July 28 - Alligator-Pungo Canal, Columbia NC

Wednesday, July 28 – Columbia, NC

Today was our longest day on the water – we covered 60 miles, and arrived at the Alligator Creek Marina, mm 84. (Norfolk VA is mile 1 on the ICW, so we are DEFINITELY IN THE HOME STRETCH!). When we left the anchorage at 8am, we didn’t think that we’d make it this far today, but we averaged over 6knots so what should have been a 12-hr run ended up being 8.5 hrs. Not too shabby! Plus, we finally caught up with Greg and Janice (s/v Glenice) who left Brunswick ahead of us and we’ve been tailing them ever since! It will be nice to have company for dinner tonite.

This was one of our favorite days on the ICW. We spent 5 hours on the Alligator-Pungo River Canal, which was spectacular. It’s a long, straight canal that passes through pristine forests. Another place that reminds us of the BWCA.

People who routinely cruise the ICW told us the scenery was so much better than offishore.

I'm a believer!

Looking forward from cockpit.

Looking aft from cockpit.

Gotta love a wateway with posted mileage signs.

You must stay in the center of the canal or run aground!  This was us yesterday. Gotta love BoatTowUS!

The canal then opened up to the Alligator River where we were able to raise our head-sail and do some motor sailing for the remainder of the trip. A south wind was off our stern so we surfed along on the swells (instead of bashing into them head-on!).

This marina marked our first experience in tying up to a fixed pier. (Due to the high tides in the south, all the marinas have floating piers , so the dock is always a boat height). With a fixed pier, you basically have to lasso the piling at four points and tie the lines back on to the boat. Quite comical to try and try and try again to throw the boat line over the tall piling, only to have it land in the water each time. Something I’ll need to practice b/c fixed piers are the norm in northern coastal waters.

July 27 - Leaving Oriental; Great Anchorage

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Anchor up at 7:30 so we can make the run up the Neuse River with the calm, east winds of the morning. 7:35 we are aground at the mouth of the channel because we misread the maze of channel markers. At least this was a shared responsibility because I was at the helm and Dan directed me to follow the channel markers in the center of the channel; but I knew I was going the wrong direction and should have scoped out the channel myself before heading out. I definitely knew I was going the wrong direction when the depth quickly dropped from 12 ft to 6ft .. and which point I started to correct our course. That was about the time that Dan got back to the cockpit and took over the helm at we hit 5 ft of water; at this point, he decided that since the channel bottom was primarily mud, Maja would be able to power thru to deeper water. Unfortunately, he powered through to 4 feet of water and we were hard aground. And yes, right in front of the harbor entrance, in full view of everyone at anchor, who were casually enjoying their breakfast and our show! Yes, in front of The Bean!

Thank goodness for unlimited tow insurance with BoatUS! And thank goodness they had a boat in Oriental, so help was on the way in about 20 minutes. Of course, nothing was easy this morning. We were definitely hard aground, and it took the tow boat close to an hour to ever-so-slowly coax Maja’s bow around and into deeper water. I’ve got to wonder what these tow boat captains say about us back home, but on the water, they are so pleasant and encouraging that you never really feel like a dumb ass!

So, by 9:00 a.m, we were underway for the 2nd time today, and facing the rough waters of the Neuse River wasn’t as daunting as facing the grounding. We slogged up the river, gritting my teeth and watching the miles tick away, until we turned into the Bay River where we were once again in protected water, with the wind at our back. All together now, WHEW!

Our destination was Belhaven, NC, but we stopped 5 miles short, at 3pm, because we found a beautiful little bay up Slade Creek to anchor. We figured this was the spot for us when we saw several dolphins circling the bay. This is by far the prettiest spot we have yet to anchor. After watching the dolphins until they swam too far from the boat to see, we decided that this secluded spot was perfect to go swimming from the boat (first time for that). A great way to end a rather unnerving day … reinforcing the point that you do get thru the trying parts, it just takes a little teeth gritting!

