Myrtle Beach to Oriental

Monday, May 3rd - Day 19 (continued)

After I finished the last blog post, Laura made us a wonderful dinner which we ate in the cockpit during a thunderstorm.  I was thinking we had a great show from Mother Nature while eating dinner.  I took a short video of the storm that you can watch below

As most of you know, Laura is an awesome cook and she really outdid herself tonight.  We had Hogfish (one of our favorite fishes) stuffed with Stone Crab.  The fish and crab were out of one of our freezers from the Florida Keys but tasted yummy.  She also made rice pilaf, steamed broccoli and corn-on-the-cob.  It was like a feast.  Check it out -

Before the storm I had filled our water tank and washed the salt off the boat (the storm helped later with a power-wash).  We watched a little TV after dinner (end of Criminal Minds season 9) and hit the sack early.

Tuesday, May 4th - Day 20

After sleeping in a bit, I got the boat ready to go.  After engine and bilge checks, I pulled the power cord and stowed it away.  Then started the engine to let it warm up while pulling in our ladder and docklines.  It all worked out well again with a light breeze holding the boat against the dock.  I just untied all the lines from the dock and threw them on-board.

Off the dock at 7:10am then we we motored out of the harbor back to the ICW.  I happened to pull into the ICW just before several big powerboats.  I just motored slowly and let them all pass before they zoomed away.

Tide was going out and pulling us toward the Little River inlet at 8 knots.  No sitting back and relaxing now..  At this speed I had to watch where we were going constantly.

Once past the inlet we slowed to 4.5 knots against the tidal current.  This was fairly new ground for us.  We hadn't run this part of the ICW in several years.  Instead opting to the short (25nm) off-shore run between the Cape Fear river and Little River inlet.  For the past 3 1/2 years, I have been using an iPad with AquaMaps for navigation in the cockpit.  One of the nice things is it stores all of my previous tracks so I can instantly see where I've been before (and sometimes, where it is safe to go again).  I did not have any tracks through this part of the ICW on the iPad.  The last 7 trips through here had all been off-shore.  Oh well....  Let's break new trail!

The reason we had gone off-shore through here is there are two inlets that have constant shoaling and changing channels along the ICW.  Shallott and Lockwoods Folly Inlets are always tricky to navigate.  Plus, we would be passing through the first one, Shallott, at low tide.

It turns out that both inlets had been dredged in the past year and were no problem for us - even at low tide.  It is always interesting traveling the ICW at low tide because is seems like you are driving down a valley.  Here is a picture I took of a crab trap and float that were almost out of the water on the shore.  This was shortly after we passed into North Carolina.  Our 4 state so far.

Our next goal was to make the Cape Fear river while the currents were still flooding to help us up to Snows Cut and Carolina Beach.  Currents in the Cape Fear River can hit 4 knots so if they are against us, we can't really go anywhere.  Today, the flood ended around 3pm.  We motored past Southport onto the Cape Fear River at 1pm so had plenty of help for the 10 miles run to Snows Cut.  In fact, we were even able to turn off the engine for a bit and just sail with the jib at 7-8 knots with the flood tide current.

Here we are jib motor-sailing to the last bridge before Southport.

No problems through the rest of today's trip and we tied up to a mooring in Carolina Beach at 2:30pm.  I had made reservations for 3 nights (on Dockwa.com) because the weather forecast was high winds and storms for the next 3 days.  After tying up, I saw that the forecast had changed and would be nice for traveling the ICW on Thursday.  I used Dockwa to message the marina and ask to change our reservation.  They had already charged my card for the 3 nights ($60 total) but gladly agreed to refund the third night.  Nice!

45.5nm today, 796.5 total miles for the trip

Wednesday, May 5th - Day 21

Today was just relax and let the wind generator supply our electrical needs because the wind was really honkin'.  

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Laura called and made lunch reservations for El Cazador Mexican restaurant in Carolina Beach.  We had been there before and the food was excellent.  Our friend Sandy was driving from Myrtle Beach to meet us for lunch.  We missed her in Myrtle Beach because she was visiting family in Texas and had just gotten back.  

I lowered the dinghy off the davits and prepared for our first dinghy trip in over a week.  Even with the 20-25 knots winds, the waves in the harbor were not too bad - even for the dinghy.  One of the reasons we love these moorings is because the harbor is so protected.

