Off the hook at 8:30am for a 50(ish) mile run to Swansboro. There were two other sailboats anchored near us last night but both had left earlier.
We motored out of Cedar Creek back onto the ICW and turned south toward Morehead City and Beaufort. It's tough to figure out the currents in Adam's Creek because the upper section has no tides other than wind-driven water levels. For example, if there was a south wind for many days, it would lower the water level by Oriental as much as 18 inches. Then, even a low tide at the ocean end of Adam's Creek wouldn't cause southbound currents.
But, we had a north wind for the last 2 days which raised the water at Oriental. Plus, low tide at Morehead City was a few hours ago so we had almost 2 knots of current helping us down Adam's Creek. It was a quick trip at 7.4 knots.
At the lower end of Adam's Creek we approached the Newport River and the waterway opened up. We ran out the jib so the NE wind would help us against the flood tide current from here to Morehead City. Winds helped us all day as we turned west at Morehead and continued down Bogue Sound. It was never quite enough help to turn off the engine and we wanted to get into Swansboro early to spend time with my cousin Tim. Sailing into Morehead City -
The day was uneventful (always a good thing on the water) and we tied up in Swansboro at the Church Street City Dock at 2:30pm. After tying up and putting the boat to bed, Tim drove over to pick us up a short time later. We planned a nice dinner at his house with his friends Mike and Jen.
We stopped at Lowes Foods (No. Not the hardware store) and picked up St. Louis ribs and chicken parts to BBQ for dinner. After arriving at Chalet de la Mer (what Tim and Karen named their house), we covered the ribs with foil and put them in the oven at 300 degrees to soften up. We also pre-cooked the chicken in the oven for about 45 minutes on an open pan.
Tim and Karen bought this house 2 years ago as their retirement home. It has already survived 2 direct hits from hurricanes and we love it. The walk to the beautiful ocean beach is only 8 minutes. They have been renting it out but stopped last month so Tim could come down and prepare the house as their permanent home next Spring. Karen is still working in Upstate NY so she wasn't able to party with us. Next time Karen!
Mike and Jen drove over from their house near Morehead City and we had a great time with good friends and lots of wine. Around 6pm we pulled the meat out of the oven and started the charcoal BBQ grill. The gals made potato salad, baked beans and cauliflower with broccoli. It was a full grill with all the ribs and chicken -
Dinner was excellent except that I ate and drank way too much. Here we all are after dinner. Does it look like we were having a good time?
It was good that we had planned on staying over for the night as we crashed around 11pm in their "Guest Bedroom". Tim had really changed the place since we were here in April and it was very cozy.
Sunday, November 3rd (Day 38)
It was a quiet morning at Chalet de la Mer as we were all a little hung over from last night. Laura was up before me and walked to the beach to search for shells and sea-glass (that nobody finds around here). Except, she did find one nice piece of sea-glass and took this picture of the beautiful ocean morning.
We ate leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch then Tim drove us back to Second Wind. Laura and I both napped (a few times?) and basically took it easy during the day. Around 8pm I talked her into taking a walk around Swansboro to loosen up a little. It was a cool but pretty night as we walked around town for about 1/2 hour.
I hit the sack at 10pm before Laura reminded me that I hadn't changed the clocks for the end of daylight savings time. It was really only 9pm. Oh well, I read awhile then fell right to sleep.
Monday, November 4th (Day 39)
We had over 60 miles today in order to make Carolina Beach where I had made mooring reservations for today and tomorrow. I had the alarm set for 5:30am (I had changed all the clocks now) and actually woke up at 5am on my own. I decided to download the latest charts for the next couple weeks to my iPad so spent a few minutes doing that.
I run a navigation program called AquaMaps on my iPad. The app costs $9.99 a year and is well worth it. For that price, I can download all the latest U.S charts PLUS all of the Army Corps of Engineer (ACE) survey data. The ACE contracts marine surveyors to take very detailed depth soundings of areas that frequently shoal so they know where to schedule dredging. Plus, they publish this data on-line which can be used as an overlay on AquaMaps to show very accurate depths.