We are at mile maker 140. Tomorrow, our goal is the Alligator River where we will head into a marina after two days on the hook. The temps at nite have been much cooler so w/o the need of an AC we actually prefer being at anchor over a marina. Not that we are much better at getting the boat to anchor vs. snugging up to a dock, It’s generally cooler b/c of the breeze and definitely more private and scenic (oh yes, and cheaper!). With the solar shower hanging in the bow, the freezer making ice cubes, and the engine/solar panel keeping our batteries fully charged, we come close to being self sufficient on the water.

July 26 - Oriental NC

Monday, July 26 – Oriental NC (mile 182)

Left Beaufort, NC around 8:30 after meeting with local sailors at the Bean (every marina seems to have one) – the local coffee shop where boaters gather to share local advice and opinions about what we should/should not do … mostly they are full of encouragement to “have fun” and “don’t worry about running aground”. The motto seems to be, ‘just get out there and do it”.

So off we go with an easy day planned to Oriental, NC. It’s only about 20miles away and we’d been thinking to push on further, but we face the Neuse River when we leave Oriental, and that is not a body of water to take lightly. As the cruising guide says: “The Neuse River vies with the Albermarle Sound as some of the meanest water on the ICW” and recommend making the run just after dawn. Since we have a NE wind, we’ll be heading into the wind, meaning that we’ll be taking swells on the bow.

In this heat, we now hope for rain ... or at least cloud cover all day!

The first 2 hours of the day are ideal … not too hot, nice breeze, running up Adams Creek Canal which is wide and deep across the channel. For the first time, I relax enough to bring my book up into the cockpit and get engrossed in something other than watching for trouble. But trouble in the shape of a barge manages to find us all the same. Dan had been watching the barge ever since it entered the canal. Usual protocol for a passing is port-to-port … kinda like driving down the freeway, with the understanding that each vehicle will stay on their said of the dotted line. All went well until the barge was a quarter-mile away … then it started to go to starboard, looking like it wanted to pass us on the right. This would be akin to the oncoming car on the interstate crossing the line and entering your lane of traffic. What do you do? With no communication from the barge, Dan continued to move to the right … kinda like moving over to drive on the shoulder, but you can only do that for so long till you are about to drive off the road. In our case, that meant that we were being pushed outside of the channel, and our safe water depth of 16 ft rapidly dropped to 9ft and then to 7ft and then to 3ft. The barge was still coming straight at us, and it was amazing that we weren’t aground. With no place left to go, and Maja still moving forward, Dan did the only thing he could … turned to port, gunned the engine, and turned in front of the barge to pass on the other side of the channel (kinda like deciding instead of being run off the road by the car crossing in your lane, you decide to cross over and drive in their lane!).. If I hadn’t thought we were going to be run over by the barge, and die, it would have been a great picture.

Now the barge is paying attention to us … and we get several loud honks of his horn. As we passed the barge to starboard, it was quite a scene to see both captains out on deck, yelling at each other at the top of their lungs! I suggested using the radio instead, and Dan dropped his usual courtesy tone to rage at the barge captain for running him out of the channel, not passing to port, and not communicating via radio. No reply, but we did hear the barge captain tell another boat in the canal that he would be passing to port (ha!).

Big River! At times, you couldn't see any shoreline.

So, no more reading in the cockpit! The last stretch of today’s trip was across the Neuse River with the north wind, and as expected, the waves were breaking over the bow so all the ports had to be closed below … making for a very hot boat. Fortunately it was a short stretch of water b/c it was none too pleasant.

We anchored in Oriental at 2pm, and took the dinghy into town. Oriental is considered the sailboat capital of NC because there are over 2500 boats and 850 residents. We stopped in at the local Bean Café (every place has one!) and had an ice cream cone while chatting with the locals. We had been in touch with “friends of friends” from BLM who left us bikes to use in town. It was a great way to tour this very cute place, and we hit all the local hot spots (marine flea market and hardware store) before returning the boat to two sailors who now live in Oriental, just off Whittaker Creek, where they are able to dock their boat. Very Cool. They have done a ton of sailing/cruising all over the world, and when we asked their opinion of several crossings we have ahead, the wife would share detailed advice while the husband simply said “sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and bear it; even the worse crossing doesn’t last forever. You’ll get thru it”.

