Thursday, June 30, 2011
Next landfall - Florida?
Very short update - After spending the night at an anchorage near Georgetown, we are heading for the open water - our next stop in 48 hours will be San Augustine, FL! The weather looks good, so we'll see. We will be out of update range for a couple of days, look for an update on Saturday (or sooner as we draw closer to the shore).
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Lightkeepers Marina
We made it! We have finally left the great state of North Carolina! Seems like we've been there forever, but we crossed over into South Carolina late in the afternoon. Using ActiveCaptain (a service I absolutely love, by the way), we scanned for suitable marinas or anchorages for the evening. We found a nice potential anchorage behind Bird Island, but reading up on it in ActiveCaptain made us doubt whether we could safely anchor there (and reprising our "Escape from Carolina Beach" post tomorrow morning).
Looking down the ICW a few miles, we found a cluster of nice-looking marinas with excellent reviews. We picked Lightkeepers Marina in North Myrtle Beach and pulled in around 5pm. No Lightkeepers employees were still around, but we snagged one of the empty slips for the night. A really cool thing - next to us is a 2003 Beneteau 361, almost identical to ours! We've been visiting with them all afternoon, comparing notes and getting lots of good ideas.
This marina is very nice. Not too many amenities, but they have a GREAT swimming pool, plus washer/dryer and nice showers. All for $1 a foot! Pretty cool!
As we were getting ready to walk to the road to find some dinner, we bumped into a gentleman exiting the men's room. Ben and Jeannette struck up a conversation and before you know it, we were all involved. Turns out this fellow, Jack, spends half his time just down the road from us in Bonita Springs! On top of that, he has friends in Westerly, RI! Crazy! Since he had just arrived from Ohio, he offered to let us pile into his car and drive us over to Bob Evans to eat dinner. Before we departed, Ben, Reece and I went with him to visit his boat - an incredible Symbol 51 motor yacht. We then had a wonderful meal with Jack, sharing stories of our journeys and our plans for the future. It was great to meet you, Jack, and I hope we can keep in touch!
The plan for tomorrow is another day in the ICW, then pop out on Thursday morning for an off-shore run to San Augustine, FL. The weather looks to finally be cooperating, so we'll see!
Looking down the ICW a few miles, we found a cluster of nice-looking marinas with excellent reviews. We picked Lightkeepers Marina in North Myrtle Beach and pulled in around 5pm. No Lightkeepers employees were still around, but we snagged one of the empty slips for the night. A really cool thing - next to us is a 2003 Beneteau 361, almost identical to ours! We've been visiting with them all afternoon, comparing notes and getting lots of good ideas.
This marina is very nice. Not too many amenities, but they have a GREAT swimming pool, plus washer/dryer and nice showers. All for $1 a foot! Pretty cool!
As we were getting ready to walk to the road to find some dinner, we bumped into a gentleman exiting the men's room. Ben and Jeannette struck up a conversation and before you know it, we were all involved. Turns out this fellow, Jack, spends half his time just down the road from us in Bonita Springs! On top of that, he has friends in Westerly, RI! Crazy! Since he had just arrived from Ohio, he offered to let us pile into his car and drive us over to Bob Evans to eat dinner. Before we departed, Ben, Reece and I went with him to visit his boat - an incredible Symbol 51 motor yacht. We then had a wonderful meal with Jack, sharing stories of our journeys and our plans for the future. It was great to meet you, Jack, and I hope we can keep in touch!
The plan for tomorrow is another day in the ICW, then pop out on Thursday morning for an off-shore run to San Augustine, FL. The weather looks to finally be cooperating, so we'll see!
Escape from Carolina Beach
On Monday, we got a bright and early start motoring down the ICW. Our stopping place that night was going to be Carolina Beach, not far from Wilmington. We pulled into the anchorage and found what appeared to be a nice spot in about 10 feet of water. At high tide. When we woke up this morning, it wasn't high tide anymore and our adventure began...
The anchor came up easily and I turned the boat toward the channel to leave. I glanced down and noticed the sounder read "5.6ft". Hmmm... That's kinda shallow. Oh well. I looked up and continued toward the channel. All the sudden, the boat seemed to "climb" as the keel crawled up a sandbar and the sounder read "3.6ft". Now, 5ft draft sailboats don't operate well in 4.6ft of water, which we were now in. I spun us around and began trying to find a way out of our predicament.
On our boat, the depth sounder transducer is in the very bottom of the hull, about 8 feet ahead of the leading edge of the keel, which is angled toward the rear of the boat. Since this is about 1ft below the water line, you add 1ft to the reading to get the true depth (so 3.6ft is actually 4.6ft of depth). This is useful, allowing me to use the depth sounder like a blind man's walking stick, trying to find deep water before actually getting stuck in the mud. You have to go really slow though, and weave back and forth.