The results of using the ACE survey data are quite remarkable. Here are two charts of the inlet to the Carolina Beach anchorage / mooring field. Notice in the left picture it just says "shoaling" by the ActiveCaptain hazzard marker. The picture on the right includes the ACE data and shows just how shallow the corner is. I also like the fact that it color-codes the depths so you know where to be really careful.We left the dock in Swansboro at 6am - just as it was light enough to see the channel markers. A short while later, I took this colorful picture of the eastern sky just before sunrise.
There are three bridges along this route that all operate on opening schedules. The first bridge is Onslow Beach which I was hoping to make at 7:30am so we could get to Carolina Beach a little early.
From experience the past few years, this swing bridge is one of the slowest to open on the whole ICW and frequently takes 7-10 minutes to open far enough for us to get through. As we approached the Onslow Beach bridge, I called the bridge operator on the marine radio and told him my arrival time from our GPS was 7:34am and I would be there by time the bridge opened. He said I would have to wait until 8am. I asked, "Why. Since the bridge takes so long to open?" He told me his orders were to not open the bridge unless there was a boat waiting at the bridge. My assumption was there were boaters in the past who said they would be there for the opening but they had to wait for them and the bridge was open a long time closed to road traffic. Anyway, we slowed way down and went through the bridge at 8:06am.
After the Onslow Beach bridge, there is a very tricky passage through the New River inlet. It is usually one of the most challenging parts of the ICW because it constantly changes with the currents moving the sand around the bottom. No problems this time as we motored through the deeper water identified by the ACE surveys.
On the south side of New River, this is this pink house we always like.
The next bridge was Surf City. It had been replaced by a high bridge that we could get under with our 61 foot mast. Nice!
After that, we had the Figure 8 Island bridge and the Wrightville Beach bridge. Here's the problem when heading south... The Figure 8 opens on the hour and 1/2 hour but the Wrightville Beach bridge only opens on the hour. They are 5 miles apart. If we go though the Figure 8 bridge on the 1/2 hour, we can't make the Wrightville Beach bridge in 30 minutes so have to wait 1 1/2 hours for the next on-hour opening.
Turns out we were 10 minutes late for the on-hour Figure 8 bridge so went through on the 1/2 hour. We now had 1 1/2 hours to go 5 miles. (See what that 4 minutes late at Onslow Beach bridge is costing us?) It wasn't a big loss because there was about 10 knots of wind behind us so we rolled out 1/2 of our jib and turned the engine off for over an hour. The boat stayed at 3-4 knots as we quietly sailed down this short section of the ICW. When we were about 2 miles from the Wrightville Beach bridge, I pulled in all of the jib because we were going to fast and would be there early. The boat continued at 2.5 - 3 knots WITH NO SAILS. It was pretty cool and the first time in 80,000 miles we've done this. It just worked out that the wind was right on our stern so just blew us fast enough down the ICW to keep steerage. It was cool!
After Wrightsville Beach we motor-sailed the last 10 miles to Carolina Beach and tied to a mooring I had reserved yesterday. We'll be here for two days to relax a bit and dinghy into one of our favorite towns.
I poured a short glass of Tequila, got out my guitar and played several songs in the cockpit with Laura singing nice harmony. I haven't been playing the guitar often enough to build up calluses on my left hand fingers so am working on playing almost every day. I can now play 8-10 songs before my fingers get too sore.
We grilled porkchops on the BBQ for dinner and spent a quiet evening watching last few episodes of Jack Ryan - second season. Not as good as the first season but still entertaining.
Had the fan blowing in the bedroom as it was a warm evening in the mid-70s. Very comfortable and we both slept well in the quiet Carolina Beach bay. Tomorrow we plan on taking the dinghy into town and maybe to the beach. We'll have to dinghy around the afternoon thunderstorms.
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