10/08/2012 => Beaufort, NC…but really
Morehead.
The beauty of
not having an agenda: can change your
mind/course at will. Again, we thought
to go to Beaufort, NC (wild horses across
the anchorage got me!) but … We crossed the bay out of Oriental in strong
winds and huge swells! Salty and I went
below, as Mike figured we would be entering another canal as soon as we crossed
and all would be calm again! He did a
wonderful job on navigating the rough water though! High winds from this particular direction make
anchoring off Beaufort very uncomfortable, so we switched up to its sister
city, Morehead for cheaper dockage. If
you ever have been to Ocean City, MD then you can “see” what Morehead, NC is
like! After showers, we walked the town (quite
some distance) passing a pizza place.
As it was windy and drizzly, we decided to treat ourselves to a pizza
that night. Sigh. I really miss NYC’s pizza! It was good, but …just missing
something! When we came back to the
dock, there was a 60’ iron hulled ketch docked next to us: its crew standing on
deck. All men in their late 20’s, early
30’s (oh, helloooo), slightly
scruffy, and with accents! We meet the
owner of this old monster: a guy from Gloucester
MA heading down to St Martin with this tank to open boat bar. His friends (some Irish dudes and a couple Bostonians) were helping to make the
run with him; the ocean was rough, so they came into port. I may have missed out on seeing wild horses
across from the boat, but these guys were a nice alternative! And hey, before you go thinking I am a
horrible person, I have been surrounded by old creepy men (and Mike) for 6 weeks, ha!
Pic of me this time, for wendy:)
We needed to
catch the right tide in the morning, which would not be until “late”. We planned on leaving around 0900, which
meant if I wanted to run and shower, I would be up super early…
10/09/2012 => Military Basin Anchorage
Post run and
shower, we attempted to set off. Unfortunately
that tide we wanted to catch was strong enough to push the boat back…and into
the ketch. I managed to retie her just
before she hit, thank the lawd! The
lovely men aboard the ketch came out to help push us clear (I think Mike was half grateful and half pride
prickling, ha!). Once we were back
on the ICW trail, the winds were more…freezing!
Between the wet weather and the cold North winds, all three of us were
shivering! I broke out the
hat/gloves/scarves and blankets on deck.
Freezing on deck!
Tonight at
anchorage, Miles Hammock Bay, there would be NO rowing ashore for Salty: this is an active military base! Instead, we stopped at a small marina for
fuel, let her run around for awhile and headed off again. Once we were in the bay, we saw 4 other boats
at anchor: 2 we have seen before ‘Kissemet and WindAway. We don’t know the owners, but have
passed/been passed by them many times.
The fog rolled in early that night, coating everything with a fine, cold
mist (joy..)
10/10/2012 => Wrightsville Beach, NC
0630: leaving our anchorage in the basin. I notice more boats came in overnight
too! We had a medium length day ahead of
us, with light at the end of the tunnel being a BEACH! The sun was shining, winds were warmer, all
was right in the world; minus the cold wet feeling of the previous night’s fog. We had a series of bridges to catch that
morning, hence us leaving so early! We
were passed by our fellow anchorage buddies, just enough that we could see
their masts still in the distance. The
first bridge, Surf City Swing Bridge, opens only every hour on demand. We could see it, could hear the other boats
hailing an opening…and then the bridge tender hailed us! We were surprised, as we assumed we would be
waiting for the next opening…not to mention that he couldn’t see our boats name
from that distance! He asked us our
eta: according to our chart plotter is
was 1007, 7 minutes after his opening. He
said he would try to get us through, but we would have to hurry…so we did! We could see the bridge delaying opening
until 1005! We made it through, the last
of the boats! We didn’t realize how many
other boats went through before us (meaning
they had to wait for our slow butts)
4 large cabin cruiser/trawlers, 4 sails.
Whoops! But hey, at least one of
those boats must have radio’d the bridge that we were coming from way behind,
in order for them to know our name!
1121: They say along the ICW; ‘there are 2 kinds of
ICW travelers, people that run aground and liars.” Because we booked it to the Surf City Bridge,
we were caught up with the rest of the boats, which proves a blessing! We could hear the radio flair to life: one of the trawlers had run aground,
hard! ICW is technically maintained by
the state and USGC, however with so many inlets, many shoals (sandbars) build up
quickly. There are known areas of
shoaling, these are called out on guides or even in ActiveCaptian.com. After hearing the trawler, I hoped onto
activecaptain, as none of our guides said anything…and got nothing. There is no information for this area. As we got closer, WindAway radioed back to us
that not only the area where the trawlers are is shoaled, but he too was
skimming by on the other side, for us to give the green can a wide berth, but
stay away from the shore line….great!
