70nm today, 1,104 total nautical miles from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 5:10am and we woke up quickly - both anxious to continue our cruise north. By 5:35am we had the engine running then pulled in the fenders and power cord. Last night I washed down the boat a bit then filled our water tank before stowing the hose. I like washing the boat first because it cleans out our hose and the marina pipes a bit before putting water into our tank.
A 32' Sportfishing boat had docked behind us last night as I was grilling chicken on the back deck. I chatted with the two gents on the boat who were having a great time moving the newly-purchased boat from the Myrtle Beach area to NJ. I had to laugh because they had left Beaufort, NC and zoomed all the way to Great Bridge in one day. Plus, they had also stopped at Coinjocks for dinner. That trip takes us 3 days.
I could see several boats waiting for the Great Bridge Bridge to open so we tried to hurry so we wouldn't have to wait for the next bridge and lock. Turns out they were waiting for a barge to come from the lock so we just had time to release all of our dock lines and motor up to the bridge. It worked out great for us and by 6am we were entering the Great Bridge Lock.
No problems at the lock which went a little slower then normal because it seemed there was only one lock-tender working. There was a 80' power boat along with 3 sailboats in the lock. We've seen as many as 18 boats go through together so today the lock had plenty of room. Laura took this picture of the single-handed sailboat in front of us with a huge powerboat in front of him.
There used to be 3 bridges between the lock and Norfolk harbor that we had to time and this passage took quite a while. Two of the bridges have been replaced with new high-rise bridges so we can just motor underneath them. Only the Gilmerton bridge was left and we only had to wait about 10 minutes for it to open for us. The rest of our 20 miles from Great Bridge to Chesapeake Bay was very nice. Here is the end (or beginning if heading the other way) of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at Hospital Point. ICW Mile 0 (I think that's the hospital in the background...).
About an hour later, we sailed past the Navy docks. Didn't seem to be as many ships here as normal but still an awesome sight.
By 9:30amm we entered Chesapeake Bay and turned north. Winds were light and just off the port beam. We had our jib and mainsail sheeted in tight which gave us about 1/2 knot of additional speed with only 5-6 knots of wind.
Laura took this video of us motor-sailing on a calm Chesapeake Bay.
The winds died around noontime so we pulled in all the sails. Tidal current was against us so we were only making about 4.5 knots but the day was warm and the bay flat. We just sat back and read or worked a few jobs then around every once in a while. Not very many boats out for Saturday and we had most of the day to ourselves.
Our plan was to make Deltaville tonight then sit for a day or two while the north winds blew. But, we approached Deltaville around 3pm and decided to keep going. It was only another 20 miles to Reedville (on the Great Wicomico River) where there were excellent anchorages and we might be able to stay with our friends Mary and Walter. We had met Mary and Walter last October on our way south. We had just joined the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC). Mary and Walter were members but had retired from sailing and owned a beautiful house in Reedville where they offered their dock to other members. Laura called them and the dock was available. Yea!
During the afternoon the winds picked up a bit from the NE so we were able to run out our main and jib again for a little help. The tidal current changed to our favor around 2:30pm and we averaged over 6.5 knots the rest of the day. We tied up to Mary and Walter's dock around 7:15pm which made for a 13 1/2 hour - 70 nautical mile day from Great Bridge including about 45 minutes at the beginning to get through the bridge and lock. But, it was very relaxing on a calm bay with the winds helping most of the time.
Mary invited us to the porch for after-dinner cocktails and we chatted until after sunset. Laura had baked a Raspberry Tart while underway today for all of our enjoyment. Oops. Forgot to get a picture. Next time...
Back at the boat we both crashed around 9:30pm. I slept straight through to 7am which I (almost?) never do. Guess I was tired!
Mary and Walter offered us their dock for another night so we will stay until Monday morning. North winds are going to blow in tonight and tomorrow so we have a nice place to stay and visit with friends.
Sunday, May 31st.
Air temp 64, water temp 71, winds N @ 15-20
Didn't move the boat today.
Laura was up early (7am?) and I slept in a bit. We took it easy this morning - caught up on some projects but mostly relaxed. Mary had offered to pick up some groceries for us and Laura went with her just after noon. I worked on the blog, worked out a bit and didn't do much of anything else. Life is good!
I took this picture of Second Wind at Mary and Walter's dock later in the afternoon.
We went up to the house for happy-hour. I hauled along my guitar and flute to play a bit. The flute wasn't as good as I've been playing and I realized the chair I was in made me crunch-up. After moving to the edge ot the chair where I could get deeper breaths, it sounded better.
It was a very nice evening with Mary and Walter. Mary had made a Mexican casserole and Laura made a great tossed salad. Here is our after-dinner pic.
After dinner we chatted a bit then headed back to the boat. I've been checking weather for tomorrow and the north winds will be relaxing in the morning so we should be able to head north to The Solomons.
It was a warm night and we were glad to be at the dock with our air-conditioning running. Even though we can run it off our Honda Generator now, it takes a lot of gasoline (a gallon every 3-4 hours?) and the generator is a little noisy at that speed. So, plugging into the marina power is nice.
Yesterday was National Hamburger Day (Laura found it somewhere) so we grilled burgers for dinner. We decided to do "Whoppers" with all the fixin's. Yumm!
No hurry to get going this morning as we were waiting for our old propeller to be rebuilt. The marina had sent it to Wildcat Propellers yesterday with my "request" that it be done today because we wanted to leave Great Bridge tomorrow. There we no promises that it would be done today so we just had to wait. My biggest worry was since it was Friday, we might have to wait until Monday. Oh well. I can't do it myself so I'll just have to wait.
I gave myself until after lunch before checking on the prop with the marina. I don't like to be a pain-in-the-butt as it usually doesn't get the job done any faster.
Around 1pm Laura put together a load of laundry and I helped her carry it up to the laundry room. As we were walking by the mechanic who changed our prop yesterday, he turned to me and said our rebuilt prop was done and sitting by the store. YEA! We walked over and checked it out. The edges were straight now and it had been cleaned up nicely.
I walked into the office to see if our bill was ready. The lady who did invoices was out to lunch so I left a message that Second Wind wanted to checkout and helped Laura with the laundry.
We use Microsoft To-Do (from the iPhone app store) for things like grocery lists and boat checklists. There were a few items on the list so I decided to walk the 1/2 mile or so to Kroger and pick up the few things while waiting for the office gal and the laundry. A short time later I was on my way. It was looking like rain but I was hoping to make it back quickly.
I did have to look around for a few cooking things that Laura wanted and, of course, thought of a few "extra" things as I was shopping like bananas and cherries that were excellent when we shopped here a few days ago.
The "few items" that I went for wouldn't even all fit in the pack so I had to carry one of the bags. It started raining lightly as I left the grocery store and I could hear thunder in the distance. As I walked back, there were several places I could have stopped to get out of the rain if it got harder so I kept going. I did make it all the way back to the marina without getting too wet. I met Laura at the laundry and I had to take off the pack and sit for a bit. I think I was almost jogging with a 25 pound pack.
I checked back in the office and they did have our bill ready. Over the years I've increased my expectations with marina costs so would have been happy with about $2,000 total. I was thinking new prop - $1,000, haul-out - $500, dockage - $300, labor - $200. This didn't include getting our old propeller rebuilt ($400?) which I kind-of threw in at the end thinking if the new propeller caused problems, I needed something to fall back on. The bill total was $1,917. Ok. Here's my credit card and I'm out of here!
In checking the bill, this marina was very fair and I won't hesitate to come back. We had been at the dock for 5 days but only paid for the first night with the dockmaster. They didn't charge us any other nights dockage as they were working on our boat a few days. Most marinas will charge you "lay days" of dockage for the days they are not actually working on the boat. Only 2 of the 5 days did they actually work on Second Wind and didn't charge us for the other days so I was happy.
The new propeller was $982 (which is close to what they quoted me) and rebuilding our old prop was $212 (about 1/2 my estimate). The rest was hauling the boat out ($10/ft = $430), $200 labor, tax and a few other items I was good with.
