Stuart - Nov 26, 2013

Well, if you have been following along and read yesterday's post, you know we are now in Stuart, FL. We are attached to mooring ball #19 and are enjoying a quiet morning aboard. The weather hasn't been especially welcoming. We have had on and off showers all morning. The sun is finally peeking through as we sit, sipping coffee and listening to the Coffeehouse channel on the Sirius radio.

I tried to get some sunrise photos this AM, but it wasn't to be. Here are some shots of our temporary home. We'll be unwinding and settling in for a while so more entries and photos will probably be on a less frequent basis.

DnD







Day 30 - Nov 25, 2013
It was a long night of listening to the wind howl and waves slapping against the stern of the boat. Donna and I were awake when the alarm clock went off at 0530. I made coffee and began looking at all the weather forecasts on the web. Mostly they agreed and the consensus wasn’t good. Winds were blowing from the east at 18 with gusts to 28 and were forecast to increase as the day progressed. The outlook for the next three days also looked like repeats.

After finishing two cups of coffee, I went topside and surveyed the situation, trying to see if there was a way we could safely get out of the slip. The boat was bow-in in a very large fixed pier slip. The wind was channeled down between two buildings and was hitting the boat almost dead on the stern. The channeled wind was almost constant at 25+ miles per hour. There was no way we were backing out of the slip without damaging the boat or the dinghy.

After about an hour of theorizing how it could be done, I replaced several dock lines about the boat with longer lines and ran the starboard aft spring line to the starboard winch. Back inside the boat, Donna and I discussed the possibility of leaving and the forecast weather for the next week. We decided that leaving today looked like the best option so we started making preparations.

It took about half and hour to extricate the boat from the slip. Working slowly and methodically, we winched the boat out to the outboard pilings, removed the lines and were able to back out without damaging the dinghy/davits or the boat. By 0945 we were headed back to the ICW.

After entering the ICW, we moved along past Vero Beach and headed toward Fort Pierce. I rolled the jib out to about 90% and our motoring speed increased. As we moved along it became a rough, wet and dreary day. Very low gray clouds and rain squalls kept rolling in from the east. Winds in the squalls increased to as high as 32. We did see sunshine twice for a few seconds and a rainbow. After passing Fort Pierce, the squalls became a little stronger and more frequent which forced us to reduce sail.

We reached the intersection of the ICW and the St Lucie River around 1500 hrs. We turned up river and found the usually shallow channel had evidently been dredged recently. A couple more rain showers occurred during the slow motoring cruise up the river to the last opening bridge of this trip. The bridge tender was very timely and we passed through and were adjacent to the mooring field that is to be our home for a while.

We picked up mooring ball #19 here at Sunset Bay Marina and ended this leg of our journey at 1625 hrs. Tired, safe and securely tied to the mooring ball, we breathed a great sigh of relief and declared it time for Happy Hour.

Location: Sunset Bay Mooring Field, Stuart, FL. MM 996
Distance traveled: 47 miles
Avg speed: 6.5 mph
Max speed: 8.8 mph

Total distance traveled since 10/27/13: 1049.2 statute miles.
Day 29 - Nov 24, 2013
We holed up here at the Loggerhead Vero Beach Marina to escape the predicted gale force winds last night, today and tonight. As of daybreak, the wind has not materialized. Temperature this morning was 70 and winds were less than 15, but they were out of the north. This is a medium sized marina surrounded by a condo complex. One little east/west channel out to the river. It's like being in a walled moat. We are feeling the boat heal every once in a while, but I don't think the winds outside the facility are up to gale force yet. More like 15-20.

It was nice and sunny by mid morning, however as the day progressed, clouds rolled in from the north and the wind increased to over 25. By 1300 hrs, there were rain showers rolling through and the wind shifted to the northeast and increased. Gusts were well over 30. We spent the afternoon, cleaning up the boat, doing laundry, taking on domestic water, getting fuel, and taking showers. As I write this, we are being heeled by the wind gusts. We’re trying to watch a little TV, but the digital signal keeps going out. Looks like we will have a sleepless evening if the wind does not lay down.

