Charleston so far

The arrival :

Four years ago when I did this ICW trip with Riggs, the worst sea conditions we encountered were as we entered Charleston Bay on the southbound trip, hitting strong W winds. This time (on Monday) there were also strong winds in the bay, but this time from the NE, so it was more protected to get ourselves into the Charleston Maritime Center, which is city owned and has a small marina.

The marina :

CMC is mostly great:

+ location near French Quarter and downtown is excellent. Lots to do and see within walking distance.

+ price is very reasonable for a city location. The hotels and inns near here are all quite expensive.

+ its well protected from W winds.

+ laundry is free.

+ good size grocery store, produce market, hardware store are all only 3 blocks away.

+ great lawn for dog play.

+ excellent concrete floating docks. Very strong.

but...

- exposed to E winds and to wakes from passing ships. It can get bouncy here.

The storm :

Yesterday afternoon the E exposure and strong docks came into play as the big East Coast Storm came through. The winds started from NE but then slowly clocked to E, SE, SSE, S,... In the mid-afternoon through the evening the winds pushed waves right into the marina and the boats in here were galloping in place. Luckily we had added extra docking lines to Spray (9 lines total) so while she rolled and pitched, she never banged the docks. I did get a lesson on what chafe can do to a dock line :

That line actually got eaten by a roller that guides the floating dock up and down on a piling. Good thing there were backup lines.

The wind was whipping up good too, with lightning storms, downpours, and a tornado watch. It was a rock-and-roll evening and not much fun. Better here than on the hook in some remote creek though.

Later in the evening the wind clocked to towards the west and today we've just had strong W winds, which leave us in the lee so its not bad. Expecting sun and seasonably cool tomorrow.

The dining :

Charleston reminds me of Portland ME. Similar size, lots of history, and a fantastic restaurant scene, that we want to sample. To keep costs reasonable we are eating breakfast and supper aboard Spray, and going out for lunch. Here's where we've gone so far:

Tues. - small place known as 'Fast and French'. Excellent and a neat scene. Sheila's split pea soup was the best either of us had ever tasted.

Wed. - Sheila was craving real hand cut fries so we ended up at Boones Bar and Grill, which is near the university. Beer and food was very good, and the fries were great.

Tomorrow - We have reservations for a Thanksgiving buffet at nearby Saffron Cafe & Bakery. It's supposed to be good and we'll find out.

 

So far our routine here is a relaxed breakfast aboard Spray, then dog play and walking as we'll as laundry and showers, then the dogs camp out while we venture out for lunch and some shopping. Back aboard Spray we read, feed dinner to the dogs, take them for their evening walk, then do supper and read or watch Netflix. Give us some sunnier weather for longer walks and we'll be all set. Planned departure for points south is on Monday.

 

 

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Into SC

The last blog entry found us in Wrightsville Beach NC at ICW mile marker 283. Now we are at MM 430 in McClellanville SC. What did we encounter in the 150 (statute) miles from there to here?

As you can see above, our departure Thursday morning from Wrightsville Beach was eventful. The day's planned run to Southport NC (MM 309) was short enough to allow time for a hot breakfast aboard Spray and another romp on the beach, this time with tennis ball and frisbee. We then pulled anchor and were wending our way to the ICW channel when that USCG boat lined up beside us to board for a (non-voluntary) safety inspection.

I stayed on the flying bridge and kept Spray on course at 5 knots while 3 of the coasties leapt aboard. Sheila went below to get paperwork (Fed. documentation and rules/regs book) and answer questions. They peeked down in the engine room, verified that we had proper PFD'S, fire extinguishers, and holding tank setup. We passed the inspection with flying colors. The process took maybe 20 minutes and was actually fun.

It was an easy trip to Southport, including a wide portion of the Cape Fear River. We pulled into a vacant (free) slip, walked around the nice downtown area, and had dinner at Yacht Basin Eatery, who had given us the OK to use the slip. On our walk we encountered our 2nd labyrinth of our journey.

Friday we left early for a longer run to Barefoot Marina (MM 354) in North Myrtle Beach SC, crossing the NC/SC border. We walked from the marina, over a bridge, and explored the large Barefoot Landing shopping complex, which is aimed at tourists and so was pretty dead this time of year. Sheila did buy a new pair of reading glasses and took some pictures of critters in the lake the project surrounds.

On Saturday we had another longish run to Georgetown SC (MM 404). In this section the ICW turns inland some through cypress swamps. It was pretty, backwoods country but there was much floating debris, mostly water hyacinths. We had a small break when we pulled into Osprey Marina to buy 100 gallons diesel ($3.45) and continued on our uphill run (we had opposing current almost all day) to Georgetown. It took us 8 hours to make this 45 nm trip, but it was worth it. We dropped the hook in their crowded harbor, about 100 ft. from a town dock, and went exploring.