Our plan was to leave the marina this afternoon and get through the Great Bridge Bridge and Lock plus the Gilmerton Bridge that doesn't open during rush hour. As we were bringing the laundry back to the boat, it started raining hard with thunder in the distance. It was warm (low 80s) and muggy. We had the A/C running and it felt pretty nice. We're going to stay another night (for free!).
I played the flute a bit in the cockpit (listening to the rain) then decided to come back downstairs because I was soaked with sweat from being in the muggy air. It was still raining. I looked at the clock and it was 5 minutes to 5pm. Cocktail time!
Laura made this cocktail the other day which was very refreshing and might be my summer drink this year. She calls it, "Laura's Raspberry Sangria"
She made one for each of us (mine is the big glass of course). You gotta try it. Here is the recipe for the big serving ....
1/2 cup white wine (Pino Grigio)
2 shots of raspberry Rum
1/2 cup ginger-ale
8-10 fresh raspberries (to soak up the alcohol and munch at the end)
couple ice cubers
New plans are to leave tomorrow morning at O-dark-30. I'll try to make the 6am bridge and lock then be down the Elizabeth River and into Cheaspake Bay by about 8-9am. Tidal currents will be working with us so, with the new prop, we'll be doing powerboat speeds. Hold On! (only kidding...)
Tomorrow is the only Chesapeake sailing day in the next 3-4. North winds will build in and we can't really sail or motor against them. We're hopping to at least make it to Fishing Bay tomorrow near Deltaville which is very protected and we can sit out just about any storms.
Around 8:30am I walked to the marina office and talked to the General Manager, Jesse. I told him I thought we had a bent prop and we had a spare but it wasn't very good. If possible, I would like to purchase a new / rebuilt prop a little bit larger then have the boat hauled to put it on. He was very helpful and called the local propeller place - Wildcat Propellers.
After a few more calls and coordination, I purchased a used propeller that would be delivered tomorrow. Wildcat would "tune up" the propeller which was included in the $950 price. The only problem was it was for a slightly bigger shaft size than Second Wind. Our propeller shaft is 1 1/4" in diameter. This propeller was 1 1/2" which was easily fixed by installing a sleeve or bushing inside the propeller that was designed for this purpose. The sleeve would be ordered overnight and we would have that tomorrow too.
Dean and Sue (s/v Autumn Borne) and Pete and Bunny (s/v La Bella Vita) motored over from the free dock around noontime for fuel and water before leaving for Chesapeake Bay. We chatted a bit then they went through the bridge and lock heading north. They were only going to Old Point Comfort (about 15 miles - just before Chesapeake Bay) then planned on heading up the bay to Deltaville area tomorrow. Bon voyage mes amis. We'll see you again soon.
Laura and I got used to the busy boatyard life as we walked around and I got re-acquainted with the yard. I had kept my 42' trawler here for the winter in 1997 and the local broker sold it for us the next Spring. That was my last boat before purchasing Second Wind in 2006.
We walked about 1/2 mile to the grocery store or a few items we forgot a couple days ago plus some chicken they had on sale. It was a nice walk on a beautiful day.
We grilled chicken for dinner and relaxed most of the evening.
Wednesday, May 27th
Air temp 64, water temp 74, winds E @ 5-10
Not moving today
We took our time this morning since we were waiting for parts. Just before noon I walked up to the office and talked to Jesse about our schedule. He called the propeller guy and they had our new propeller rebuilt and were just waiting for the sleeve. Should be in shortly.
Around 1pm the prop and sleeve arrived. But, the travel lift was in use for a boat survey. The survey is a pre-purchase inspection by "experts" that is supposed to find the major things wrong with the boat so the buyer knows what they are getting. Part of the inspection is to have the boat hauled out of the water so the surveyor (inspector) can check the hull and running gear (shaft, props, rudder, etc.). Problem for us was this could take a little while.
The survey was done around 2pm. Their boat was put back in the water and we waited a bit for them to leave the slip before motoring around the boatyard island to the travel lift. I had a printed sheet for the lift-guys which showed where the straps were supposed to go on Second Wind. Another problem we found was this lift could only move one of the straps forward and back. The other strap near the cross-beam was fixed. This prevented them from lifting the rear of the boat in the normal spot but they used a place where we had been lifted before without problems. Now the front strap would not quite go out far enough to be forward of the keel and it's associated sloping bottom. They were afraid that the strap would slip on the sloping keel and they first time they tried lifting the boat, it did slip a little. Note that this lift is plenty big enough for our boat. Second Wind weighs about 21 tons and this lift is rated for 60 tons. Funny that we never had these problems before.
Here are a couple pictures of the new propeller and sleeve.
Top picture shows the gold colored sleeve sitting next to the prop. Below, the sleeve is inserted which lets the prop fit snugly onto a smaller shaft.
When they finally felt comfortable with the lifting strap positions is was about 3:50pm. Jesse told me the crew normally leaves at 4pm for the day. Was it OK to do the lift tomorrow. We were not in a huge hurry so it wasn't a big deal. They moved the boat out of the lift and tied it to a dock where we could hook up to power for the night. See ya in the morning!
Thursday, May 28th
Air temp 74, water temp 74, winds calm
Only went for a short (1/2 mile?) ride today with the boat
Today we were up early as we heard the travel lift going around 7:30am. After my exercises and a quick breakfast, we were out of the boat right around 8am and the marina crew was ready to go. It was raining on and off.
No big problems today as they lifted our 41,000 pound boat out of the water. Here's the boat in the travel lift.
The mechanic was able to get the old propeller off without too much work - sometimes they are really stuck on. The new sleeve and propeller fit well with just a little work. Here's the end result. You can just see the gold-colored, bronze sleeve inside the new prop. Everything fit together well.
They put the boat back in the water a short time later and we went for a ride to check everything out. The boat felt very smooth and went about 1/2 knot faster for the same engine RPM (because of the slightly larger propeller). The next few days of motoring will tell how everything works together.
Here is the old propeller. The blade sticking up is bent in the middle. Pretty sure that was the problem.
I had the marina take our old propeller to the prop shop to rebuild it. I'd like to have a good spare just in case we hit something else down the road. We're supposed to get it back tomorrow but we'll see how that goes.
Weather looks good right now for leaving on Saturday for maybe the Deltaville area which is about 1/3 of the way up Chesapeake Bay. Because of Tropical Storm Bertha, the weather here seems to be changing daily. We might have to just move when we can and sit at anchor when the weather is bad.
We slept in this morning since we were at the dock and not moving the boat. After breakfast we dressed for public viewing and walked to the Kroger - the local grocery store. We carried our wheelie (like a luggage wheelie for walking through an airport) and fold-up box to cart everything back.
While Laura started groceries, I walked about a block farther to the Taylor Hardware store for a few things on my list. I was looking for some JB Weld epoxy for aluminum (wanted to fix a few screw holes in my main mast to stop water leaks), additional water filters for our house filtration system and a gallon of Muriatic Acid what we use for cleaning our bathroom hoses and waterway-stain off the boat. They had everything!
Laura and I finished groceries then carted everything back to the boat - about 1/2 mile. We did stop on the way to see if one of our favorite salons was open where we typically both get haircuts. They were closed for Memorial Day Weekend but open next week. We'll see....
I was sitting in the cockpit during the afternoon when this huge barge came through the bridge and down the narrow waterway. This was the longest barge I had ever seen. Check out the picture. The barge seems never ending...
After packing everything away we relaxed and waited for Dean and Sue along with Pete and Bunny who were coming here today. Laura had asked some of the boats on the free dock to move a bit in order to make room for both our friends and they happily complied. But, 10 minutes before they got here a different sailboat took one of the spots. Dean ended up staying on our dock while Pete went through the bridge and tied up to the free dock on the other side. We had a nice reunion with Dean and Sue then everyone agreed to order take-out from the local Mexican restaurant - El Toro Loco.
Dean, Sue, Laura and I walked across the bridge to see Pete and Bunny. We hadn't seen their new boat yet which is an Endeavour 43 just like Second Wind. It is still a work-in-progress.