After tying up at the city supplied dinghy dock.  We walked the 1/2 mile to the restaurant and were able to get a nice table outside on the second floor.  Sandy arrived a short time later and we had an wonderful reunion and excellent lunch.  As we were all going to order a Margarita with lunch, the waiter suggested a pitcher for $20.  Well yeah!

I think we spent a couple hours on lunch and it was great catching up with Sandy.  She and her late husband John were some of our best friends in Marathon for several winters.  Here are the 3 Amigos after our lunch.  Don't we look happy?  We did finish the pitcher of Margs....

After lunch Sandy and Laura went driving for some shopping, "girl time" and maybe a walk on the beach.  I went back to the boat thinking I would re-string my guitar.  I had broken a string a couple days ago.  

Laura was thinking about trying to get a Covid shot since North Carolina had just started taking walk-ins.  I think Sandy made it her mission to get Laura the shot because they drove to 3 different pharmacies before finding a Walgreens that would give her one.  

I didn't make out so well.  When I got back to the boat, I laid down on the sofa and slept until Laura texted me to come pick her up.  That's why happy-hour is at the end of the day!

I picked Laura up with the dinghy and we said our sad good-byes to Sandy.  See you in 7 months!

We worked a few boat projects and got everything ready to leave tomorrow morning.  We have about 60 miles to Swansboro where I've made reservations so spend a couple days with my cousins Tim and Karen.  I even did my engine checks tonight because I want to leave before 6am.

As usual for Carolina Beach, it was a beautiful sunset tonight.

Thursday, May 6th - Day 22

I had the alarm set for 5:15am so we could be off the mooring at first light.  It worked out well and I pulled the mooring lines right at 5:45am.  We motored out of the harbor and back onto the ICW heading north.

Winds were on the nose all day which slowed us down a little.  We needed to be at Caspers Marina by 5pm because they don't allow late arrivals.  In order to be there, we had to make the Wrightsville Beach Bridge by 8am, the Figure 8 Island Bridge by 9am and the Onslow Beach Bridge by 3pm.  All of these bridges run on a schedule so if you are not there by that time, you wait until the next scheduled opening.  

One highlight of the day was going through the Wrightsville Beach Bridge.  This marks our half-way point between Marathon, FL and Catskill, NY - about 800 miles each direction..

We did it!  After slugging through many miles of currents slowing us down, we had the currents helping the last 10 miles and tied up just before 5pm.  It was a long day and we just relaxed after our arrival.  I don't think Laura even got off the boat other than to help tie us up.  I did go up to pay.

Tomorrow we will visit with Karen and Tim.  When we have time, it's always fun to stay overnight so we can party without having to drive back to the boat.  

58nm today, 854.5 total trip miles.

Friday, May 7th - Day 23

We slept in and were lazy in the morning.  I went to the marina office to pay for another day.  This is a weird place...  When I called on Wednesday to reserve the slip, I told them I wanted to say for maybe 3-5 nights.  The lady on the phone (the marina manager I think) told me we were OK until Monday when they had a large group of boats coming in - maybe.  I asked why, "Maybe?"  She wasn't sure how many boats were coming.  Also, they wouldn't let me pay for more than one day.  "What if something happens and you leave early?" she asked.  "Two choices." I answered.  "Either refund a night or you don't give refunds."  Lastly, they don't let boats come in after they close at 5pm.  Why couldn't I come up in the morning to pay?  "Oh no", she said.  "We've had boats leave early and not pay."  Now, as a former business man, I think about the revenue stream.  If someone comes after they close and leaves early in the morning, what do they loose?  Maybe a couple bucks worth of electricity.  If they don't let me come in after 5pm and I continue down the ICW, they loose my $89.50 in dockage.  Seems like they should let boats come in after 5pm.

Because she didn't know if I could stay until Tuesday, we planned on leaving Sunday for decent travel weather.  Monday was supposed to be high winds and storms so I didn't want to get kicked out then.  Ok.  That's my rant for today.

Karen drove to "fetch us" just after lunch.  We had a very nice visit with them and planned on staying one or two nights at their house.  Sometime in the afternoon, Karen and I walked and ended up down at the beach.  Here she is standing under the ocean pier.

We watched a little TV and had a nice happy-hour.  Tim put out their house flags so I was able to get a nice picture of them with the American and Franco-American flags on their house.

My Grandparents were Canadian immigrants who brought their 10 children to Upstate NY in the 1930s.  Hence the Franco-American flag.

Karen and Laura outdid themselves on dinner and I ate way too much.  Burp...

