lot of wind but the dockhands were just great and provided direction on exactly when to turn & how much to avoid any catastrophes, major or minor. Trish & Jeff from the Catalina came over for drinks & munchies in the afternoon. They are from NY state, near NYC, Jeff is a college prof who is on a one year sabbatical. They are planning to spend the year sailing, including the Bahamas. I’m sure our paths will cross over the next few months.

I went for a walk along the long dock around 6pm and was amazed at how full the marina was and how closely the boats were packed in. I counted five boats that were rafted. There were a lot of motor yachts, one was at least a 100’ long. We were happy at our little dock and had a calm night. We had heard some kind of disparaging comments about Coinjock but we enjoyed our stay there and we won’t have to have a roast beef dinner for a long time 🙂

Oct 25 – We left around 8:30am on Wednesday and figured it would take about five hours to get to Alligator River Marina. There were three sailboats ahead of us but we eventually passed them and once we reached the Albemarle Sound we didn’t see them behind us at all so we figured they weren’t crossing. We didn’t have to pass or avoid any barges today.

Once we got to the sound, which had just small waves, we saw a plane that appeared to be doing circuits at our end of the sound. We then saw it dropping something on the water and then saw a boat heading towards the smoke that started as soon as the objects hit the water. We’re pretty sure this was a Coast Guard plane and it was doing training exercises with the boat. It was entertaining watching the goings on, it often looked like the plane was buzzing us as it flew right over us.

We got to the marina, which is a combination of a marina and regular gas station, around 1:30. Within the next couple of hours three more sailboats had arrived, including Full Circle and a little later a catamaran we last saw at the public dock in Portsmouth, also pulled in. I’m sure we’ll keep running into familiar boats as we all head south.

Oct 26 – We had a greasy breakfast at the gas station grill – not a particularly good one and we’re off the dock at 7:30. As I was taking off all the lines and fenders we had a fender overboard incident – me repeating “shit-shit-shit” didn’t seems to solve the problem. The fender had a cover which made it easier to grab with boat hook so it was rescued.

Today was a long day, we did 50 nm, got to our anchorage just before 4pm. It was quite a bit windier than forecast but some of that and a bit of current helped us along. Our anchorage is at a Slade Creek off the Pungo River. BBQd sausages, pasta and pesto for dinner tonight – yum. Oh, and a beautiful sunset.