After chatting a bit and enjoying a glass of wine on the boat, we ordered our dinner and walked about 10 minutes to the restaurant. Laura had called and placed the orders for all 3 couples. Before she ended the call, she asked if they had Margarettas to go. I thought, "Nobody will give you alcohol to go." but, guess what? They did and she ordered one for each couple. Nice!
We invited everyone over for dinner on Second Wind. The gals ate below in the salon while us guys ate on the cockpit table - wasn't enough room for everyone in one place with all the food we had. The chow was excellent and I enjoyed it a lot. I ordered my usual shrimp fajitas. Yummm. After talked a bit after dinner, we all retired to our own boats.
Monday, May 25th (Happy Memorial Day!)
Air temp 62, water temp 75, wind S @ 10
Moved the boat about 1/4 mile across the river to the Atlantic Yacht Basin
Another sleep in day as no rush and no major jobs pending. After breakfast I did climb down into the bilge to clean our LoPro bilge pump. It was turning on every 1/2 hour or so which usually means the electronic sensor is dirty. After cleaning, it seemed to work fine.
The boat behind us left about 11am so Pete and Bunny came back through the bridge and docked between us and Autumn Borne. I tried to get a picture of all 3 boats together but it didn't come out so well. Guess I should have walked up to the bridge. Oh well. Here are all 3 boats tied up next to each other in Great Bridge. You have to kind-of look through the dock fence to see the boats. From left to right is Autumn Borne, La Bella Vita and Second Wind.
Since the marina yard was not working over the long weekend, I figured it would be easier for us to get a quick haul-out on Tuesday if we were thereto bug them in the morning. I called and they had a transient slip for us. So, a short time later, we untied from the free dock and motored over to their fuel dock. We filled up with diesel (71 gallons from Myrtle Beach), pumped out our holding tank and just backed the boat up about 50 feet to our dock for the night. Very easy.
Laura and I then did 3 loads of laundry since it had been about 10 days from Tim and Karen's - our last laundry stop. I walked around the huge marina to remind myself of being here with my trawler in 1997. We had left the trawler here for the winter and the local broker sold it for us and got very close to the asking price.
Happy hour(s) were in the cockpit where I practiced the flute a bit while people walking by kept giving me the eye. Guess it's not everyday when you hear a flute being played in a marina.
We had a nice dinner in the cockpit of BBQ chicken breasts along with zucchini in tomato sauce over egg noodles. By the way, our BBQ grill is working great now. I fixed something!
Tomorrow morning I will talk to the marina management about getting our boat fixed. I'm pretty sure we bent a blade on our propeller with whatever we hit through the last bridge. The boat will have to be hauled out of the water in order to troubleshoot and fix. My best scenario would be to buy a new propeller and have it installed in a day. We have a spare that we can install but it doesn't work as well as the one on the boat now. I've been thinking for several years that we need a new, larger propeller for better speed at lower engine RPMs. I'll let you know how it goes.
Warm night so we had the air-conditioning running during the night (on low temp) and it stayed very nice in the boat for sleeping without getting too cold.
The rain continued throughout the day as we worked a few minor boat projects and found a few more leaks. After breakfast, the rain let up for a bit so we walked into the office to pay a few days dockage and purchase some seafood. We paid for 2 days of dockage ($34) and purchased about $70 worth of frozen seafood including shrimp and (2) lobster tails. We bought Flounder and Snapper fillets big enough to feed us both dinner for about $10 / package. It was very reasonable.
We decided to splurge with steak and lobster for dinner. It was raining again (of course) but I went out and started the grill to get it heated up. With all the winds and cold we've had lately, the grill hasn't been working very good and the last pork loin we grilled had to be finished on the oven broiler.
After 8 minutes on the grill, the steak and split-lobster tails were still raw. Rats! We ended up cooking them with the oven broiler too and they didn't come out too bad. But, they would have been much better on the grill. We even splurged with a few steak-fries.
We watched a few Netflix shows and hit the sack around 10pm. A quiet day on Second Wind.
Wednesday, May 20th
Air temp 62, water temp 70, winds E @ 20
Last night we switched from air-conditioning to heat as the boat was getting chilly. The temps all day yesterday fell into the 60s and stayed there.
It was raining steady (again) so after breakfast we decided to work on the forward head (bathroom). Last week I had changed the vent filter because the toilet smelled when we used it. But, it was still smelly and I remembered I hadn't checked the hoses on the vent to make sure they were clear - they had always been clear in the past. We pulled everything out of the forward cabin including the mattress. Then I took apart the wall to get access to the vent and hoses.
When I pulled off the upper hose, I could see that it was plugged with some kind of bug larvae. I ended up pulling the entire hose out and into the cockpit. We used a wire pushed down the hose, high-pressure air and pliers to eventually clear the hose. Finally, I put it all back together and hoped it would be better now.
During a lull in the rain (it was still spitting a bit) Laura and I walked to the marina office to see if they had gotten in Grouper today (like we were told yesterday). No Grouper yet but I was able to talk to the maintenance guy about using their outside hose to fill our water tank. He showed me where to turn it on and said I could handle it without his help. Perfect! I ran the hose from the marina and it actually reached our boat without having to drag out my hose. But, it would not screw into my pre-filter because the end was all rusted. I ended up dragging out my hose anyway and the marina hose would screw into my hose. 1/2 hour later we had loaded about 100 gallons of fresh water to fill up our tank so we could take long showers now.
Next was cleaning / fixing the BBQ grill after the problems we had last night. During a let-up in the rain, I took the grill apart, cleaned the inside and wire-brushed the burner. It seemed to work better but I need to cook something to be sure.
It was raining again so I took the iPad and flute into the cockpit and practiced for about an hour using 8notes.com. I think it's sounding better. Practice, practice....
Around 4pm the rain seemed to have stopped so Laura and I went for a walk. We only made it about 1/2 mile before it started raining AGAIN. We turned around and walked back to the boat.
Today was day 4 of my 3-day "liver-rest" alcohol purge. Tequila here I come!
It looks like we'll be here until Friday morning as that's the next break in these storms that are hanging around. We should be in Great Bridge in 2 long or 3 short days. Then we'll probably stay a couple days at the free dock. That dock is close to groceries, laundry and fast-food so we'll probably stay a few days.
Thursday, May 21st
Air temp 68, water temp 70, winds S @ 15
No moving the boat today
Another very rainy morning. I wish I had a way to figure out how much rain we've gotten in the past 3 days. The storms just keep materializing over the ocean and move right over us. Will it ever stop? Here is my view this morning from the cockpit.
It's hard to remember what the Sun looks like Rain, rain, rain... I tried to go for a walk later in the morning when it was just drizzling. But, never made it off the property because it started raining again with heavy winds.
D and Laura were texting during the day and we invited them over for dinner. They were in New Bern but it was still a 40 minute drive to our marina. They graciously offered to pick up a few groceries we needed and showed up during one of the few times it wasn't raining. Just before they came over I decided to put our back canvas up in the cockpit because the south wind was blowing right in and getting everything soaked. Wow! What a difference! Don and I actually sat in the cockpit with a glass of wine and it wasn't wet or cold. Nice!
Laura made stuffed flounder for dinner with some of the flounder fillets we had purchased here. For the stuffing she used shrimp we had purchased in Georgetown, SC and Stone Crab we had purchased in Marathon. It was excellent!
We talked for quite a while. I think we were all a little stir-crazy from all the rain and isolating. Since we had spent the evening together a few nights ago, everyone figured we were pretty safe. It was a nice evening with good friends.
Friday, May 22nd
Air temp 62, water temp 70, winds S @ 10
83nm today, 991 total miles from Marathon
83 miles today was one of our longest days ever running the ICW. But, the weather cleared up, the Sun came out and the winds helped us all day without being strong enough to build uncomfortable waves.
I had the alarm set for 5:15am. When it went off it was pouring outside. I guess I was getting used to the rain because it didn't wake me up. The deck is about 4 feet above our heads while in bed and the rain pounding there makes a lot of noise. I checked my phone and here was the RADAR a short time later.
We were at the blue dot. Most of this was moving NE so it should go away in an hour or two. I reset the alarm for 6:30am and went back to sleep.