Actually, if the wind doesn’t lay down a little, we will have a tough time getting out of the slip and out into the river tomorrow morning. Oh well, nothing we can do about it. We’ll just have to see what the morning has in store for us. Good Night All.

Location: Vero Beach




Day 28 - Nov 23, 2013
Well, we finally did it. Up at 0530, coffee, yogurt and breakfast bar and we were leaving the mooring field at 0645 hrs. Today’s planned destination is Melbourne where we usually anchor.

The sky is only partly cloudy and we can see the sun peeking through the clouds on the horizon. Looking like a good day. We manage to get in some motor sailing with the jib.

Around noon, we were approaching our destination when we checked the weather forecast. NWS has now issued a small craft advisory and a gale wind warning. The coming cold front looks like it might pack a wallop. Anchoring in Melbourne was now out of the picture. We continued on as lots of daylight was left.

I selected a couple of potential marinas for the evening and continued southward. We motor sailed on and off as direction of travel and wind direction allowed. As we approached the location of the last marina on my list, we made the decision to shoot for Vero Beach, another 30 miles away.

It was a squeaker, but we manage to arrive at the Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach about 20 minutes before sundown. Only one drawback, we timed our arrival with the swarming of the no-see-ums. Ouch!

We did a quick securing of the boat and equipment and then jumped down into the cabin to escape the bugs. We now had a new problem…80+ degree heat in the boat. Time to break out the electric fans.

Location: Vero Beach, FL. MM 949
Distance Traveled: 71 miles
Avg speed: 6.8 mph
Max speed: 7.7 mph


Day 27 - Nov 22, 2013
How is it we get up at 0530 and still can’t get underway before 0730. Another slow starting overcast day. We leave the marina and head south toward Ponce Inlet. Friday sure brings out the boating traffic. River is a busy with lots of fishing and power boats.

Tide coming in Ponce inlet keeps out speed down until we pass the inlet and then we get a boost. Past Ponce, we enter the Mosquito Lagoon. It’s a long, pretty boring stretch, but we do get to do a little motor sailing. We reach the haul over canal and enter the Indian River and motor sail some more. Winds are up a little and we move at a pretty good clip crossing the river. When we turn south we eventually lose the wind and it’s back to motoring.

I am beat, so when we approach Titusville, I contact the marina and secure us a mooring ball for the evening. We pick up the ball, secure the boat and call it a cruising day at 1500 hrs. I prepared the boat for a quick start in the morning while Donna prepared the all important happy hour accoutrements.
Later after dinner, Donna watched some TV and yours truly dosed off.

Location Titusville, FL
Distance Traveled: 48 miles
Avg speed: 6.3 mph
Max speed: 8.2 mph.
Day 26 - Nov 21, 2013

The weather guessers got it wrong again. It was supposed to start off overcast with a small chance of showers mid morning, another small chance mid afternoon, clearing and sunny by around 4PM. Well it started off overcast, started raining and got worse from there. The one good thing I could say was at least it wasn’t cold. Oh, wait, that’s coming on Sunday.

Not much to tell about the day. We did see what looked like an incident of texting while boating. A sailboat just ahead of us was all over the channel and really hugged some of the marks very close. He was headed to the green side and appeared to be getting close to a mark. Next thing I know the boat hits the mark. It was a glancing blow, but I’m sure the helmsman never even saw the mark. Later the same guy was headed outside the channel so I gave him a couple of blasts on the air horn. That got his attention and he corrected course. I think he was either falling asleep or texting on his phone.

As we neared Daytona, the rain intensity increased and visibility dropped. Thankfully, we had decided to stop for the day. We pulled into Halifax Harbor and got drowned while docking. So much for clearing and sunny.

Oh Crap! We just had a bat fly into and around and around in the cabin. Donna was going berserk! We kept ducking and it finally flew back out the companionway. I think it’s time to close the boat up.