As we puttered around the shallow anchorage, trying to find a gap, I began to wonder if we were going to be stuck here for several hours waiting for the tide to come back in and free us. Fortunately, the floats that we assumed to be crab-pots were actually home-made channel markers. Skirting these allowed us to escape! We were free! Now on to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!
The anchor came up easily and I turned the boat toward the channel to leave. I glanced down and noticed the sounder read "5.6ft". Hmmm... That's kinda shallow. Oh well. I looked up and continued toward the channel. All the sudden, the boat seemed to "climb" as the keel crawled up a sandbar and the sounder read "3.6ft". Now, 5ft draft sailboats don't operate well in 4.6ft of water, which we were now in. I spun us around and began trying to find a way out of our predicament.
On our boat, the depth sounder transducer is in the very bottom of the hull, about 8 feet ahead of the leading edge of the keel, which is angled toward the rear of the boat. Since this is about 1ft below the water line, you add 1ft to the reading to get the true depth (so 3.6ft is actually 4.6ft of depth). This is useful, allowing me to use the depth sounder like a blind man's walking stick, trying to find deep water before actually getting stuck in the mud. You have to go really slow though, and weave back and forth.
As we puttered around the shallow anchorage, trying to find a gap, I began to wonder if we were going to be stuck here for several hours waiting for the tide to come back in and free us. Fortunately, the floats that we assumed to be crab-pots were actually home-made channel markers. Skirting these allowed us to escape! We were free! Now on to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Don't trust bridge operators
We are anchored not far from Camp Lejeune in a nice anchorage called Mile Hammock. We are settled in after a good meal, and everyone is going to bed as the air conditioner cools things off nicely. A few hours ago, we had a bit of excitement.
After leaving Morehead City and continuing down the ICW, we decided to not push too hard today. We negotiated some sketchy shoaled areas along the way, but as we approached the Onslow Beach Bridge, we thought the hard part of the journey was behind us. About a half-mile away, I radioed the bridge operator and requested an opening. Since this stretch is very straight, he replied "Keep on coming, Captain, I've been watching you for a while and I'll open it when you get here". We kept going at full speed and began to draw close. Now getting nervous, my finely-tuned senses are detecting a distinct lack of bridge-openness. In fact, I'd have to say that bridge seems to not be opening at all! I slam into reverse as I hear "Sorry, Captain, the bridge is a little slow today!" as the thing finally begins to swing open.
Unfortunately, there also happens to be a nasty current pushing me towards the unopened bridge, so though my full reverse does halt my progress, but also pushes us sideways on the bridge pilings. Rebecca and Ed jump up to the edge to halt any significant damage, but we are all given a good scare before we slide past the swinging bridge. I mumble some distinctly un-Christian thoughts toward the bridge operator as we pass by, but I am grateful that some scratches are all I have to show for the experience.
Our destination tomorrow is Wilmington!
After leaving Morehead City and continuing down the ICW, we decided to not push too hard today. We negotiated some sketchy shoaled areas along the way, but as we approached the Onslow Beach Bridge, we thought the hard part of the journey was behind us. About a half-mile away, I radioed the bridge operator and requested an opening. Since this stretch is very straight, he replied "Keep on coming, Captain, I've been watching you for a while and I'll open it when you get here". We kept going at full speed and began to draw close. Now getting nervous, my finely-tuned senses are detecting a distinct lack of bridge-openness. In fact, I'd have to say that bridge seems to not be opening at all! I slam into reverse as I hear "Sorry, Captain, the bridge is a little slow today!" as the thing finally begins to swing open.
Unfortunately, there also happens to be a nasty current pushing me towards the unopened bridge, so though my full reverse does halt my progress, but also pushes us sideways on the bridge pilings. Rebecca and Ed jump up to the edge to halt any significant damage, but we are all given a good scare before we slide past the swinging bridge. I mumble some distinctly un-Christian thoughts toward the bridge operator as we pass by, but I am grateful that some scratches are all I have to show for the experience.
Our destination tomorrow is Wilmington!
An Appointment in Morehead City
In Christian circles, there is the notion of a "divine appointment", where you find yourself deliberately steered to a time and place to encounter someone or experience some event. I believe it happens all the time, but we are only rarely allowed to see God's hand directly. Yesterday, we got to experience this in a wonderful way. As we approached Beaufort/Morehead City, we began to make plans for some time ashore.