6:30am it was not raining and seemed much brighter out. It wasn't sunny but not too bad.
We got ourselves and the boat ready to finally leave the dock after 5 days. I have to say this place was perfect for us to "hunker down" with the nasty weather. It was inexpensive ($17.20 / day) and we had power, water and WiFi good enough for streaming shows at night. The only problem is there was nothing around other than the marina and commercial seafood building. The nearest grocery store was 15 miles.
I had done all my engine checks yesterday so started the Perkins to warm up while Laura and I got everything else ready. We disconnected power, pulled up our 4 fenders we had protecting the boat from the dock and worked our way through the 6 dock lines (I had extras on for the storms). We were off the dock at 6:50am. Not too bad! (to be honest, I had woken up before the 6:30am alarm).
We motored north to Goose Creek with just a little south wind to help push the jib and boat. About 2 hours later, we saw peeks of the Sun. Here's a video Laura took. We were so excited!
I should also mention that the boat looked like laundry-day most
of the morning. We hung out all our wet towels from 5 days of rain.
By the afternoon, we had dry towels again.
It was an excellent day on the water. Enough winds to help through almost the whole day but not quite enough to sail. Our only question was how far to go. On the other side of the Alligator - Pungo Canal there is a good anchorage but it would only be about 2:30pm. Going farther would mean the 20 mile Alligator River (not much anchorage protection from south and west winds tonight) plus the 13 mile Albemarle Sound and another 5 miles to a good anchorage. We decided the day was so nice we would go for it. The long day today would hopefully let us be in Great Bridge tomorrow at the free dock.
No problems up the sometimes nasty Alligator River and we sailed out onto Albemarle Sound around 7pm. We knew we'd be anchoring in the dark but, oh well. I've navigated at night hundreds of times on Second Wind and my Captain's Job so it wasn't a big deal. We have good instruments and I know how to use them.
Our ride across the Albemarle was so nice we even had dinner (left-over chili) at the cockpit table plus each of us took a shower. We had no problems and anchored 1/4 mile from 2 other boats at 9:45pm. One of the other boats believed that Home Depot solar lawn lights are good enough for anchoring. I could have run right into him if I hadn't seen him on my RADAR. The solar lights were so dim I thought they were on-shore. Of all the things to be cheap on, lights at night so others can see you isn't one of them.
By 10:30pm we were both in bed and I fell asleep quickly. I wasn't really exhausted from running the boat for 15 hours because it was such a nice day and no problems with the sailing.
Saturday, May 23rd
Air temp 70, water temp 70, winds W @ 10-15
43 nautical miles today, 1,034 total from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 6:30am and it woke us from a sound sleep. I had been dreaming that I was asked to be a male prostitute so had been making out paperwork and doing blood tests. I remember thinking in my dream, "How am I going to tell Laura that I'm a prostitute?" When I told her about the dream, she laughed and said, "You were going to be a male prostitute?" I answered, "They call us Escorts..." We both cracked up. Wow. And I didn't even drink any alcohol last night. That chili must have been something!
We had the anchor up by 7:10am at the exact time the two other boats got underway. As we motored across the North River toward Coinjocks, the 3 of us rain out jibs and sort of raced to the finish line (back to the ICW). One of the other boats won.
It was another fairly quiet day on the water with the wind helping through the first half. As we motored closer to Chesapeake and crossed into Virginia, the local, weekend boaters were just about everywhere. I had to keep a close eye for paddle-boarders and small boats.
Laura got this close-up of an Osprey chick in the nest.
This is another house along the waterway that I really like. I admire this place every time we go though.
Just a few miles after this house is the North Landing Bridge. We made it just before they opened at 1:30pm. Perfect. Then 5 miles to the Centerville Turnpike Bridge. They also opened right up for us.
As we were going through this last bridge, we felt the boat hit something in the water (a log maybe?) then it hit the propeller. I could tell because the engine lost RPM for a few seconds. We turned around and there was a 2 foot log or beam just coming up to the surface. I realized there was a unusual noise coming from the propeller and it seemed to be vibrating more than before. Oh boy. We didn't loose any boat speed but there was definitely more noise and vibration. It was only another 4 miles to Great Bridge so we motored a little slower to the free dock. There was room for us so we tied up at 3:30pm.
Laura put the boat to bed while I walked across the bridge to the boatyard at Atlantic Yacht Basin. I wanted to see if they could haul the boat out of the water and check our running gear. We'd probably need a new or rebuilt prop.
I found one of the marina workers a short time later. After my asking about a haul-out he replied, "Come back Tuesday." Oh yeah. This was Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. Well, that's a bummer but we are tied to a dock in an area where there is shopping and nice places for walks. Not a bad deal.
We've logged over 80,000 miles on Second Wind and never had this happen before (that we knew of). Our propeller is very protected and comes out of the back of the keel just before the rudder. It takes a lot for something to get in there but I guess it had to happen some time. Dean and Sue along with Pete and Bunny are supposed to be here tomorrow. They were near Oriental as we waited at R.E. Mayo. Dean is a diver so I asked if I could borrow some dive gear and check out the propeller over the weekend. He said, "Sure." I may and I might not. He also reminded me this water is very hard to see through (it's the color of tea) and there are Water Moccasins in this area. I might have to rethink this...
We had the air-conditioning on all night because it was warm and humid when we went to bed. It is always warmer in the boat when we run the engine for several hours because it heats up the whole engine room. And, we closed all our windows before going to bed so we wouldn't have to get up again when it started raining.
Turns out the forecasters were a little off and Tropical Storm Andrew came a little closer to shore than they predicted. I'm so glad we were tied to a dock in a protected area.
I think it started raining around 3am and continued through the night. Here was the weather RADAR just after 6am when it was really pouring and I got up to see if everything was OK. We are at the blue dot. The storm was just churning almost right over us. It really wasn't that bad on the boat because the winds were from the north - the direction our boat is pointing while at the dock. If winds had been from the east or west we would have been getting rocked pretty good.
It rained hard into late morning when it finally let up into spits and spurts. We found several more leaks to fix on the boat which is typical when we get a deluge like this with high winds. The rain finds it way into everything including all the towels we had left in the cockpit. It looks like laundry-day now with them all drying on the rails.
It was a fairly quiet day on Second Wind. Around 10am I walked to the office and paid for 2 nights - last night and tonight - $34 total. Geez. (For comparison, we paid $142 for 2 nights in Swansboro.) That also included power and WiFi. The reason it so inexpensive is this place is in the middle of nowhere and it's really a commercial fishing dock. They are not trying to make a profit from cruisers. They do sell lots of fresh frozen seafood and I browsed after paying for our dockage. Laura and I will go back later for seafood shopping. They vacuum seal and freeze all their fish, shrimp, lobster and scallops which keeps them tasting great. Last fall when we stopped here we spent over $100 on just seafood for our freezer.
As usual, I spent part of my morning checking weather forecasts and seeing when it would be good to move on. Hmmm. Doesn't look like decent cruising weather for a while. Check out this 10-day forecast for Belhaven, NC which is only about 10 miles from here. Rain and thunderstorms right through to Sunday - that's 6 days from now!
This is an inexpensive and calm place to be - especially with the COVID-19 isolation going on. We are fully stocked with fuel, water and groceries plus we caught up on laundry with Tim and Karen. So, we are good for probably 2 - 3 weeks if necessary. Great Bridge would be our next grocery / laundry stop which is only 3 days from here when we finally get moving. No worries Mon....
I practiced the flute for a while later this morning. I'm hoping to get good enough to record a video of me playing just so I have a recording of it. I really like the 8notes.com website. It's great practicing with background music.
After lunch, Laura and I went for a walk through the neighborhood. That's really a joke. In our 3 mile walk I think we saw one house once we left here. I was able to walk up on a highrise bridge just down the waterway and take this nice panorama of the area including the docks and boat. Check it out. Sorry about all the wind noise. Guess I need a better microphone for my iPhone.
Here is a picture of the boat and docks from the top of the bridge.
We'll work on the boat a bit (I already fixed Laura's automatic stove lighter this morning) and try to walk every day for exercise. That's really the nicest part about being here instead of at anchor. We can get off the boat easily! Probably another 2-3 days here if the forecast looks better. Or, maybe we'll be here until next Sunday. Come visit!
