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CHARLESTON BOUND

10/30/2014

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Posted by Monty
Finally able to take some time to post.  We have either had no cell service or have been too busy/exhausted to do so.
We left Carolina Beach State Park and had an easy jaunt down the Cape Fear River to Southport, where we stayed at another marina.  We refueled and then met up with my dad.  Went to his house where my stepmother cooked up a dinner that was excellent.  Back to the boat and an early night.

The next day saw a run to Light Keepers Marina at Little River, SC. 
We then met up with dad again for dinner at Poo’s (sounds bad but tastes good).  Another meal that couldn’t be beat.

The next morning was our first time transiting the famous “rockpile”, the section of the waterway that runs behind the Grand Strand beaches in SC.  It is notorious for sinking the boat of many a careless or even momentarily distracted skipper.  Suffice it to say that Carol made sure I was not distracted, and I managed to not rip the bottom out of Sea Bird.  It was pretty cool to have another perspective of all the bridges across the waterway that I have driven over through the years.  It looks totally different from below.

We then traveled down the Waccamaw River, stopping at a marina to pump out the holding tank.  The last two marinas we stayed had broken pump out stations or pump out boats “on call” that could not be found.  We were planning to spend the next several days at anchor, so we stopped for that express purpose.  While we were there, we bought some of their famous homemade sausage.

We then anchored in Cow House Creek.  Beautiful place.  As we had been “on the move” for three days in a row (!), we decided before we went to bed to spend another night.  As it turns out, our friends Earle and Linda were at their beach house in Murrells Inlet and were not more than five miles from the marina across the waterway from our anchorage.  We met them and dinghyed them out to the boat for a visit.  Linda kindly refrained from falling in, as is her lot in life whenever she is on any floating craft.  My friend Rob joined us for dinner at The Dead Dog. Earle kindly provided red and green glow sticks to replace the nonexistent running lights on the dinghy, thereby surely saving us from either being run down by a trawler on the way back to the boat in the dark, or at least a hefty fine.

Leaving the next morning, we anchored in Minim Creek in North Santee for a quiet night.  Secluded spot with just one other boat that came after us and left before us the next morning.  Carol cooked up some pasta with the sausage, which was very good.

Today finds us at mile marker 450 in an anchorage just off the channel in ten feet of water.  We have minimum cell service, so I am able to get this posted.  Pictures will have to follow tomorrow, where we plan to spend a few days at a marina in downtown Charleston with Wi-Fi.  There is a spot of cold weather and nasty wind forecast, and we need to do a couple of things to the boat, especially as we are considering taking the offshore route around Georgia to Florida.  We’ll see.  Also, I never get tired of exploring Charleston. 

Carol fishes every day.  Waccamaw River turned out to be more fresh water, which she did not have bait for.  No luck at all until today, she has caught more fish here than all of her previous sessions since we left Oriental.  She is a happy camper, but still nothing big enough to put on my plate.

So Far:

…the boat has performed almost flawlessly.  The only issue is the diesel keeps moving the throttle back toward idle after I set it where I want.  This only happens for about the first thirty minutes of running, and is probably just a cable adjustment.  This is on the slate while we are docked in Charleston.  While I am enough of a realist to know that this will not last forever, I am happy to this point.

…the crew is healthy and operating within expected norms, given the approaching cold weather and the fact that I sold this adventure on warm weather and clear water in the winter.  So far neither of those have appeared on Carol’s radar.

…the weather has been good, considering the lateness of the year.  No late hurricanes have formed.

All in all, life is good.

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SLOWING DOWN

10/24/2014

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Posted by Monty
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I should check the anchor.  Then I remembered we were tied to a dock in Carolina Beach State Park until the morning, when we planned to resume our journey.  Carol was resting after her stressful day when her anchorage was not accessible by the route she had charted the previous day (turns out we could have still reached it by using an alternate route and backtracking a bit).  No problem, we spoke to a fellow cruiser who was going to this park (of which we were unaware) and graciously allowed us to follow them in.  It turns out to be a great place with showers, a laundry, nearby grocery and miles of hiking trails through woods and wetlands. 