Sheila says she could actually imagine living in Georgetown. It has real industry - a paper mill and a steel mill, lots of beautiful homes, and a vibrant downtown. They lost a block of waterfront businesses (7 stores) a couple of months ago to a fire, but most of the businesses were already up and running at new locations, including the nice bar/restaurant we had dinner at. The fast recovery is a heartwarming story of community.

Yesterday was windy and cold, and it was a bouncy hour of traveling down wide Winyah Bay until we turned into a narrow cut and continued through the SC 'low country' to McClellanville. Lots of beautiful grassy marshland to see with many shore birds, hawks, and dolphins. This town is gorgeous with huge live oaks draped in spanish moss, although there are very few businesses. We're glad to be tied up at Leland Oil Co. dock with shore power connected as we awoke to 30 degrees this morning and have an electric heater cranking away.

We're now waiting for the sun and tide to rise a bit before heading to Charleston, which is a 33 nm run. We see reports of shoaling at a few inlets so we want to hit those (poor choice of words) during a rising tide. This afternoon we will pull into the Charleston Maritime Center where we will stay a whole week!

 

 

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Today's Travel

Hello from Wrightsville Beach, where we are anchored.

 

I closed yesterday's blog with a description of our rather complex travels of today, between Swansboro and Wrightsville Beach. I spent some time yesterday scribbling some notes on the planned trip, as shown below:

Allow me to decode the scribbles. At top is our starting location Swansboro, at ICW mile marker MM=229 (mile 0 is in Norfolk VA, and ICW miles are statute miles rather than nautical miles). The four drawbridges are shown : Onslow Beach, Surf City, Figure Eight Island, and Wrightsville Beach, along with their MM's, the distances between them (deltas), and their opening schedules.

The target times start at Wrightville Beach since my goal was to make the 3 pm opening so we could drop anchor here with some daylight left to explore some. The times then are figured backwards based on distances, Spray's expected speed, and opening schedules. By the time I worked the times back to Swansboro, we needed to start out at 6:30 am, which is first light these days. It's good that we were at a marina which made it easier to 'drain the dogs' before we left.

 

You will also see contact info for Camp Lejeune, in case we had issues with crossing their firing range, and the number for Towboats US, in case we had issues with any of the several shoaling areas we would encounter.

 

So here's how we made out :

- Pulled out of Swansboro (MM229) on schedule at 0630.

- Entered Camp Lejeune firing range (MM235) at about 0720. Warning sign had no flashing lights and AM530 (referred to by sign) was silent.

- At MM238 we encountered shoaling near Brown's Inlet, which we had been warned about. Slowed down and threaded S pattern through temporary markers. Saw no depths less than 9 feet so no problem there.

- Continued through Camp Lejeune and started seeing activity such as amphibious vehicles and speeding patrol boats (hey, take some 18 year olds, give them guns, and turn them loose with powerful motor boats - What can go wrong?). Also heard many booms from ranges inland.

- I picked up the pace in hopes of making the Onslow Beach Bridge by its 0800 opening, so we could get ahead of schedule. We arrived at the bridge at 0805 and the operator would not open it. So we dropped the hook right in the channel and had breakfast. We made our scheduled 0830 opening but just to show us who's boss, the operator waited until 0835 to open the bridge.

- The next stretch I knew would be tough. We had not quite 2.5 hours to cover the 20 miles (17.4 nm) to the Surf City Bridge. It all hinged on the currents, which for a while helped us so we moved at 7 to 8 knots, then against us so we couldn't even make 6 knots. I had to push Spray some but we made the 1100 opening right on time.

- So we were right on schedule heading for the Figure Eight Island Bridge, an I thought we could loaf as we had 3 hours to cover 17 sm (we just covered 20 sm in 2.5 hours), but the current was against us and I got greedy, thinking I should try for the 1:30 opening rather than 2:00. I kept Spray at 'upper cruise' speed of 1700 rpm and the current eventually started helping us some so we were lucky to just make the 1:30 opening.

- But so what? We had about 5 sm to cover before the final bridge, but it would open only at 2 pm or 3 pm, and it was 22 minutes until 2. I loafed along thinking that I'd miss the 2 pm opening but it would be OK since the Wrightville Beach Bridge has at least 20 ft clearance at high tide. Spray needs about 23 feet for her top VHF antenna to clear, but the tide was getting low, and that antenna is flexible, so why couldn't I pass under the bridge when it was closed?