14 nautical miles today, 844 total miles from Marathon
No early alarm this morning because we had a short day to Swansboro and I wanted to wait for the rising tide. We picked up our anchor at 9:30am and took our time to the Onslow Beach Bridge which was only about 4 miles away and wouldn't open for us until 10:30.
About a mile east of the bridge is Browns Inlet. This is typically one of the shallowest and difficult parts of the ICW but they had dredged it last winter. Wow! What a difference! We went right down the middle of the marked channel and never saw less than 12 feet deep. Sometimes through here we are cleaning off the bottom of our keel.
Now my only worry was the Swansboro City Docks. There is a 100 foot floating face dock which we had reserved for the next two nights. But, the docks are also available to local day-boaters to tie up and walk into town. When I called for the reservation, Jessica told me they couldn't guarantee the dock would be open. You never know if there is going to be someone on the dock. But, today there were only 2 other smaller boats and they had tied up on the inside docks. We turned into the current (which rips through here) and tied up way down to the end of the face dock. With our bow hanging over, I had left about 55-60 feet behind us for another boat if necessary.
Shortly after lunch Tim and Karen came over to "fetch us". They drove us back to their new house which they had just move in full time 2 months ago. We were their first guests! After showing us all the new things they had done since we were here in October, Karen, Laura and I took a walk down to the beach which is only a 5 minute walk from the house. It was a beautiful beach day and the girls enjoyed the walk (I did too!).
Back at the house it was cocktail time so we relaxed in the screen room with drinks and munchies. It was lots of fun to catch up what we all had been doing the past 5 months.
Dinner was ribs and chicken on the grill, baked potatoes and fixin's. After dinner we talked some more then hit the sack after a busy day.
Friday, May 15th
Air temp 68, winds E @ 15
Didn't move the boat today.
We slept in a bit and I finally got up after smelling the bacon and sausage cooking downstairs. How can anyone resist bacon in the morning? Tim and Karen prepared a great breakfast including fresh waffles. It was much more than we were used to eating for breakfast but yummy.
After a long walk around town and down the beach, we relaxed on the porch and enjoyed a beautiful morning. We decided to grocery shop on our way back to the boat and have Tim and Karen over for dinner on Second Wind.
Traffic was very heavy as South Carolina had just opened the public parking to the beaches. The Piggly Wiggly in Swansboro was well stock with the fresh fruits and veggies we needed then back to the boat and put everything away. Karen left with hopes to be back in a couple hours for burgers on the grill.
The traffic was so bad getting back to their house, Tim and Karen decided to skip coming over for dinner. We were a little bummed out but understood the hassle of sitting in traffic.
Friday night on the city docks was party-time! Many 20-25 foot boats tied up and partied until almost dark with lots of drinking and dueling stereos. We closed up the boat, turned on the air-conditioning and let them party. By 9pm, we were alone on the dock except for a 52 foot Kady Krogen (trawler) that had tied up behind us. We had seen Cracker Jack the past few days on the ICW and Laura spent a little time talking with them.
After watching a couple "Person of Interest" on the TV off my phone, we hit the sack and slept well.
Saturday, May 16th
Air temp 67, water temp 69, winds SE @ 10
43 nautical miles today, 887 total miles from Marathon
We left Swansboro Church Street Docks at 8:15am. Leaving earlier would have put the tidal current against us up Adams Creek north of Morehead City. Another pretty day on the water but, once again, it was bustling with local boats who zoomed past us in both directions. Here is a video Laura took of all the boats around us approaching Morehead City.
As we turned north in Morehead Basin, the boats thinned out quiet a bit and I was able to relax for the cruise to Oriental. Throughout the day, we were trying to decide which option to choose for the next couple days. We decided to stay on the Oriental Town Dock which is free but you can only stay 2 nights. This would put us underway for the possible tropical storm Arthur on Monday so plans are to leave early tomorrow and make it down the Neuse river before the east winds pick up and build seas on the shallow waters.
The ride up Adams Creek was nice and this is one of our favorite homes. I love the colors.
The town dock was available (it has always been occupied in the past) and we tied up at 4:15pm. D was at the dock and helped us secure the boat. Laura prepared some chicken for dinner and we walked to D and Don's boat near their house in Oriental.
It was an enjoyable evening with long-time friends. I drank WAY too much wine. D drove Laura back to the boat while Don and I stayed and solved all the worlds problems. She offered to drive me back later but I decided to walk and enjoy the evening. But, I didn't realize that it was the early morning - 2am. Yikes! Sunday, May 17th
Air temp 72, water temp 74, winds E @ 15-20
21 nautical miles today, 908 total miles from Marathon
I woke up early and decided to leave so we could get down the Neuse River before the winds built in the afternoon. We were off the dock at 7:45am (Yes, only about 5 hours sleep for the Captain) and motored out onto the Neuse. The winds were a little higher than predicted (of course). Forecast was 8-10, gusts to 15. We had 15-20 constant. When we left Oriental, we had 13 miles of east travel down the Neuse before we could turn north up the Bay River. The winds were right on our nose but the seas were low. I guess the winds had just started and not built any sea yet.
Our speed was in the mid-4s because of the wind slowing the boat while motoring. After a couple hours we were able to turn a little north but not enough wind angle to have help from the sails. I could have put up a reefed Jib and Main then tacked SE to give us a better angle NE but decided the boat was still making way through the wind and waves so kept on course. It took over 3 hours to motor the 13 miles to the Bay River. The winds were now holding in the low 20s and waves had increased to 3-4 feet close chop. The ride was not very nice as the boat was hobby-horsing through the close seas and once I saw 1.4 knots on the GPS. I should have put up some sail and tacked down the river. Odds are we would have made it much quicker.
As we turned north to the Goose Creek Canal, we rolled out about 1/3 of our mainsail and sheeted it in tight. The boat zoomed to 6-7 knots as I lowered the engine RPMs. It was a rolly ride up the river until we entered more protected waters about 1/2 hour later. Now we had to decide what to do next.
My plan had been to motor / sail another 25 miles to the Alligator-Pungo Canal and anchor in the Pungo River. This would have been very protected from the east and north winds predicted for the next couple days. But, getting there would have been problematic today. We still had to cross the Pamlico River which was very open and a similar course we had just run down the Neuse. Yucks to that. So, we decided to tie up at the R.E Mayo Seafood docks in the Goose Creek Canal. The docks were not in very good shape but they were more than strong enough to hold us in a storm. There were typically a few off-shore fishing boats in the 80-90 foot range tied up there. If the docks could hold them, they would certainly hold us. If there was room...
Turned out we were the only boat on the dock other than 2 off-shore fishing boats so there was about 300 feet of open dock. We had no problem tying up and configuring bumpers and lines for the predicted 30-35 knot winds tomorrow with storms. Plus, we had 30 amp power and the docks were only about $20 a night. Here we are tied up safe and sound.
You might ask why we didn't stay in Oriental. You can only stay on the town dock for 2 nights. We could have stayed tonight but would have had to leave tomorrow, during the storm. Maybe they wouldn't have kicked us out but I didn't want to take that chance. Could have also stayed at Oriental Marina but I thought it would have been an easier trip down the Neuse today. Oh well.... We are at a dock, have power and good cell service here. Plus, it started raining a few minutes ago so we closed up and turned on our air-conditioner. Very nice in the boat now!
Tropical storm Arthur is heading our way. He is going to be off-shore the North Carolina banks tomorrow morning. The odds of him coming ashore are very low now and our winds are only supposed to be 25-30. I'll let you know if that forecast was wrong too....
48 nautical miles today, 786 total miles from Marathon
Very chilly this morning as we prepared to get underway early for favorable tides. We had the heat running last night so inside the boat was nice. But, as soon as we opened up, I needed my sweatpants, and sweatshirt.
My plan was to get underway by 6am which should have made our day fairly easy by catching the outgoing tide at Little River Inlet then the flood tidal current at Cape Fear. Winds were dead calm as we backed out of the slip on glassy waters. We missed our time by only 10 minutes so I was happy.