Turns out the fellow cruiser is one whose blog we have followed for a couple of years while we hatched this harebrained scheme.  We have taken much inspiration from their adventures.  We recognized their boat beside us at Mile Hammock Bay on the second night.  They left before we did the next morning (probably to time a bridge opening) and we caught up with them and a few other boats at another bridge while waiting for it to open.  They have been doing this for years, we have been doing this for days.  They kindly invited us to their cockpit and answered our questions patiently.  Good people.  If everyone out here is this friendly and helpful, we will be fine.

So back to my late night musings.

It occurred to me that the goal here is not to get the boat south so quickly that we miss too much along the way.  It’s a sailboat, after all, and therefore more about the journey than the destination.  So I decided, in the middle of the night, to stay an extra day in this lovely place.  I informed Carol the next morning, and she agreed. 

We walked to the grocery for provisions, did some chart plotting together, and washed some clothes.  We have had a great time walking the trails, looking at wildlife, flora and fauna native to this part of the globe.  Tomorrow we will get moving again.

And that is soon enough.

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ON THE WAY...

10/23/2014

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Posted by Monty
We left Point Marina around 10:00am, with an impromptu bon voyage crowd of local inhabitants and dock mates. Some had the perspective of having traveled the waterway before, others wished they were going with us.  All had good advice and encouraging words, and wished us well.  We have been here long enough to see all four seasons, and it is a little hard to leave Pamlico County.  We have had nothing but good experiences here, and met many fine people.

After an easy motor down the Neuse River into Adams Creek, we anchored off Sugarloaf Island, near Atlantic Beach.  This was all familiar territory, so it wasn’t too stressful.  The weather was good, although a bit cold in the wind.  And we are in the wind.  And the weather.

We have anchored here before (see our previous post on the trip to Cape Lookout), and I am aware of the current that flows through this area.  I put out 60’ of chain in 10’ of water, so I went to bed pretty sure we would be in the same place when I got up, despite the tide change that would swing us through 180 degrees during the night.

About 1:00 am, I heard a terrific wind noise.  I went up on deck, and was treated to a wall of wind and rain that totally obscured the island, less than a quarter mile away.  In addition, the wind was blowing us in the same direction as the two knot current that already had the anchor chain stretched out, adding to the strain.  The wind calmed after about fifteen minutes, and I went back below after verifying we were not being blown into the turning basin for the port.

The forecast called for a twenty percent chance of rain.  Did I mention that we are IN the weather?  It’s becoming clear that I should have studied meteorology.  Maybe even micro-meteorology.

The next day we up anchored at 8:00.  We had scheduled a relatively (we thought) easy day, culminating at an anchorage in a place called Mile Hammock Bay.  This is directly off of the waterway at Camp Lejeune Marine base.  It is perfectly fine to anchor there, but going ashore is prohibited.  The closer we got, the more helicopters, Ospreys (the Marine kind, not the marine kind) and fighter aircraft we saw.  They basically put on an air show exclusively for us.

This passage included our first swinging bridge, at Onslow Beach.  It opens on the hour and half hour, so boat traffic stacks up.  It also pays to arrive at opening time, so you don’t have to wait around.  Also, if you are late, they don’t care.

We almost ran aground in practically the middle of the unmarked channel, when I let my attention wander from the electronics.  Actually we did bump the ground.  I like to think I was just crushing crabs.  We did pass a boat that was hard aground.  He was waiting for the tide to come back in so the tow boat could get to him.

We also avoided another potential mishap when the navigator mistook a channel on the port side for the turn into Mile Hammock Bay.  The error was rectified by rotating the chart through 180 degrees, thereby rebooting the navigator’s brain.  The turn to starboard was made about a mile further down.

We anchored, and then pulled up the anchor and anchored again, after I checked the wind forecast and found that we were due another 180 degree wind shift.  (Of course, this wind shift was due to occur around midnight.)  Our original location would have us swinging too close to shore to suit me.  Surprisingly, after anchoring in the deserted anchorage, I found I was tired.  Basically I did no physical activity, but the mental and the stress had taken its toll. 
About an hour later, the fleet began to arrive.  First one boat, then groups of two and three came in.  Each found their spot, but as the anchorage got more and more crowded, it got harder for the latecomers to squeeze in.  Squeeze they did, and soon there were probably twenty boats, all within stone’s throw of each other. 