As some of you may have experienced, it does in fact get HOT as you go South in the Summer. We have been planning for this, but we thought we could put off air-conditioning for a while through the use of wind scoops and open hatches. Well, the reality is, the only true relief from the heat and humidity is a real air-conditioning unit. We have a small generator to run an A/C, but we needed to buy one, plus build the support structure to keep it safely in the companionway door. As we traveled down the ICW, we located a marina not too far from a Lowes that we could possibly walk to. When I got on the phone with the dockmaster, he basically told me not to come to his marina. He said it was too shallow (even though it was recently dredged) and that he was alone and couldn't give us any help.
Feeling rebuffed, we went to "Plan B", which was the Morehead City Yacht Basin, a truly first class facility that had a mini-van loaner car. As we pulled into one of the slips, we happened to meet a couple of folks, Rob and Cheryl, touring the marina. They were quite friendly and very interested in the boat and everything we were doing. They had never been on a sailboat, so we immediately invited them aboard and showed them around. A neat bond seemed to quickly develop, though we didn't really pick up on it at first. During the conversation, they asked what we did to keep cool at night, so we shared with them that we needed to run over to Lowes to purchase a small A/C unit, 'cause it was starting to become uncomfortable. Rob exclaimed that he had a couple of unused air conditioners in his garage and absolutely insisted that we take one! They asked us to wait 40 minutes while they ran home to get it!
Sure enough, they returned shortly with the perfect room-sized unit. We hauled it up onto the boat and plugged it into the generator. Success!!!! No more hot/humid nights!!! They wouldn't take any money, so we asked them to let us at least take them to lunch. One of Rob's side jobs is at Big Apple Pizza in Morehead City, so he suggested there. We piled into the loaner mini-van and followed them to the pizza place. Since we only got the van for 2 hours, the plan was to eat together, then do our grocery shopping. Once we got there, however, we had so much fun visiting, our 2 hours were up before we even left the restaurant!
Rob and Cheryl, it was wonderful meeting you and that air conditioner is blowing cool air on me right now as I type this post - it is greatly appreciated!!!! I know you've found the blog, so PLEASE send me or Rebecca an email so we can add you to our Facebook and keep up with you guys from now on! And Cheryl, we really want to know if you get that job! :)
And I am very grateful that we were steered away from one place and directed to another, at just the right moment! God is Good!
As some of you may have experienced, it does in fact get HOT as you go South in the Summer. We have been planning for this, but we thought we could put off air-conditioning for a while through the use of wind scoops and open hatches. Well, the reality is, the only true relief from the heat and humidity is a real air-conditioning unit. We have a small generator to run an A/C, but we needed to buy one, plus build the support structure to keep it safely in the companionway door. As we traveled down the ICW, we located a marina not too far from a Lowes that we could possibly walk to. When I got on the phone with the dockmaster, he basically told me not to come to his marina. He said it was too shallow (even though it was recently dredged) and that he was alone and couldn't give us any help.
Feeling rebuffed, we went to "Plan B", which was the Morehead City Yacht Basin, a truly first class facility that had a mini-van loaner car. As we pulled into one of the slips, we happened to meet a couple of folks, Rob and Cheryl, touring the marina. They were quite friendly and very interested in the boat and everything we were doing. They had never been on a sailboat, so we immediately invited them aboard and showed them around. A neat bond seemed to quickly develop, though we didn't really pick up on it at first. During the conversation, they asked what we did to keep cool at night, so we shared with them that we needed to run over to Lowes to purchase a small A/C unit, 'cause it was starting to become uncomfortable. Rob exclaimed that he had a couple of unused air conditioners in his garage and absolutely insisted that we take one! They asked us to wait 40 minutes while they ran home to get it!
Sure enough, they returned shortly with the perfect room-sized unit. We hauled it up onto the boat and plugged it into the generator. Success!!!! No more hot/humid nights!!! They wouldn't take any money, so we asked them to let us at least take them to lunch. One of Rob's side jobs is at Big Apple Pizza in Morehead City, so he suggested there. We piled into the loaner mini-van and followed them to the pizza place. Since we only got the van for 2 hours, the plan was to eat together, then do our grocery shopping. Once we got there, however, we had so much fun visiting, our 2 hours were up before we even left the restaurant!