As we turned left out of the basin onto the ICW, the boat zoomed up to 7 knots with about 1 1/2 knots of helping current. Check out how calm the water was when the Sun decided to join us.
It turned out the route out the Little River Inlet was a little longer than my estimate but we were out on the ocean by 7:15am. I set course for Cape Fear Inlet 25 miles away. Winds were 10-12 at about 55 degrees off our port bow so we set the full jib and main for close-hauled sailing. The boat picked up to 6.5-7 knots and I throttled back on the motor so see if the wind was going to last. The forecast last night said it was supposed to die right down in the early morning.
Hmmm. The wind not only lasted but picked up to 15-20 knots. We were barely able to hold our course to Cape Fear with the sails full but, every 10 minutes or so, a large gust would blow us over to 20-25 degrees. About an hour later we deep reefed the mainsail to calm down the boat a bit. It wasn't an unpleasant ride as the waves were on the bow so the only roll was caused by the wind gusts - not a roll every 6 seconds like if swells were on the beam. The boat was plowing through 2-3 foot seas pretty nicely. I know from experience, if we didn't have the wind from a direction to help, we would be slowing to 3-4 knots because of the bow bouncing on the waves a bit.
I figured we needed to get into the Cape Fear inlet by 12:30pm at the latest in order to catch the flood current up the river. Because the wind was helping, our ETA was 11:30am. Nice! I tried running on just sails but the boat slowed to under 5 knots in the calms between gusts. Had to keep the motor running at lower RPM to time our arrival with the flood. Here's a video Laura took a little later. Nice day on the ocean!
The sails were shadowing the Sun so it was pretty chilly in the cockpit. Laura went downstairs to get a little heat and I stayed at the helm to enjoy the ocean scenery. Dean and I started texting each other about 9am (they were a day behind us now) and I found that I couldn't type on the phone because my fingers were so cold. I was also shivering really bad. Oh yeah. We had crossed into North Carolina. It's cold here!
I went down and grabbed my foul-weather gear. It helped but I couldn't warm up. We had skipped breakfast because Laura doesn't like eating early and the bouncing on the ocean were have made it hard to cook anyway. We were running a little calmer now so I asked her to make me some hot soup so I could try and warm up. Here is what sailing this morning was like.
Hot soup really hit the spot but Laura said a bunch of it spilled on the floor from the stove when a sudden gust blew us over a bit. Bummer.
The winds did calm down and also veered more NW which gave us a better angle for sailing. I decided to try a shorter entrance rather than going all the way out to the big ship channel than have to run directly into the wind going in. I set course for the Western Bar Channel which I had seen but never used before. We were at near high tide so I figured we would not have any problems.
Here's a snapshot from our GPS. The normal big-ship channel is the large blue line. The dotted purple line is where we went. It turned out to work excellent today and I now know there it's plenty deep even at low tide. I love covering new ground!
With the helping wind, we were in the Cape Fear Inlet by 11:30am. The flood tide was really cranking. As you can see in the lower box of the GPS above, we were doing 8.4 knots. If we were going the other way, we'd be down to about 2.5. Yuck!
Coming in the inlet I got on the Dockwa App and asked to make a reservation at the Carolina Beach mooring field. A short time later my request was accepted. No other problems or issues during the trip and we tied up to our mooring at 1:50pm. 48 nautical miles in 7 3/4 hours. An average of 6.2 knots for the day. Quite a difference from 4 days ago when we averaged 4.4. I like this much better.
We spent a quiet evening on the mooring and had dinner in the cockpit watching the sunset.
Wednesday, May 13th
Air temp 54, water temp 65, winds calm
44 nautical miles today, 830 total miles from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 6am because I wanted to be underway by 6:30am. 10 miles away is the Wrightsville Beach Bridge which only opens at the top of each hour. Leaving at 6:30am would allow us to make the 9am opening even if we had tidal currents against us.
We were both sleeping deeply when my iPhone alarm went off. I hit the stop button and rolled over to snuggle a little before morning exercises and getting up. Next thing I know Laura is shaking me awake. We had both fallen back to sleep and it was 6:20am. I don't know why we rushed around like mad-men getting ready. It wouldn't have been a big problem to leave an hour later but I guess we all need something to get us energized.
I skipped my morning exercises (for the first time in 2 months), performed quick engine checks, turned on all the instruments and slipped the mooring lines at 6:35am. Wow! I didn't know we could get the boat ready that quick!
As we motored out of the Carolina Beach bay, I was thinking how different I felt missing the exercises. Maybe this is the way I felt before I started them - lethargic with brain-fog. I didn't like it and missed my morning energy. Sacra-blue!
The morning was calm and pretty with grey clouds on the horizon. It was one of those skies that if we were at sea, we wouldn't be able to tell where the ocean ended and sky started. The only wind was what the boat was making so there wasn't a ripple on the water. Here is a different view from our stern showing the little wake Second Wind makes on calm waters.
The tidal currents helped over the next couple hours and it turned out we were about 20 minutes early for the bridge so had to slow down. It is very hard to estimate the currents in this area because there are several inlets and you don't know when the current from the next one will take over.
As we passed through the Wrightsville Beach Bridge, I realized that this was the 1/2 way point between Marathon and Catskill, NY. It is about 800 miles in both directions.
Only a few boats on the water today and most of them passed us. Here is a pirate ship - Black Pearl - that zoomed by us. Thankfully, no broadside....
Later in the morning, I put Billy Joel on the stereo and crank it up for aerobics on the back deck. Most of his music has a great beat for aerobics. To get even (with myself? too funny) for not exercising before getting up, I added in push-ups and weights for upper-body. That will teach me!
Our big decision of the day was where to stay tonight. We would normally anchor in Mile Hammock Bay which is 1/2 way between Carolina Beach and Oriental. But, our plans are to stay in Swansboro a few days to visit my cousins, and good friends, Tim and Karen. Hmmm. Stay in Mile Hammock and do a short day tomorrow to Swansboro or keep going for another 2-3 hours today and not move the boat tomorrow.
We eventually decided to make it a short day and anchored in Mile Hammock at 3:30pm. Since we had lots of day left, I took the opportunity to do an oil change on our main engine and Honda generator which were due. I don't usually like tearing the engine apart while at anchor but oil changes are not a big deal. 1 1/2 hours later I had the boat and me cleaned up and sat with a tequila in the cockpit enjoying the evening.
Mile Hammock is part of Camp Lejeune Marina base and they are always running some kind of exercises. Today was helicopters all over the place. Laura got these guy flying almost right over us.
We've seen as many as 18 boats anchored in this bay but today there were only 3 others. 2 more came in over the evening so there was plenty of room for everybody.
Tomorrow morning we will head to Swansboro and "marina-up" for a couple days visiting family. We're both looking forward to it!
40 nautical miles today, 738 total miles from Marathon
What a calm, beautiful night on Thoroughfare Creek. The winds had died, all the parties on shore had broken up and we enjoyed a quiet evening on Second Wind. But, the temps dived down into the high 40s and we had to put a second blanket on the bed plus snuggle-up. Laura took this colorful picture last night.
No alarm set for the morning but we were both awake by 7am. The tide was changing to flood around 9:30-10:00am so we waited a bit before leaving the quiet creek. By 9am I had the boat ready to go so we raised the anchor and motored back to the Waccamaw River. As we turned north, we had the last hour or so of the ebb current against us so the boat slowed to 4.2 knots.
On our way out of Thoroughfare Creek, I took this picture of a local "hot dog" boat that was tied up near the river. It seemed like a nice idea of selling hot dogs and soft drinks to boaters on weekends. If you zoom in, you can see several signs on the boat. My favorite is "Kraft Mac n Cheese". Wow! Not just any mac-n-cheese.... Too funny.
Our speed gradually increased as the flood tide caught us. We were back to 5.5 knots (no current) as we passed Bucksport Marina and picked up helping current the rest of the day.
There is always LOTS of wildlife on the Waccamaw and today didn't disappoint. Turtles sunning, Osprey's yelling at us from their nests and this huge bird that flew over the boat. It happened so suddenly that we didn't get a picture but Laura looked it up on-line. What we saw was a Wood Stork. Here is a picture downloaded from grandstrandmag.com.