And with that sage advice, we walked the beautiful waterfront back to the dinghy dock. We cooked burgers on the grill while watching the small fishing boats come out at sunset to go shrimping. These are small flat-bottomed boats (~16ft); they throw out large nets and troll in and out of the harbor all nite, cleaning their catch at daybreak.

This would be a great place to stay longer, but we have decided to move every day as we want to get to Norfolk as soon as we can so Dan can go down to FL and see his mom.

July 22 - Time to say goodbye to Jim (Myrtle Beach)

Thursday, July 22

That's Maja .. with the sunshade up.

After 2 relaxing days at Myrtle Beach Grande Dunes Marina, it was time for Jim to start his trek back home to Wisconsin.  First, he had to buy a Greyhound bus ticket from Myrtle Beach to Brunswick to get his car (all together now ... booooo! who wants to ride a bus?).  Jim had not been on a bus since 8th grade, and this experience did not disappoint his worst expectations ....

We're gonna miss you bud!

Several of our full-time cruiser friends told us we were crazy to have someone on our boat for a month. And, at least with Jim, we can say we proved them wrong!  It was very easy to have him aboard our small space for a month as he was good cruising company.  He found a way to be helpful every day, kept his opinions to himself, provided encouragement when needed, and was the first to find every marina on the waterway that had a pool!  He came with many expectations (that went unfulfilled - except for the dolphins) but had a great laid-back attitude that accepted everything that came our way ... including the ghastly heat!  Thanks for all your help Jim with installing the AC, working on the sunshade, hauling the anchor, handling the dock lines, always looking for ways to fix things and improve our quality of life ... and for tolerating us as we work to get up this learning curve. You definitely spoiled us, and we loved it :) 

Jim traveled really light -- just one small duffle bag and backpack. He still did not need half the clothes he bought! Requirements for summer time cruising: 2 bathing suits, 2 shorts, 3 lightweight shirts, 1 sandals. 1 hat.

We spent our final time at the marina changing the oil and replacing a broken zipper on our sunshade, and then it was off again, just the two of us.  We didn't leave the marina until 3:30, so our anchorage for the nite was just 17 miles away.  

But first, we had to negotiate the dreaded "Rock Piles".  We've heard about this stretch of the ICW for months, with many people saying that they transited this passage at low tide so that they could clearly see the rock piles that line each side of the channel.  Well, we had no time for that, so off we went with fingers crossed!  The Rock Piles weren't nearly as bad as all the big power boaters who passed us on this narrow stretch of waterway ... lots of big boat wakes only heightened our anxiety.  Of the dozen or so boats that zoomed passed us, only ONE boat made a point of dropping his speed so as not to send us rocking violently from side to side.

You can see one rock above the surface close to shore. The rocks extended about 10ft from shore.

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Bummer ... you cannot read the sign that says: "Caution. Dangerous Rock Piles Ahead". We were relieved to exit this stretch of waterway!

Next came the bridges ... love the ones that open upon request. Many bridges only open on the hour/half-hour so timing becomes critical.  Ever try to hold 21tons in one place, with wind and current against you?

I love the signs on the waterway. This one tells you that that bridge won't open in hurricane conditions?  They forget to add the P.S. Sucks to be you!

Pretty picture. Nothing significant.

Bad day on the water.

17 miles was a short cruising day for us, so it felt good to arrive at our anchorage just 2 hours after leaving the marina.  We found a lovely spot, Callabash Creek, that we had all to ourselves.  Plenty of time to read book in the cockpit, have a rum drink (or two!) and BBQ burgers for dinner.  

Ending the day with a beautiful sunset.  Sigh.