Location: Halifax Harbor, Daytona, FL. MM 832
Distance Traveled: 54.2 miles
Avg Speed: 6.9 mph
Max Speed: 9.2 mph
Day 25 - Nov 20, 2013

Don’t you hate it when the alarm clock goes off because you forgot to turn it off on the day when you can sleep in. Well that’s what happened at 0530 hrs, but we did go back to sleep for a couple of hours and then got up. Amazingly, the winds had died down to 5-6 mph and things were overcast, but still nice and relatively warm. It was going to be T-shirt and shorts kind of day. Yea.

We had time for a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, bagel and coffee. Then things got busy. First is was the pumpout boat coming by to empty the holding tank, then it was getting ready to go ashore. The free water taxi to shore showed up promptly at 1000 hrs and we were ashore in in another 10 minutes.

We visited the tourista shops and walked some of the historic areas.



Light showers settled in, but we decided not to let them ruin the day. Next, we walked about a half mile to the San Sebastian Winery where we took the tour and participated in their wine tasting. Nothing exciting, but it was interesting. On the way back to the marina, we stopped in at Pizza Alley for a garbage pizza and a couple of brews. We called it a late lunch. (That means no need for dinner).

Back at the marina we waited in the boaters lounge and chatted with other cruisers until time to catch the water taxi. Really gloomy skies all around on the way back to the boat. Hope this mess blows out overnight.

Well that’s about it for the day in St Augustine. The journey continues tomorrow.

Location: St Augustine, FL. MM778
Day 24 - Nov 19, 2013
 
After a blustery night, the wind and current had us pinned firmly to the dock. Getting underway about 0745 hrs required some help from the marina staff to push the bow out as I used engine, transmission and rudder action to clear the dock. That same current now became an asset as we proceeded south.

Once we cleared Kingsley Creek we rolled out the jib. The combined engine, tidal current, and northerly winds gave us great speeds. We saw speeds of 10.4 mph as we passed the B.B. McCormick bridge. Our timing with the tidal currents the remainder of the day was nothing short of phenomenal. We never had opposing current until we turned the corner to enter the St Augustine channel where we rolled in the jib.

We took a mooring ball at the St Augustine Municipal Marina. We must have doing something right this day. With 17+ wind and chop, Donna took the helm and guided us slowly toward the buoy. I was able to grab the mooring pendant and attach our lines on the first attempt. Boy, what a feeling of relief washes over you when you are securely tied to the ball. The wind and wave action just seem to fade into the background and become inconsequential. Whew! Secure at 1645 hrs. What a day!

Tomorrow we will visit the city.

Wednesday Morning. What a difference!




Location: St Augustine
Distance Traveled: 62.2 miles
Avg Speed: 7.6 mph
Max Speed: 10.6 mph
Day 23 - Nov 18, 2013
Beginning to sound like a broken record…FOG. Up at 0530, checked conditions outside the boat, found dense fog so I climbed back in the bunk and went back to sleep. I awoke when something bumped the boat around 0700. I got up and checked outside and found the newspaper and two muffins had been delivered to the cockpit. A quick brew of coffee and breakfast was served.


By the time we finished the muffins, the fog was beginning to thin out a little so we started getting ready to depart. We got underway about 0830 and headed for the dreaded Jekyll Creek. We arrived at the creek just a little after high tide so passage was not as stressful as anticipated. Skinny water at G19 would have been extremely difficult to negotiate had it been low tide.

Leaving the creek we headed out into Jekyll and St Andrews Sounds. St Andrews was kind to us today. Current was going out and the wind was from the NW so the wave action was minimal. When we reached the turn for the Cumberland River we began a long fight against the current rushing toward the ocean. We did not pickup favorable current until we neared the Kings Bay Navy Base. We did see two of the wild horses on the island.


Approaching Kings Bay, we started getting a few showers and increased wind from the SW. The weather forecast was now calling for 20+ mph winds tonight so we decided to forgo anchoring off Cumberland Island. It’s a nice anchorage in settled conditions, but is totally exposed in all directions. We continued on in hopes of getting a mooring ball at Fernandina.

The showers increased in intensity and the wind piped up considerably. A phone call revealed there were no mooring balls left at Fernandina so we took a slip because of the predicted weather. We're finally in FL.