- Then things got a bit weird, but in a good way. As we approached this last bridge at about 2:10, I saw that about 6 boats were passing through, and that takes some time, so I radioed the bridge operator and asked if he might hold it open a couple more minutes for me. He said that some work being done on the bridge actually required he hold it open a bit longer, so come on through! Thus we made the 2 pm opening, almost an hour earlier than scheduled!

- So here's the weird part. The same bridge work that allowed Spray to pass through a bit late also had some netting hanging below the bridge, lowering its clearance to 17 ft. Spray never would have made it under and we would have had to make a last minute u-turn against the current and in a narrow channel, then wait until 3 pm to get through.

 

It was a lucky Spray and crew that turned into Wrightsville Beach, dropped anchor at 2:30, and had plenty of time to walk the dogs on their great beach and watch the surfers. Those waves looked rough and I'm glad we have the barrier islands to cruise behind.

 

Tomorrow we leave mid morning and have a short 24 mile cruise to Southport NC. No more drawbridges in NC. HooRay!

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Dock to dock to dock

Since the last blog entry from Belhaven NC we have visited three more nice NC towns, and stayed at docks at all of them.

 

On Saturday we left Belhaven in the fog, and I got to use Spray's radar as we went down the remainder of the Pungo River. The sun burned off the fog by the time we crossed the Pamilico River and entered a system of creeks and canals to enter Pamlico Sound and then turn into the Neuse River. Our destination was Oriental NC which has free dock space for 2 boats, with a webcam pointed at the dock so I could check to see if there was free space as we approached. I figured our chances were low since Oriental is a very popular stop for ICW cruisers but amazingly the 2 boats that were there left just before we arrived so we had our choice of free dock space.

 

Just as we finished tying up, our friends Scott and Lynn from Castine pulled up in their car. They have recently purchased a condo in nearby New Bern and so we had planned a visit. They have spent much time in Oriental in recent years, living on their sailboat, and so directed us on a walking tour of the town. We had a nice supper with them at M & M's restaurant that night. Here we all are at a great coffee shop:

 

I really wanted to spend 2 nights at Oriental but the weather prediction called for easy cruising on Sunday and windy conditions on Monday, so on Sunday, after coffee and scones at the Bean, and another walk around town, we fair-weather sailors departed Oriental, again in foggy conditions. It was challenging to cross the Neuse River and enter Adams Creek with near zero visibility and some other vessel traffic. The fog cleared in Adams Creek and we had an easy ride straight south to Beaufort NC, returning to near the Atlantic Shore. I had reserved a slip for 2 nights at Beaufort Docks Marina which is perfectly sited at the center of the waterfront. They serve only transient boaters with 90 slips and were host to some amazing yachts, as well as Spray.

 

So in lovely Beaufort we had plenty of time to explore, visit a bar and restaurant, and Sheila did some laundry. We took our dinghy across to Carrot Island for some hiking and saw the wild horses that live there (photo below). We left early today (Tuesday) to catch favorable tide as we crawled down Bogue Sound in strong N winds to the town of Swansboro NC, where we are the only boat at Caspers Marina. We arrived early enough for some dog walking, some shopping, and a light dinner at an Irish Pub.

 

Tomorrow we have a very challenging day. We will leave at first light, work our way through some serious shoaling near inlets and cross a section of USMC Camp Lejeune where they do live fire right across the ICW. I called their fire control officer today and was told that we could pass only during odd hours : 7-8 is OK but 8-9 is not. We also must deal with 4 drawbridges that open only at scheduled times, like only on the hour. If you arrive at 11:05 you must wait until 12:00 to get under the bridge. Plus it's a long day (for us) of almost 50 miles to our goal of Wrightsville Beach NC. Stay tuned to see how it goes.

 

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Gum Neck Creek

On Thursday we departed Elizabeth City NC at 0630, along with 6 other boats. Down the remainder of the Pasquotank River and then 12 miles across Albemarle Sound, where the predicted 5-10 knot SW wind and 1 ft waves was actually 15 knots and 3 ft steep chop on our starboard beam. That made for 2 hours of no fun.

Conditions calmed down as we entered the Alligator River on which we cruised 18 miles south, then hooked westwards. At the top of the Alligator-Pungo Canal we diverted from the ICW, continuing a mile along the Alligator to anchor off of Piney Point. Total distance traveled was about 48 miles.

This was a very remote and beautiful anchorage. Zero AT&T coverage and intermittent Verizon coverage. Surrounded by scrubby swampland that made landing the dogs impractical, EXCEPT that we happened to be across from a little hidden creek that snaked into the swamp to end at Gum Neck Landing, a state boat ramp.

Taking the dinghy up there was kind of magical. Here are some pix.

First the creek entrance. Without those markers it would be impossible to find.