Just before lunch we stopped at Osprey Marina for fuel and took on 96 gallons of diesel. This was our usage from Stuart, FL - 530 miles ago. We ran our engine 90 hours during that time so you can see the result of our lower RPMs with the wind helping often. Normal usage for this boat is about 1.2 gallons / hour so the last couple weeks were just a little lower than that. We paid $1.22 / gallon for boat diesel - $118.40 total. The lowest I've seen since the early '90s. For comparison, my records show that last fall we stopped here and purchased 103 gallons for $268 - more than double the price. I know the U.S. economy is really down right now with the lockdown, but at least there is a small silver-lining for us.
After fueling, we had a nice trip through Myrtle Beach ICW and the 3 bridges which had to open for us. The local traffic picked up throughout the day but not as bad as weekend days down near Daytona or St. Augustine. It was a warm, sunny Sunday so lots of folks were out enjoying the day.
I was worried we would not make the marina before they closed at 5pm, but the increasing tidal current helped us to the lighthouse that marks the channel into the bay. By time we went through the Little River Swing Bridge, we had 1.5 knots of current helping us. We tied up at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club at 4:55pm and I quickly went to the office and paid for 2 nights - $139. We'll relax for a day with our friend Sandy who lives only a few miles from here then leave early Tuesday for Carolina Beach.
Monday, May 11th
Air temp 58, water temp 62, wind N @ 10
Not moving the boat today
It was a very nice night in the marina and I kept a small window open next to the bed for fresh air. The boat was a little chilly this morning so we ran the heat for a short time to warm things up. The cockpit was nice and warm with the Sun shining so Laura had her morning coffee up there.
We went for a couple mile walk after breakfast for some much needed exercise. The walking around here isn't great because there are no sidewalks. You end up walking down the grass next to a busy highway. But, we found a small housing project to walk through and the people we saw by the street were very friendly.
Our friend Sandy drove over in the early afternoon. All of us were very down about not being able to hug as dear friends are supposed to but we eventually settled down to catch up on what was happening in our lives. We had planned on going to the marina restaurant for lunch but forgot they were closed on Monday and Tuesday. We decided to drive to North Myrtle Beach for lunch in a mall. This mall also had a West Marine where I needed to pick up a new power-cord for the boat.
We decided on Mission BBQ for lunch. They had about 1/2 of their tables closed for social distancing and the food was excellent. I had a pulled-pork sandwich. Laura had a brisket sandwich. I think the last time we ate out was in Marathon over 3 weeks ago. We wore our face masks and all the workers there had face masks on. Most everyone was pretty good about keeping their distance.
After lunch we came back to the marina and sat at a table by the pool. I came back to the boat for a little after-lunch wine and we chatted for a couple hours. Here are Laura and Sandy at the table under the umbrella on a pretty South Carolina day.
We decided we couldn't leave without at least opposite-face hugs. It's always great to see Sandy and we always talk about her late husband John. Sandy and John spent several winters in Marathon near us and we had plenty of good times.
Back at the boat I installed the new power cord and cleaned up the boat a bit. Nothing really needs to be worked while we are here so we just relaxed in the afternoon and took our post-wine naps. Those are the best!
The winds are supposed to die down tonight and go north but light tomorrow. It's going to be chilly in the morning with lows in the high-40s. Plans are to head out Little River Inlet and do the short 25 mile off-shore run to Cape Fear inlet then up the Cape Fear River to Carolina Beach where we will probably pick up a mooring. Because the low tide here tomorrow is about 6:30am, we need to be out of the marina by 6am in order to catch the outgoing tide through the inlet. Then the flood tide at ends around 2pm at Southport (about 5 miles up the Cape Fear River). It should all work out assuming we average 5 knots off-shore - like 7am to 12pm - and catch the helping tides at both inlets. I'll let you know how it works out!
Here is a pretty sunset picture from Beaufort that Laura took last night.
It was a chilly morning as I released the mooring lines at 6:15am. For the first time on this trip, I had on sweatpants, sweatshirt, socks and sneakers. The reason we were leaving so early is the Lady's Island Bridge (like many ICW bridges) does not open during rush hour mornings and afternoons. This bridge does not open between 6:30am and 9am. So, if we don't get through before 6:30am, we'll have to wait until 9am.
Dean had told me he really didn't want to get up this early so would probably sleep in. But, right after I called the bridge on our VHF radio to let them know we wanted to go through, I heard Dean call them and say he would be joining us. I turned around and they were just motoring out of the mooring field. Nice to have company again!
The current was almost 2 knots pushing us toward the bridge so we turned both boats around, pointing the wrong direction, and motored into the current while waiting. This is much easier than trying to reverse and hold the boats while running backwards. Most sailboats don't like doing this and are difficult to control.
Right at 6:30am the bridge opened and we continued our trip north. Autumn Borne stayed about 1/4 mile behind us all day.
Normally, traveling this part of the ICW, you have the tidal current with you 1/2 of the time and against you 1/2 of the time. (You actually have it against you for a slightly longer time because you're going slower against the current.). But today would be one of our slowest days ever as the tide changes were just right to be against us almost all day. There were only two sections where we had a helping current and this 5 miles from the Lady's Island Bridge to the Coosaw river was one of them. We had about 1 knot of helping current for the next hour.
Once on the Coosaw River, we met the flood tide and slowed to about 4 knots. There was a 20 knot wind on our port quarter so we rolled out 3/4 of our jib which brought us back to over 5 knots. But, the winds on our stern were blowing right into the cockpit. I went downstairs and dug out my foul-weather gear which cut the wind from blowing through my sweatshirt.
During the time when we entered the Ashepoo - Coosaw cutoff and finally turned north on the South Edisto River, the tide had changed and we were fighting the ebb current. The boats slowed to 3 knots as the tides were much higher (and the currents higher) because of the recent full moon. This was to be our formula for the day - very slow motoring against currents.
Here is a video Laura took of us motor-sailing up the North Edisto River.
Normally we would make the 67 ICW miles between Beaufort and Charleston in a 10-11 hour day and anchor before Elliot Cut on the Stono River. Today, we decided to go through Elliot Cut and the Wappoo Creek Bridge to anchor in Charleston Harbor. This would set us up for a long run the Georgetown the next day if we left early again.
It's interesting to me how our scenery changes through this part of South Caroling based on the tides. There is a 8-9 foot tide in this section so, when the tide it up, it feels like you are on top of the world. When it's down, you're in a valley. The full moon tides were very high (and low) today with the low tide being 1 foot below the mean low tide. At one point it seemed we were traveling down a valley made of grass on the sides. Check out the mud flats on the side of the ICW at low tide.
The Wappoo Creek Bridge is also closed during rush hour traffic between 3:30pm and 7pm. I was a little hopeful when we left that we might make the 3:30pm opening. Ha! We barely made it there for 7pm. A tug and barge passed us just before Elliot Cut and I knew the bridge would have to open for them just before 7pm (bridges open anytime for commercial vessels). But, we couldn't keep up with the barge (I know. We are a SLOW sailboat) and we heard the bridge opening on the VHF just as we entered Elliot Cut about 1 mile from the bridge. The current prediction for Elliot Cut said we should have about 1 knot of current against us at this time. This is why they are called "predictions". We had over 3 knots and our boat speed was down to 1.7 knots over ground as we slowly motored through the 1/4 mile cut waiting for the houses on shore to pass us (not really but it seemed like it).
Just before Elliot Cut we were passed by Marguerite, the boat we sailed with off-shore Miami then anchored with in Pelican Cove north of Ft. Lauderdale. They called us on the radio and we had a nice chat about our past few weeks apart. Here they are passing us.
Dean had told me they were going to anchor before the cut but he changed his mind and came with us. A short time later the Wappoo Bridge opened for us and we motored onto Charleston harbor. Rather than anchor by the city marina, we decided to motor south a bit and anchor off the channel closer to shore. Since the winds were supposed to be low tonight, it should be pretty calm.