Location: Fernandina, FL. MM 717
Distance Traveled: 42 miles
Avg Speed: 6.2 mph
Max Speed: 9.0 mph
Day 21 - Nov 16, 2013
I should not have used the word "progress" in yesterdays blog entry. We awoke this AM to the dreaded “F” word. FOG. I couldn’t see the other boats near us, I couldn’t even see the banks and marsh grass of the river banks.

No one was going anywhere until this stuff burned off. When The fog finally did lift enough to see where you were going, we had already missed our tide window to pass through Little Mud River. We made the day of it puttzing on the boat. We’ll try it again tomorrow.

Location: North River, GA. MM 651 (Near Darien, GA)
Distance Traveled: Zero miles


Day 22 - Nov 17, 2013
 
We awoke to the same Foggy conditions this am. Today however, the fog lifted about 0900 hours and we got underway about 0910. Tide at the trouble spot was still high and just beginning to fall. We made it through with the usual near heart stopping moments.

On through Buttermilk Sound and the Mackay River we went.

As we approached Lanier Island, I decided we could make it to Jekyll Island and pushed on. As we neared St Simons Sound I could see a large rather dense Fog bank rolling inward from the ocean. A change of plan was in order. We had already passed all the suitable anchorages except the one at Lanier Island. The choice was the anchorage or take a slip at Morning Star Marina (old Golden Isle Marina). We needed to do laundry and I really needed a good nights sleep, so we opted to get a slip.

Location: Morning Star Marina, Lanier, GA. MM 677
Distance Traveled: 26 miles.
Day 20 - Nov 15, 2013
We get underway about 0720 hrs. We are shooting for another anchorage to setup the timing another trouble spot, Little Mud River. Nothing noteworthy about the day, except we arrive at the North River to anchor and find 4 boats already there. We proceed further up river to a second prospective anchorage and find 2 more boats already there. There is room for us so we drop the hook and make preparations for passage through yet another GA trouble spot tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we can make better progress.

Location: North River, GA. MM 651 (Near Darien, GA)
Distance Traveled: 37.2 miles
Day 19 - Nov 14, 2013
Rewind and replay time. Today we revisited the 6 mile section we back tracked three days ago. The storm that caused us to seek shelter has finally moved on. Temperatures are still at record lows. This morning the temp was 33F with northerly winds making it seem even cooler.

We get underway about 1100 hrs. Timing the Hell Gate trouble spot …again. The tide at Isle of Hope was at dead low and we had to transit some extremely low water for about an hour before reaching the Vernon River. We arrived at Hell Gate just after 1300 hrs when the tide was only about 1 hour past low. We delayed entry and allowed four trawlers to proceed ahead of us. We waited until they completed passage and then entered the cut. Water depth was tolerable until we reached the turn in the cut. Water depths dropped to less than 5 feet. We were able to throttle back and “search” our way through.

Once through Hell Gate we picked up speed for a while. We were running ahead of schedule so we bypassed the designated anchorage for today. We were able to continue on to Kilkenny Creek, the last anchorage in the area. We turned off the ICW and motored over two miles up the creek, past the shrimp boat docks and arrived at our anchorage for the night. We are now where we should have been 3 nights ago. Maybe tomorrow we can make better progress.

Location: Kilkenny Creek, GA. MM 614
Distance Traveled: 27.2 miles
Avg speed: 5.2 mph
Max speed: 7.9 mph

Day 18 - Nov 13, 2013
What a sleepless night. Winds were reported to be gusting 36 mph in Savannah, so I'm sure they were gusting a little higher here at Isle of Hope. The real bad thing was we were starboard side to the floating face dock and the wind was on our port quarter. That meant we were being pushed back and forth against the dock in the wind gusts. Thankfully the bumpers took the brunt, but they creaked and groaned all night. Combined with the wind howling in the rigging, it was not pleasant. The only plus in all the racket was the slip wasn't going anywhere, more importantly neither was Ninkasi.

