Oriental to Carolina Beach, NC

Friday, November 3rd (Day 27) - Zimmerman's Marina, Oriental

44 degrees (should be warming tomorrow), winds from the North @ 15

D took Laura grocery shopping and went to the Seafood Market and Piggly Wiggly.  She came back with lots of grocery bags which took us (really her) a couple hours to pack and clean up.

I worked a few boat projects and got us ready to leave tomorrow.  I washed down the whole boat then filled the water tank.  I like washing the boat first because it cleans out all the water lines at the marina.  Then, the water going into our water tank is fresh.

After filling the tank, I drained then stowed the hose on the boat.

I also walked up to the marina office to pay for our 5 nights here.  Total bill was $161 which was pretty nice.  If the place was easier to get in and out, we'd stay here all the trips north and south.

As I talked to the office gal Laurie to pay our bill, she mentioned we we're welcome "anytime".  When she said that, all the other workers in the office chimed in with a "YEA!"  Laura's sharing of her baking strikes again.  

She brought a bunch of these Gingerbread Cinnamon rolls to the marina office yesterday.  Guess they didn't last long.  (this pic was before the icing...)

We had dinner at the Toucan Grill with D, Don and two other couples.  It was an interesting evening with lots of boat talk.  Food was pretty good too.  Sorry....  I forget to get a group picture.

Back to the boat early so we can prepare for leaving in the morning.  It was a nice stay here with good friends and a very protected dock.  I'm not looking forward to backing out of the narrow slip into the narrow channel in the morning.  There are boats tied to docks in every direction but I'm good, right?

Saturday, November 4th (Day 28) - Oriental to Mile Hammock Bay

53 degrees, water temp 67.  Winds from the East @ 10

57 nautical miles today.  (734.9 total trip miles)

We untied our docklines at 8:15am with D helping to get us off smoothly after Laura and I discussed our strategy for a clean getaway.  It worked out pretty good and a few minutes later we were in the channel and I only had to straighten out.  D took this picture of us as we were leaving the slip.  Yep.  We do have a nice "waterway smile" on the boat from the last 700 miles.

Another D picture of us heading down Whittaker Creek toward the Neuse River.

No problems with the narrow channel heading back to the Neuse River.  About 30 minutes later we approached the Adam's Creek entrance on the other side.  The Neuse was pretty calm with only a slight swell on the port quarter to give us the "back on the water" feeling.

Just after entering Adam's Creek, we passed our friends on s/v Dalliance who were anchored along the eastern shore.  Steve and Erica will be heading out of Beaufort Inlet and crossing to Bermuda in a couple days.  Fair Winds Dalliance!

The tide Gods were smiling on us today as we caught some helping current down Adam's Creek and also when we turned west in Morehead City.  As predicted for a nice Saturday on the water, small fishing boats were everywhere including the middle of the deep channel we needed to stay in.  Watch out!

We had helping winds going down Bogue Sound but you have to be very diligent at the helm with sails up.  This is a narrow channel and tricky to navigate through some of the shallow spots.

A few hours later we motor-sailed through Swansboro.  Once again, small fishing boats were everywhere.  But, this time, none of them were in the middle of the deep channel.  On the way out of Swansboro, I got this picture of a private dock.  It's funny that the dock has "caps" on all the posts so the birds won't sit on them and poop on the dock.  But, the pelicans and cormorants just stood on the dock anyway.

We timed the Onslow Beach perfectly for their 4:30pm opening and entered Mile Hammock anchorage shortly after 5pm.

Geez.  Where the heck did everybody come from?  We had only seen 5-10 cruisers on the water today but there were already 15 boats anchored when we pulled in.

I turned on my radar and set it to 1/8 mile range.  This showed all the boats in the anchorage and where the holes were between them.  I found a nice spot and slowly motored between all the anchored boats.  No wind changes tonight so everyone should stay just like they are now.  I didn't mind all the boat around us.  

If the wind was going to change in the night, I would have been more worried about the other boats and how they were anchored.  Many cruisers don't put out the "right" amount of anchor chain / rode.  Some don't put out enough and some put out too much.  This makes their boat behave differently than the other boats when the wind changes direction.  No worries tonight.

After we anchored and I was setting my anchor alarm on AquaMaps, I noticed that we had anchored in the shallow area of the chart.  Hmmm.  The chart showed less than 5 feet here but our depth sounder showed 11 feet.  I'm gonna believe our depth sounder.  We stayed and all was well on Second Wind in the calm anchorage.

Our engine seems well.  No tapping today.  YEA!

Sunday, November 5th (Day 29) - Mile Hammock to Carolina Beach, NC

Start of week 4

56 degrees.  Water temp 69.  Winds from the south at 5-10

45 nautical miles today (735 total trip miles)

The clocks changed last night from daylight savings which gave us an extra hour of sleep.  Well....  not really.  Instead, we were up an hour early so it evened out.

It was anchor up at 6:45am for the run through 2 bridges and hopefully Carolina Beach this afternoon.  It was a pretty morning with the Sun just peaking over the fog bank.