Mike sends me upfront to try and “see” our way through. I can see the shallow bar off of starboard
and the green can off the port. I hollered
back to mike to slow down, and to go a little towards port..and the green can…and
all came to a grinding halt! We went
from 15’ of water to 3’6. After the
jarring/scrapping sound, Mike throws the boat into reverse, but tide was
already taking the stern. We spin into
the shoal even more: we were wedged into
it hard. With the promise of the
incoming tide, we set up to find which side held more depth: we knew we would not move until high tide…or
have to call SeaTow to drag us out. Over
the radio, a French voice called out “Sailboat at green can, are us stuck?” The trawler who ran aground first was hailing
us! He had just gotten himself off the
bar up further! He asked if we wanted to
be pulled…so Mike accepted. This boat
seems really, really huge when it came right up to the bow! Apparently he was in 11’ of water only 4’ off
the starboard bow, ha! We attach our
lines, and he guns if backwards…we are jerked to the right, hearing the
scraping of the keel and haul. The boat
starts listing as its dragged! I grab
Salty and the closest cleat, holding on for dear life! The keel is making this horrible “thump,
thump” sound as it drags, sand picking up so much to turn the blue water brown.
Just when we are at a 25’ angle and I am pretty sure we are going over, she
breaks loose and flies back upright! We
are FREE!!!Mike hurry’s to get the lines from the boat, tells me to put it in
gear, and follow the trawler ASAP! My
arms and legs were still all jelly like as I motored after the traweler, sure
to keep up with him as he lead the way! But we survived our first grounding!
We had one more
hurtle: the Wrightsville Bridge. This bridge only opens every 60 minutes
(boo) with very strong currents,with the next opening at 1330. We were about an hour/hour and half away
from the bridge itself: it was just
passed 1200…Once again, as we saw the bridge, with 5 minutes to go to open, we
hailed them…he said he would try, then contacted all the southbound boats,
telling them to let the North Bound go through first, as there was a sail
coming down that wanted to make this bridge!
Ahahaha! We then got a hail from
one of the boaters “You and I, you better hurry up!”Guess they knew who was
coming!
We did make it,
the last boat through…and just as we were within seconds of clearing, the
bridge started to beep close! We hailed
our thanks to both the bridge, and those who waited for us! WindAway came back with “you sure are lucky
with those bridges today…not so much the sandbars though”. We got a good chuckle out of that.
We anchored at
Wrightsville Beach, NC basin around 1430…and we spotted our “waldo” on the way
in (pirate ship guy) and another ODay
Sailboat…looks just like us, but without the aft cabin! WindAway hailed us at anchor, asking about
the sandbar, etc. We offered to have
them over to our boat for drinks that night, which they agreed. I blew up the dinghy on the ride over, so
once we collected our beach stuff, we were off!
BEACH!!!!!!!!!! Before this trip, Mike promised me that most of our
anchorages would have sandy beaches to layout on, and every other day we would
be at a beach, where I could layout and read, play with Salty, etc…yea…that didn’t
happen! This is my first “beach” day
this whole trip; I was excited!
We got back to
the boat around 1730, hailed Windaway, and they planned on coming over by
1800: Bonnie and Phil are retired
cruisers, probably in their mid 60’s, but very young/healthy looking. We had a good time talking to them, and them
to us about our different takes on this ICW cruising, as well as how to prepare
for it.
BEACH!!!
We liked this
area, so decided to stay (its free afterall) for tomorrow as well.
10/11/2012 Wrightsville Beach, NC
When we went
into walk Salty last night, we had met our pirate friend at the dinghy
dock. He fortold (feel like I have use
pirate talk when referring to him) of a grocery store down yonder, about a mile
as the crow flies…and of 2 good bars that were really cheap in
Wrightsville. I looked up the grocery (Food Lion!!), its distance, and the fact
that there was a Starbucks right in the parking lot, happy day!!! We got up leisurely, rowed the mutt ashore
for her walk, broke out the bikes, rowed mutt back to the boat, came back and
off we go, ha! The ride was very nice,
even though it was on major roads! There
was plenty of room for bikes! I heard
the “hallelujah” chorus go off in my head upon spying that beautiful green
mermaid…The day was a little chilly, though sunny, with just a hint of
crispness to the air..which then equals perfect reasoning for my
indulgence: Skinny Pumpkin Spice
Latte! Sigh…it was soooo good. Sigh.
By the time we finished
grocery shopping (I broke down and bought
box wine…hanging head in shame) the weather had turned a bit warmer, enough
to sit on the beach! We biked back and
got the Salt for a beach walk! 