I got up and went outside twice during the night. Once to tighten the lines securing the dinghy in the davits, and the second time to adjust the stern line to ease pressure on the bumpers. Jeez, was it cold. Chill factor to the max. I made hot chocolate after the first trip outside since it was only near 11PM.  After the second trip, I just jumped back into the sleeping bag and just shivered until I warmed up.

I awoke around 0630 and made coffee. Thank goodness we have shore power and the electric heater. Temperature in the boat was 53F and 36F outside according to the TV news. I put the heater on High and it was almost 70F in the boat when Donna got up about 0800.

I had no plans for the day, but Donna had reserved the loaner car for a trip to an arts supply store and Wal-Mart. We were both successful carrying out our the plans. The sun came out, but the temperature never got above 50F. The little heater is getting a workout.

Location: Still at Isle of Hope Marina, GA
Day 17 - Nov 12, 2013
Well, its one step forward yesterday and two back today. We were planning to time the tides for passage at the Hell Gate trouble spot and then move to an anchorage in a nearby creek. But, it seems mother nature had other plans. We are now expecting 40 mph winds tonight. In this area of GA it is definitely not the place to be on a hook, especially in those kind of winds. There is only one marina on the other side of Hell Gate, so we called to see if we could get a slip. We are informed the marina will not allow any boats on their pier with the direction and intensity of winds predicted. Yikes!

Rather than proceed onward, I called a marina we passed yesterday and was able to secure a slip. This place has floating concrete docks and is better protected than the other marina or being anchored anywhere nearby. So we back track 6+ miles to Isle of Hope Marina.

We get underway about 1000 hrs, buck the tide a little and arrive at Isle of Hope marina around noon. We take on fuel, do a pump out, and get secured to the dock. The dock hand told us we were lucky we called and reserved a slip when we did. They were now fully booked and had a waiting list for slips. Bad weather is definitely good for business.

I spent the afternoon, filling the water tank, washing the boat and generally straightening the boat. Worked up a sweat, changed into a T-shirt, shorts and sandals and enjoyed the 74 degree, sunny afternoon. I would never believe it will be low 30s and blowing like heck in less than 12 hours.

Decided to take a shower after all that work. When I came out of the shower, you could already feel things cooling down. I'm back into jeans and a sweatshirt again. It's going to be a blustery cold night.

Location: Isle of Hope Marina, GA. MM 590
Distance Traveled: - 6.0 Miles



Day 15 - Nov 10, 2013
We have a leisurely morning and get underway about 1000 hrs. It was a quick run to Fields Cut and the first section of the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff. The NE and SW ends of the second section were the trouble spots that required timing. We made it through with minimal stress.

We arrived at Beaufort SC and were delayed a little waiting for an opening of the Ladies Island Bridge and transiting the highly enforced no wake zone that goes on for a couple of miles.

We arrived at our anchoring destination in Battery Creek and dropped the hook at 1550 hours.
All-in-all, a pretty nice day.

Start: 1000 South Edisto River
Stop: 1535 Battery Creek, Port Royal, MM 542
Distance Traveled: 33 Statute miles
Avg Speed: 5.6 MPH
Max Speed: 8.2 MPH
 

Day 16 - Nov 11, 2013
We got an early start today hoping to time passage at another trouble spot. We get a boost from tides and made better time than expected. We had to poke along for a while to enable passage through Fields Cut. Again, the NE and SW ends of the cut provided the most stress. I'm still stressed about the driveline vibration as it seems to be getting worse.

As we exited the cut, we crossed the Savannah River and entered Georgia. We had a reservation at Thunderbolt Marina, but decided to cancel it and continue on. The sun came out and began to warm things up. It felt soooo good. On we went, past Isle of Hope, Skidaway and then we started bucking lots of current and our speed dropped significantly. We had another trouble spot to time and no anchorages nearby we could reach before dark. We opted to stop for the day at an anchorage noted on the map as Beaulieu on the Vernon River.

We dropped the hook about 1530 hrs in front of lovely homes with riverside docks. In the distance we could see a large antenna of some type. We enjoyed the sight of its flashing red lights helping us to verify our anchor was holding all night.