Tides were mostly helping again today as we tried to time the Figure 8 Island Bridge and Wrightsville Beach Bridge.  The Figure 8 bridge opens on the hour and 1/2 hour but the Wrightsville bridge (only 4.5 miles later) opens only on the hour.  If you're boat could make 10 knots, you could go through the Figure 8 bridge on the 1/2 hour then make Wrightsville on the hour.  We can't do more than about 6.5 knots so that wouldn't work for us.  We needed to time the Figure 8 bridge on the hour then run 5 knots to make the Wrightsville bridge on the hour.  

I had a GPS waypoint set for the Figure 8 bridge that started over 20 miles from us.  Our arrival time stayed around 11:30am through most of the morning.  The light winds were helping a little so we used the Jib to keep us moving with lower engine RPM.  When we were 10 miles away, I lowered engine RPM to let our ETA move closer to 12pm.  It turned out the wind could keep us moving 3-4 knots which was all we needed so I shut down the engine and we had a nice jib-sail down the ICW for over an hour.  I really enjoyed the quiet sail.

Want to hear something cool?  Yesterday, I had tried to get a reservation (through DockWa) for a couple nights for a mooring in Carolina Beach starting tonight.  They replied that nothing was available.  I messaged them (again through DockWa) and asked to be put on a waiting list.  Carolina Beach has a nice anchorage but the holding is poor (soft mud) and it's not very big.  My current plan was to anchor for a night or two if we couldn't get a mooring.

Around 10am, they messaged back that they had a cancellation and we could have a mooring for tonight.  I said "thanks" and asked them to keep me on the wait list for tomorrow.

Over the next couple hours, we ended up scoring a mooring for the next 4 nights.  Wow!  We went from 0 nights to 4 in about two hours.  We are not in any hurry and we both love Carolina Beach so like spending time here.  It's one of the few places you can dinghy to a couple blocks from a beautiful beach plus they have a city dinghy dock right near the middle of town.  Also, the bay is 360 degree protected from bad storms.  Last year we sat out winds over 40 knots on a mooring there.

At 3:30pm we motored into Carolina Beach and tied to a mooring.  We hung out on the boat for the evening with plans to visit the beach and town tomorrow.

Today we passed the 1/2 way point to Marathon.  Wrightsville Beach is about 750 nautical miles from Catskill and Marathon.

Subdued but pretty Carolina Beach sunset.

Monday, November 6th through Wednesday, November 8th (Days 30-32)

Low 70s in the afternoons with high 50s at night.  Sunny with clear skies.  Perfect!  Winds less then 10 most of the time.

We setup our solar panels and I turned on the wind generator for the first time in a few weeks.  Monday and Monday night the winds were 10-15 so the wind generator helped a little but then the winds died for Tuesday and Wednesday.  

If we keep the inverter running for computer, Starllink, etc., the solar will add maybe 100 amp-hours to the batteries during the day.  It would be more like 150 if we turned the inverter off.  We run the Honda generator after dinner to charge batteries a bit while we watch TV.  I can set the Xantrex Inverter / Charger for a lower charge current so the generator isn't so loud for other boats around the mooring field - I typically set it at 8 amps AC.  Also, we use the generator to run our hot water heater for showers and dishes.

Monday morning we lowered the dinghy and hauled on the outboard from the rail mount.  This was our first dinghy launch since we left Catskill 4 weeks ago.  Are we getting lazy?

I found the town dinghy dock and took Laura to her first beach visit of the trip.  It was a pretty day with a light surf coming in.

After the beach, we found the "North End Cafe to Go" on the way back to the dinghy.  We decided to stop for lunch / dinner.  We split a steak sub and fries.  Sub was "ok" and the fries were good but way too salty.  Maybe we should have waited for a restaurant in town...

We then motored the dinghy to the town dock and walked to the Celtic Creamery - one of our favorite stops.  They have awesome home-made ice cream and we enjoyed their Chocolate with Dog Bones cones.

After a short walk, we headed back to the boat and skipped dinner.

Tuesday we dinghy'd into town again for a late lunch at the El Cazador Mexican restaurant.  We love their Margs..

We took another walk around town after lunch both enjoying the warm sunny day.  You can't tell from the picture but I'm in shorts again.

I'm writing this Wednesday afternoon.  We'll be heading to the beach again soon and maybe another walk around town.  Our friends Jon and Margarete on s/v Quicksilver (our dockmates all summer in Catskill) just pulled in and anchored a short way from us.  Gonna be a party tonight I think...

Future plans -

We were lucky to get reservations for a month at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club starting tomorrow (Thursday).  We'll leave hear early for the 40 mile run.  Plans are to hang there for a while to take care of some personal business.  Our friend Sandy (who lives in Myrtle Beach) is currently out of town visiting family but she'll be back in another week or so.  We're both looking forward to spending some time with her.

I probably won't be updating the blog again for a while unless something interesting happens.  Thanks for listening!