Saturday, May 8th - Day 24

Nice relaxing day by the seashore.  We lounged, talked and caught up on each other's lives.  Karen and Tim's two girls were coming for a visit and driving down tomorrow.  We would have liked to see them but.... maybe next time.

We decided on BBQ for dinner.  Karen drove us back to the boat to pick up some ribs and chicken from our freezer.  I also had to pay for another night at the marina.  

We eventually decided to not stay overnight again.  The weather was supposed to deteriorate tomorrow afternoon and we wanted to get into Oriental before that happened which meant we would be leaving at O-dark-30 again.  So after a nice dinner together and more visiting, they drove us back to the boat for sad good-byes.  See you in the Spring!

Sunday, May 9th, Day 25

I was a little worried about leaving this dock with the strong tidal currents here.  Even sitting in the boat, you can hear the water gurgling on the hull as it's streaming by.  But, it turned out that we were leaving near slack-current so it was pretty easy.

The alarm was set for 5:45am but I was up at 5:30 so turned it off.  After getting the boat ready to go I roused Laura out of bed to help with the docklines.  No problems as we just slowly backed out of the slip at 6am and turned the boat toward the ICW.  Currents were helping a bit as we motored out of Swansboro toward the Bogue Sound.  

It was a pretty day as we motored the 20 miles to Morehead City against a slight 10 knot wind and clear, sunny skies.  After turning north toward Oriental, we had a little help from the east winds now that we were motoring against the currents.

As short time later the winds shifted from the east to southwest which meant that the front was coming.  I counted down the miles to the Neuse River that is shallow and can be nasty in heavy winds.  Just before 1pm we motor-sailed out onto a pretty calm Neuse with only 3 miles to Oriental.  I was just getting ready to turn the engine off for a little sailing when the wind died completely so we rolled in the jib for the rest of the trip.  This picture was before the wind died.  Oriental is on the horizon in front of us across the Neuse River.

The waters around Oriental, and other towns inside the North Carolina Outer Banks, are not affected by tides because there are only a few inlets and a large body of water.  But, they are mostly shallow which makes them easy to move by wind and air pressure.  We know from experience that whenever the wind blows from the south or west, the waters around Oriental get lower.  When the winds blow from the north or east, the water goes up.

Today was light winds so the water levels were mostly normal.  But the south wind had just started so we knew the level would probably be going down.  This is important because we had reservations at the Sailcraft Marina and going into the Whitaker Creek was always "iffy" on depth.  Today didn't disappoint as twice going in the channel I saw 5.9 feet on the depth sounder.  We need 5.5 feet to keep floating so that was less than 6 inches under us.  Geez!

As we pulled into our slip, the boat slowly came to a stop about 2 feet off the wall.  Hmmm.  A little shallow here I guess.  I used the engine to work us close to the dock (with our keel in the mud) so we could get on and off without problems.  A short time later we were tied up and relaxing on-shore again.  Note that later in the day the boat went down another foot with the water.  I guess the mud under us is pretty soft.

Don's brother and his wife were also at the marina in their travel trailer.  We had a nice dinner at the marina picnic area with the 6 of us.  D brought filleted speckled Trout plus we had soft shell blue crabs which I cooked on the grill.  The girls did an awesome job with the fixin's and we retired on Second Wind for Laura's cream-puff desert.  Here we all are enjoying our party.  Everyone had their Covid shots so we were all safe.  Yea!

43.5nm today, 898 total trip miles.

Monday May 10th - Day 26

It was a nice night on a very calm boat (since we were stuck in the mud) but warm and humid so we ran our air conditioner all night to sleep comfortably.  The storms never came close to us but the southwest wind was blowing 20-25 most of the night.

Today was just relaxing around the marina and spending time with friends.  Don's brother left with his travel trailer around 11am then D and Laura drove to New Bern for shopping and a medical appointment D had.  I spent much of the afternoon working on this blog with poor connectivity at the marina greatly slowing the process of uploading pictures.  There is no AT&T coverage in this area either.  We have one little bar on our phones so can make phone calls but not much else.

We will have dinner with D and Don tonight and plan on leaving tomorrow morning if the north winds tonight bring the water up enough.  Northeast winds will build on Wednesday so we'll leave then if not enough water tomorrow.  If we have to wait until Wednesday, maybe we will take a "free" slip in town from one of D's friends. 

No concrete plans after we leave Oriental.  We will slowly work our way to Great Bridge (just south of Norfolk) and wait for some nice sailing weather up Chesapeake Bay.  We'll visit friends and try to find some new stops along the way.