Start: 0645 Battery Creek, Port Royal
Stop: 1530 Beaulieu, GA on the Vernon River, MM 596
Distance Traveled: 58 Statute miles
Avg Speed: 5.5 MPH
Max Speed: 8.9 MPH
Day 13 - Nov 8, 2013
We slept in today. No real plans except a trip to the marina showers. Donna watched a little morning TV while I tinkered with the computer.

After showers we decided to head downtown to the Harris Teeter for a few groceries. We opted to take advantage of the marina’s courtesy van and while talking to one of the staff found out they would drop us off just about anywhere in the downtown area. Super! A change of destination and we were off to our favorite quirky pizza place, The Mellow Mushroom. The House Special pizza and a pitcher of a Belgian IPA was a fabulous lunch.

After lunch we walked to the Harris Teeter. The half mile stroll took a little while with several stops to window shop and admire some of the old building architecture. At the Harris we tried to stick strictly to our shopping list. It was tough, but I’d give us a B+ for our efforts. The courtesy van picked us up and took us back to the marina.

 
A quiet cobblestone street in Charleston


The remainder of the day was spent prepping the boat to move on tomorrow.

Location: Ashley Marina, Charleston, MM 469
Day 12 - Nov 7, 2013
Well, the plan for today went bust from the get-go. The plan was to start a little later, stop at an anchorage just before The Isle of Palms and be staged to arrive in Charleston early on Friday.

Instead, we got a much later than usual start. Next, I didn’t like the anchorage. It was one of those places with little or no protection from the wind and very, very deep. Getting to the anchorage I found 80 to 96 feet deep holes. Heck, that kind of depth is hard to find in the Chesapeake. The best spot I found still had 36 feet of water. Using sufficient scope would mean I would have more chain and rope out than the width of the creek. So I decided to continue on to Charleston.

We arrived and docked at the Ashley Marina at 1530 hrs. A couple of beers and chips and it was time for a nap. Tomorrow we’ll visit the town.

Location: Ashley Marina, Charleston, MM 469
Distance Traveled: 34 Statute Miles
Avg Speed: 5.5 MPH



Day 11 - Nov 6, 2013

Awoke a little later to a beautiful morning with warmer temperatures. Got the coffee going and fiddled with the phone/internet trying once more to update the blog. No luck again. We can get a 3G signal, but every time we try to connect, the signal switches to a 1X connection and then bombs out on the internet connection. Bummer!

We finally get underway about 0650 hrs. We get back into the Waccamaw River and head south toward Georgetown. We catch some of the outgoing tide and get a boost for a while. That doesn’t last and then we are bucking the current and making only 5 MPH. There is lots of floating vegetation and other junk floating in the river. Some of it is visible and some of it is partially or totally submerged. We avoid what we can see, but we whacked something good with the prop. Not sure if it is just my imagination, but we seem to  have a vibration in the driveline that wasn't there before.


As we leave the Waccamaw we are able to motor sail and regain some speed. We motor sail all the way to the Esterville Minim canal. We continue on past the North and South Santeee Rivers and head toward McClellanville. We arrive at the shallow trouble spot right at the bottom of the tide. We poke along for a couple miles running in water between 4-6’ deep. Real nail biting stuff. Could not find enough water to head into our destination anchorage so we proceeded on. Another couple of miles and we had 9-10’ of water.

We continued on to the next anchorage at Awendaw Creek. We have used this anchorage before. It’s unprotected from winds from all directions and has a ripping tidal change of 6’. We anchored at low tide and have 13.5 feet of water under the boat. At 2300 tonight we will have approximately 20’ of water.

Location: Awendaw Creek, 34 miles north of Charleston, MM 435
Distance Traveled: 61 Statute Miles
Avg Speed: 6.3 MPH
Start: 0650 hrs
Stop: 1625 hrs
Day 7 - Nov 2, 2013
An uneventful run from Morehead City to Mile Hammock Bay. There were a few sprinkles and some reduced visibility. There were 9 boats in the anchorage when we arrived. Two others joined later for a total of 12 as the sunset. Things were fairly quiet overnight except for a wind shift sometime around 0200 hrs.