When we started
to row back for dinner, we stopped by the other ODay to talk them, ask if they
wanted to go grab a beer at the bar tonight:
the guy said they only had 10.00 to their name, so no…neither Mike or I was
sure what to say to that….
After dinner, we
rowed back ashore in search for pirate suggested cheap beer, and found it at
this dive called Red Dog. Some of their specials included a 24oz of PRB for
1.00…so needless to say, it was an amusing row back to get Salty out for her
walk….ha.
10/12/2012 => Carolina Beach, NC
We received a
lovely tip from WindAway about Carolina Beach:
the city had moorings for 20.00 a night, but you had to call in
advance. They gave us the number, we
reserved, and were off for our new destination by 0900. Carolina Beach is only about an hour sail
away, but we wanted to be able to take advantage of the day as much as
possible!
1120: we grab our mooring…and start to look for the
dinghy dock. Activecaptian.com showed it at the end of the channel, right in
the heart of the town. Unfortunaly, that was mad far away J.
As we were preparing all our stuff to take the long row ashore, up come
our pirate! He had left early that
morning and anchored up further from the moorings: he too is a rower. He confirmed the dinghy dock being really far
away, and to be careful when we row back:
the wind was set to change and make it for a really unpleasant ride
home.
The actual
boardwalk sits right on the dunes, only about 6’ wide with many built in
benches and palm trees. We walked up a
bit to be even with the dinghy area before setting ourselves on the beach. The wind was calm, the seas were warm, sun
was hot…it was wonderful! Even Salty
seemed to enjoy sitting under the umbrella and people watching! We stayed until 1730, when Salty decided she
had enough: a couple walked by us and Salty decided to scare the life out of
them by jumping up and running over…barking all scary dog like! I was embarrassed! I took this as her “I am done” mode.
We started our row back out...and it was my turn to take the oars (I volunteered to get the arm workout): so there we were, Salty, Mike, beach bag, blanket, towels, umbrella, and a 20lb bag of ice rowing slowly up the little harbor. We passed many people along the shore who were laughing at our spectical, however it was only one old man who had the guts to shout out "That there is a lucky son of a bitch! Look at him, he got it right"! Mike obviously thought this was hysterical!
About a 1/4 of the way out, Phil from WindAway spotted us from his dinghy; he had just come back from paying the dockmaster for the mooring and offered us a tow to the dockmaster! We didnt want to make him wait, so told him to leave us at the dockmaster's office, he already took out 1.2 our row for us! As we (I) started to again row back to the boat, we were flagged down by Kissemet in their dinghy! We have never actually met Kissemet before, but have been passing them/passed by/same anchorage, etc since Annapolis. We introduced ourselves, and they too offered the tow to our boat! WOOO! This is the easiest "row" I have ever had!
We started our row back out...and it was my turn to take the oars (I volunteered to get the arm workout): so there we were, Salty, Mike, beach bag, blanket, towels, umbrella, and a 20lb bag of ice rowing slowly up the little harbor. We passed many people along the shore who were laughing at our spectical, however it was only one old man who had the guts to shout out "That there is a lucky son of a bitch! Look at him, he got it right"! Mike obviously thought this was hysterical!
About a 1/4 of the way out, Phil from WindAway spotted us from his dinghy; he had just come back from paying the dockmaster for the mooring and offered us a tow to the dockmaster! We didnt want to make him wait, so told him to leave us at the dockmaster's office, he already took out 1.2 our row for us! As we (I) started to again row back to the boat, we were flagged down by Kissemet in their dinghy! We have never actually met Kissemet before, but have been passing them/passed by/same anchorage, etc since Annapolis. We introduced ourselves, and they too offered the tow to our boat! WOOO! This is the easiest "row" I have ever had!
We enjoyed
another gorgeous sunset that night! As
the night went on, the winds became more and more wild! Both of us were sooo happy to be at
mooring! Also, since Mike’s bathroom is
beyond stinky (honestly, its NOT his
fault…there is something wrong with the head!) I didn’t feel it was healthy
to sleep in there (really, it’s where
Salty sleeps too…), so I gave up my berth, salty and I would sleep on the
pullout. I think Mike has a new
understanding of why I don’t sleep at anchor:
from the v-berth you hear every little sound the lines make, the water
rushing by the bow, the wind howling through the sheets or mast, the creaking
of the boat, etc. I am relatively used
to it now, however, he is not! Haha!
Tomorrow is Cape
Fear River, where the current rivals that of the East River: if you aren’t going the way it is, you just
aren’t going…
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