At 8pm we dropped anchor in Charleston Harbor. Laura had made Chili during the day which she re-heated for our late dinner. I think we watched one show on TV before hitting the sack around 9:30pm.
Our boat averages 5.5 knots when motoring. Today we had traveled 60 nautical miles in 13.5 hours for an average of 4.4 knots. Like I said, our slowest day ever....
Friday, May 8th
Air temp 58, water temp 68, winds calm
57 nautical miles today, 684 total miles from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 5:10am but did my normal thing of waking up just before it went off at 5:05am. My early wake-up was helped by the several fishing boats that went out between 4:30am and 5am. They rocked us pretty good. We were both a little sluggish from getting up early two days in a row but got ourselves and the boat ready for the daily cruise. At 5:45am we had the anchor up and were underway across the harbor at 4.5 knots. Yep. The tide was against us again right from the start.
This always seems to be the case and it cracks me up. There was one other boat traveling across the huge Charleston Harbor at 6am and it was a tug pulling a barge on a collision course with us. I watched him on our RADAR and tracked his AIS signals which showed we would pass 1,000 feet in front of him if neither of us changed course or speed. He did speed up a little but we were able to safely pass in front. Here he is coming right at us! I didn't even have to zoom in.
We were up early because of another bridge schedule. The Ben Sawyer Bridge is closed for traffic between 7am and 9am. Plus, the low tide today was at 3:45pm. If we went through this bridge after 9am, that would put us near low tide at some of the problem spots near McClellanville. That's why we were up at 5am - to make this bridge before 7am.
Our schedule worked fine and we were able to go through the bridge at 6:45am. Now we were free of bridges for a few days until Myrtle Beach area.
Wow! What a difference a day makes. This area has several inlets to the ocean so the tidal currents are not so bad and seem to change every 1/2 hour. Even with the low winds in the morning, the boat ran between 5 and 6 knots no problem. Good deal. I thought we were having problems like dragging a crap trap with us yesterday.
Here we are motor-sailing with the full jib down the ICW toward McClellanville before the winds really picked up.
One of the reasons we hustled to be in Georgetown today was the winds this evening and night were supposed to blow up to 30 knots. Rather than be up in the night watching our anchor, we decided to head to a marina tonight - our first one since Marathon.
The best laid plans.... Overnight the forecast had changed and the big winds were coming in this afternoon. In fact, by 11am we had 15-20 knot winds. But, today they were helping us so I rolled out most of our jib and we zoomed along over 6 knots most of the day. By 2pm the winds were so high I rolled in the jib completely because it wasn't happy with the wind moving from one side of our stern to the other. By 3pm we ran out onto Winyah Bay and turned north to Georgetown. Our destination was only 5 miles away. But, we now had the river ebb current against us at almost 2 knots. I was able to roll out 1/2 of the jib to help us in the winds that were now gusting over 30 knots. Here is a video Laura took on this part of the trip. We only had about 1/2 the jib out but the boat is still moving around a lot. Sorry for all the wind noise. It was really honking!
As we entered the protected Georgetown Harbor, the winds calmed down and we were able to dock at Harbortown Marina by 4:15pm with no problems. I was concerned that the high winds would make docking at the marina dangerous so was ready to head back out to the river and anchor if I had to. But, no worries and we were tied up quickly safe and sound. Today we traveled 57 miles (only 3 less than yesterday) and it took us 3 hours less.
After tying up the boat and settling in, Laura took a hot shower while I walked down to Independent Seafood only about 1/4 mile away. I remembered from our last time here they had some great shrimp. I was not disappointed and purchased 3 pounds of jumbo shrimp for $30. Back at the boat Laura steamed 10 of them for a shrimp cocktail appetizer while it was my turn in the shower. Fresh shrimp right off the boat. Excellent!
Dinner of pan-seared Grouper was right in-line with the shrimp appetizer. We had a few glasses of wine in the cockpit and relaxed before helping a late arrival to dock across from us. We had seen this boat a few days ago on the Stono River and talked a bit with Mike and Kathy on Happy Trails. They were doing the Great Loop and were very worried about the NYS Canals opening late (or not opening at all). When we said we were from the Hudson River, they asked if we knew a marina they might stay at to wait for the canals to open. Heck yes! Come see us at Catskill Marina! We chatted for a while then it got chilly so we went downstairs to warm up.
Saturday, April 9th
Air temp 52, water temp 64, (it's getting chilly!) winds NW @ 15-20
14 nautical miles, 698 total miles from Marathon
We slept in a bit (compared to the past few days) and got up around 8am. I had filled up our water tank, washed down the boat (first time since Marathon) and put the hose away last evening so it was easy to get the boat ready for cruising. By 8:30am we motored out of Georgetown Harbor on a windy, chilly morning.
Looking back, we didn't even take a walk around town. I had walked to the seafood market yesterday but Laura's longest walk was to the trash can. This is why I like to stay at marinas for more than 1 night. We need time to relax a bit.
Today the winds were right on our nose which always slows down the boat but didn't feel as cold as 2 days ago because we were protected with our clear canvas. Even with the tidal current helping us up the Waccamaw River, we had problems staying over 5 knots when we should have been doing 6 to 7. I didn't think we could make North Myrtle Beach today with the slow start so mentioned to Laura about maybe stopping early and anchoring off the river. She immediately said, "Sure!" so we looked for a new place to stay. Dean texted me about maybe staying at Thoroughfare Creek which I had seen on the charts but never stayed. After reading some of the anchorage reviews on Active Captain, it looked pretty good. A few hours later we had the anchor down about a mile from the river in a beautiful creek.
Here is a picture from our anchorage. Way over to the right you can see Autumn Borne. They came in a few hours after us. Dean and Sue had anchored in Winyah Bay just off the ICW last night and slept in this morning.
After lunch we decided to take a dinghy ride. I really wanted to get off the boat because of all the locals with their LOUD, huge outboards zooming around the boat were driving me a little crazy. Laura and I loaded up the dink and motored up the creek against the current. I always like to start in the up-current direction since it would be much easier to row back if we had problems. Laura had a great time with her favorite pastime - turtle watch. We saw lots of turtles sunning themselves on branches but couldn't get a good picture because they were very skittish. Laura took this video which is cute.
Here is a video I took of us zooming up the river in the dinghy. This makes our sailboat look really slow...
On the way back, I thought it would be a good idea to have Laura take her first dinghy driving lesson. There wasn't anything around to hit so it was pretty safe (I'm gonna get a punch for that one...). I stopped the boat and turned off the motor so she could see what starting it was like.
Our new Tohastu 20hp is a 4-stroke with fuel injection. It's a little hard to pull plus you have to pull fairly hard in order for it to start. Since it was already warmed up, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Laura did alright once she figured out how hard she had to pull. Even I have to use both hands most of the time. She started it on the 3rd pull then fell back into the dinghy. How I wish I had been taking a video. Laura said, "I didn't think it was going to start and you told me to pull hard!".
Once underway she quickly got the hang of driving and eventually had us up on plane zooming down the river. I had to get a picture.
After our ride, we beached the dinghy next to the sand dunes and walked up to the park. Some of the reviews for this anchorage stated there were nice walking trails. This is from the top of the dune with our dinghy and boat in the background. You can see the locals partying over to the right.
At the top of the dune was a sign showing the 2 mile walking trail around Sandy Island Preserve.
Along the trail Laura spotted this weird bush / tree. We eventually figured out this was a baby pine. We called it an "Afro Pine". I hope that's politically correct. Afro is OK, right?
The only bad part of being here is the local guys with their huge, no muffler engines on tiny boats. I'm talking 80 and 90HP outboards on 17 foot fishing boats. They are hanging out at the sand dune (which is fine) but every once in a while one of them gets in his boat and zooms around the 3 anchor sailboats. I can't think of any reason for this other than to piss us off so we won't anchor here. But, what's the problem? We're not playing loud music or bothering anyone. We're sitting on our boat most of the day enjoying the scenery.
Tomorrow we plan on heading up to North Myrtle Beach and maybe staying a couple nights at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. It's one of our favorite places so it will be nice to spend a couple days ashore.