Location: Mile Hammock Bay, MM 245
Distance Traveled: 41.5 Statute Miles
Avg Speed: 6.3 MPH


Day 8 - Nov 3, 2013
 
Only one incident observed in the run from Mile Hammock to Carolina Beach. Northerly winds and strong current fouled up the timing of a couple of bridge openings at Figure 8 Island and Wrightsville. We had to jockey around for about 40 minutes while waiting to pass through Wrightsville Beach Bridge. As usual, one sailboat ran aground at the shoals just before the bridge. He was a lucky one and was able to unground himself and still make the bridge opening.

We took a mooring ball at Carolina Beach. The wind seems to rip through the anchorage/mooring field. The $20 flat fee mooring is worth the piece of mind. I did get up in the middle of the night and double up on our lines to the mooring ball pennant. Went back to bed sensing I had added to our security.

Location: Carolina Beach Mooring Field, MM295
Distance Traveled: 52.1 Statute Miles
Avg Speed: 5.9 MPH
Start: 0645 hrs
Stop: 1520 hrs


Day 9 - Nov 4, 2013
 
Slept late this AM. Need to time the run down the Cape Fear River today. This means we should not leave the mooring field until at least 0830 hrs. The run down Snow’s Cut to the river was speedy and then we ran slam into the “washing machine”. An ebbing tide and northerly winds had the river really churned up. It was like putting a little paper boat in a washing machine. It was a lumpy but reasonably speedy run down to Southport. At Southport we ran into the current roaring out of the ICW toward the inlet.

We trudged on and decided to stop at St. James Marina at Mile Marker 315.

We needed to do laundry, refuel and take on water. The facility was recommended by other cruisers and it certainly lived up to their reviews. A great place and attentive staff.

Location: St James Marina, near Southport NC, MM 315
Distance Traveled: 20 Statute Miles


Day 10 - Nov 5, 2013
 
First hiccup in the day plan. It’s really nasty overcast and sprinkling. No predawn moving in this mess. We finally got underway at 0622 hrs.

Out in the ICW, we managed to take advantage of the current to arrive at Lockwoods Folly Inlet a little before high tide. Following tips from cruisersnet.net we negotiate our way through with no problems. One trouble spot down, one more to go.

We arrived at Shallotte Inlet at the top of the tide and again following cruisersnet.net tips we successfully passed through the inlet. Two down, none to go for the day.

We continued on to the Little River Inlet, Myrtle Beach, into the Waccamaw River and our destination oxbow anchorage.

Location: Waccamaw River, South of Myrtle Beach, MM 374.1
Distance Traveled: 61 Statute Miles
Avg Speed: 6.4 MPH
Start: 0622 hrs
Stop: 1545 hrs

 
Day 6 - Nov 1, 2013
We awoke to a small sailboat dragging anchor across the channel and heading toward the Municipal Docks. Towboat US appeared out of nowhere, took the boat in tow and put it into a slip two over from ours.

We stayed in port today. The approaching cold front was expected to be here by 2100 hrs tonight and blown out by 0700 Saturday morning. Latest prediction say everything is delayed so we’ll have to wait and see.

We took a walk around town at midday and found our favorite bakery has closed up. Sign says they have moved somewhere? Moving on we visited a local book/gift shop and then had lunch at the Ruddy Duck Tavern. The temperature was so mild we got seating outside on the deck facing Sugarloaf Island. Lunch was a shared Wahoo Bites and French Fries plus we both had a cup of Clam Chowder. All were very good. We also sampled Hoppyum, an India Pale Ale from Foothills Brewing. Splitting a very good homemade Banana Cream Pie topped off an excellent dining experience.

After lunch, Donna visited some galleries and craft studios. I returned to the boat to install some additional lines and adjust the existing ones in anticipation of the front. I finally managed to get the boat positioned so the bumpers were no longer creaking against the hull and dock. Trying to reduce the infernal slapping of water against the stern was a lost cause effort.

Enough for today.

Location: Morehead City Docks, Morehead NC, Mile Marker 204
Distance Traveled: ZERO Statute Miles