Rob and Cheryl, it was wonderful meeting you and that air conditioner is blowing cool air on me right now as I type this post - it is greatly appreciated!!!! I know you've found the blog, so PLEASE send me or Rebecca an email so we can add you to our Facebook and keep up with you guys from now on! And Cheryl, we really want to know if you get that job! :)
And I am very grateful that we were steered away from one place and directed to another, at just the right moment! God is Good!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Update from Oriental, NC, plus pictures and comments from the last several days
Since we have a really good signal here in Oriental, North Carolina, I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on some of the stuff we've done while Internet coverage was so bad. First, here is the path we've taken to get here:
We started out by leaving Willoughby Bay and passed right back the gigantic Navy base(s) in Norfolk. Rebecca took a bunch of pictures, but made me promise not to put too many on the blog. As many of you know, I am a military nut, so I was in heaven as went passed by all these ships. Here is just a taste:
After passing through downtown Norfolk, we made the turn into the Dismal Swamp Canal. This canal is over 200 years old (George Washington was involved in constructing it) and is a very neat way to travel by boat. Before you can get into the canal, you first have to rise about 6 feet. To do this, you go through a lock! Here as some pictures from that experience:
The Dismal Swamp Canal is very narrow and nearly perfectly straight, with just one turn. It is a very weird experience to pilot a sailboat through the woods, but that is what we are doing:
After crossing the North Carolina border, we arrived at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center, which is unique in that it has facilities for both cars AND boats! We spent the night tied up to the dock:
The next morning, we resumed our trip, which means we had to descend down to sea level once again. Mill Creek lock, performs that function when heading South:
Next we traveled on to Belhaven, otherwise known as the land the Internet forgot! We had varying degrees of connectivity, usually between none and bad. Belhaven is a sad little town - nothing but empty store fronts, with just a few businesses. We did find a nice place to eat, which was good, 'cause I think it was the ONLY place to eat! Just before we dropped anchor in Belhaven, we stopped at Dowry Creek Marina to refuel, top off the water tanks, and pump out the holding tank. Very nice marina and great people! On the way, we had an interesting bug join us for the ride:
We let him go on the shore at Belhaven. Very neat creature!
The next day, we made for Oriental. There are two free slips maintained by the town, but they are usually occupied. As we went, we watched the Harbor webcam and saw one side was empty. We crossed our fingers and made it before anybody else got it! If you hit that link right now, you'll see us there! We intended on making for Beaufort this morning, but Oriental is truly a neat place for boaters, so we decided to hang out another day. The boat next to us on the dock is SeaSpan, a Valiant 40 owned by Jeff and Elise, who are also bloggers! We spent the day with them and had a great time!!! It was great to meet them, and since they are from St Petersburg, Florida, we hope to see them again!
Well, I guess this is enough of a mega-post. I think we'll walk over to Toucan's and some chocolate cake and some drinks! See ya!
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| A visiting French frigate |
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| The USS Eisenhower |
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| The battleship USS Wisconsin, now a museum |
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| An old transport ship that I can't identify, plus the brand-new George H.W. Bush carrier in the background |
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| Waiting for the lock to open |
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| Virginia pelicans are rather strange |
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| Into the lock |
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| We have a long way to go, lol |
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| Hang on tight! |
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| Rising up! |
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| The door opens |
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| Bye, bye, Deep Creek Lock! |
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| In the woods |
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| It really is a swamp |
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| Not too exciting, just don't hit any trees! :) |
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| Really nice dock, far from the ocean |
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| Reece enjoying the boardwalk at the Visitor Center |
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| At first he was scared of the granddaddy-longlegs, then he couldn't stop playing with it! |
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| A beautiful place |
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| Straight as an arrow |
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| Now we go down 6 feet, everybody grab a line! |
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| The welcoming committee |
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| The door behind us closes |
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| Ed makes a friend |
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| The other member of the committee comes to inspect |
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| Down we go! |
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| And now at the bottom |
The next day, we made for Oriental. There are two free slips maintained by the town, but they are usually occupied. As we went, we watched the Harbor webcam and saw one side was empty. We crossed our fingers and made it before anybody else got it! If you hit that link right now, you'll see us there! We intended on making for Beaufort this morning, but Oriental is truly a neat place for boaters, so we decided to hang out another day. The boat next to us on the dock is SeaSpan, a Valiant 40 owned by Jeff and Elise, who are also bloggers! We spent the day with them and had a great time!!! It was great to meet them, and since they are from St Petersburg, Florida, we hope to see them again!
Well, I guess this is enough of a mega-post. I think we'll walk over to Toucan's and some chocolate cake and some drinks! See ya!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
We are anchored in Belhaven
We made it to Belhaven, NC, just fine, but my Internet connectivity is VERY poor. I have no phone service at all (AT&T), the Verizon RavenX barely works, but Rebecca's cheap MetroPCS phone is just fine! Go figure! If you need to reach us for the next couple of days, call Rebecca, lol!
I should be able to update more extensively once we get to Oriental tomorrow.
I should be able to update more extensively once we get to Oriental tomorrow.
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