We grilled a potato, squash and onions and a kielbasa for dinner.  I was worried that the wind shift would wreak havoc on everyone’s anchors.  Already exhausted, I retired around 8:00.  Carol stayed up on anchor watch.  Around 11:00, I woke up to greatly diminished wind noise.  I went back to sleep knowing that when the wind picked back up, it would be from a different direction.  About 12:30, the wind filled back in.  I popped up on deck and decided that these people had done this before, as all seemed to be working itself out.  Back below to sleep, with only one more look around 2:00am to satisfy myself.

This morning I was in slow start mode.  After sleeping in shifts I felt fine, just could not get going very fast.  Time kept slipping away, and pretty soon it was 9:00, and we were ready to go.  That would put us at our destination later than I liked, and with no recourse if something happened to delay us.  I didn’t like that, so the decision was made to stay here for a day of rest.  After all, we are on no one’s schedule, and the wind is forecasted to ease a little tomorrow afternoon. 

We spent the day reading, updating this blog, catching up on social media (a friend is about to add a grandchild, congratulations) and resting.  Carol started a nap in the cockpit and finished it in the berth.  I watched some more of the free air show and listened to the Marines deliver ordinance to target. (And hoped no one missed.)  All the boats save one other left, and now the anchorage is filling up again.  I cranked out another twenty feet of anchor chain, and the wind in forecasted to remain from the same direction all night, so no resetting of the anchor should be involved. 


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READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME!

10/19/2014

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Posted by Monty
"At some point, you have to shoot the engineers and start production."

I believe this quote to belong to Gene Driscoll, a colleague from my days at Desoutter when I was in the business of selling pneumatic tools.  It's basically where we are today.

Is everything done?  No.  Are we as prepared as we could be for this endeavor?  No.  Are we ready mentally and physically?  Definitely no.

But...the low tonight is going to be 44 degrees.  The wind blew from the northwest today to the tune of 20 with gusts to 30.  I remember last winter in this marina when we saw lows of 14 degrees.  And I think, just maybe, we are ready enough.  So...it's time to start production.

We are leaving in the morning, stopping for fuel at River Dunes and making what should be an easy run down Adams Creek to Morehead City, where we plan to anchor off of Sugarloaf Island near Atlantic Beach, where we anchored on our trip to Cape Lookout.  Should be familiar territory. 

We spent our last day doing final preparations and saying goodbye.  We couldn't get around to everyone, and made some new friends in the process.  I am going to miss this place. 
Picture
Sea Bird's final sunset in Point Marina
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BACK FROM THE LAND OF EVERYTHING

10/16/2014

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Posted by Monty
We returned Sunday from the cruise upon the NCL Breakaway.  It was the land of everything and anything.  Want it? They've got it.  In spades, with no worries about how much electricity or fuel it takes.  No problem, just enjoy your iced libation beside the pool while we navigate your way to the beach.
It was fun, and the son and his bride became, officially, a brand new family while on board.  We enjoyed the time and were happy they wanted us to be there.

After a whirlwind trip back to Concord, we returned yesterday to Sea Bird, the land of possibilities.  For although the big ship was nice, they never once asked me if I wanted to deviate from the path to explore a new island, or stay another day in an ideal spot.  Those things become possible, now that I am back in my little world.  I like that, too.

We are cleaning up a few projects and provisioning the boat to leave.  Possibly Sunday, more likely Monday.  That's something else the big boys can't do, change the departure time.
We went today to say our final farewell to Vadim and Kat.  They are leaving in the morning, first stop Florida, then to foreign shores.  Fair winds.

I'm selling the possessed Mercury. 
Picture
The night before we leave for New Jersey, Carol pens an encouraging letter to someone who is feeling low. She's always thinking of someone else.
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