The dogs are excited. Note that they are wearing cold weather garb and that Riggs is leashed in case he tries to bolt after some critter.

As we enter the creek we are warned about submerged stumps, etc. We proceed very slowly.

We motor up the creek, which is perfectly still.

At creek's end is a half sunk boat and a small dock, which we tie onto.

Yes this is civilization. There is even grass for the dogs.

We walk inland a bit and discover we're in farm country.

So we visited the landing Thursday afternoon and again Friday morning. Then we pulled anchor, cruised back to the ICW, and entered the Alligator-Pungo Canal, a 20 mile ditch through more swampland and forests.

The canal put us in the Pungo River and in another hour or so we pulled into Belhaven NC and dropped anchor. We had time for a walking tour of the town, took the dogs back to Spray, and then we humans spent some Yankee dollars at a new tavern and then a new fancy restaurant. Sweet.

Today we cross Pamlico Sound and cruise on to Oriental NC.

 

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Welcome to North Carolina!

So this past Monday we left Hampton VA and crossed the Hampton Roads shipping channel, then cruised past the Norfolk navy facilities (largest in the world!). Here is the USS George H.W. Bush, last of the Nimitz class super carriers (cost = $6.2 billion) :

Notice the Navy patrol boat keeping a close eye on us as we passed. Maybe I shouldn't have broadcast 'praise to Allah' on the VHF as we approached.

 

We wound our way through Norfolk/Portsmouth VA, bought 100 gallons of diesel at Top Rack Marina ($3.39/gal which is a great price), then turned down Deep Creek to enter a lock to raise us 8 ft onto the Dismal Swamp Canal. Here are some pix:

 

In the lock with 3 other boats.

Mileage sign indicates that we have far to go.

Katie Bopp relaxes as Spray is lifted...

While Riggs supervises.

The lock gates open.

And we cruise down the canal.

After 15 miles or so we cross from VA into NC then shortly after stop at the NC welcome facility, which is unique in serving both a highway and a waterway. We tied to their wall overnight.

On Tuesday we get an early start to complete the final 5 miles of the canal, then at 9 am we lock down to approximate sea level again on the Pasquotank River. The next 15 miles were winding through beautiful cypress swamp until we arrived here in Elizabeth City NC.

They really mean that hospitality stuff as they have much free dockage for transient boaters which was important to us since as soon as we arrived the weather turned nasty: cold with strong north winds. It actually snowed some last night and this morning we had ice on the decks. Nice to be securely tied up and not have to deal with the dinghy.

We've been returning their favors by hitting restaurants and bars (which have heat!). I went to a nearby gym yesterday for a hot shower, and Sheila got a southern style (think big hair) haircut today.

Right now our new best friend

is cranking away, trying to heat our salon.

Tomorrow we leave at first light to head south and cross Albermarle Sound. We should be anchoring in one of the remotest spots on the entire ICW.

 

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Southern Chesapeake

Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US, almost 200 miles from where we entered via the C&D Canal down to the Hampton Roads inlet near Norfolk VA. You could spend years cruising the waters of the Chesapeake and not have time to see it all. Sadly we don't have that much time and so we needed to push southwards rather quickly (for us) through the lower half of the Chesapeake.

It was this past Tuesday that wind conditions allowed us to leave St. Michaels MD and move down and across the bay to Solomons MD where we anchored off of Zahnisers boatyard.

We paid a few dollars to use their dinghy dock and showers and were able to buy a bag of good dog food (at least the dogs like it) at a nearby store.

On Wednesday we moved down the bay some more, crossing the wide mouth of the Potomac River and landing in beautiful Reedville VA, home of a menhaden fishing fleet and processing facility. Apparently there is or was money in menhaden, as evidenced by the spectacular old homes in Reedville.

We did get exposed to the smell of the processing plant. Didn't smell like money to me.

On Thursday we moved farther south to James Creek at Deltaville VA.

We anchored at Deltaville for 2 nights as there were strong NW winds, plus we had earned a break. The nearby 'State Dock' was a challenge to climb onto for us geezers but we made do. Then we needed to walk a ways to get to any stores, etc. but that's OK.

Finally on Saturday we made the run down to the Hampton Roads inlet and turned to starboard up the Hampton River, where we stopped at the Hampton VA Public Piers for a water fill up and holding tank pumpout (such things are VERY important), then moved upstream a bit more to drop the anchor. Again we stay 2 nights to give us time to explore this nice small city and buy groceries. Here's the view from our anchorage.

Tomorrow (Monday) should be a big day, as we will cross the Hampton Roads waterway, pass the worlds largest naval facility at Norfolk, enter the official ICW at mile 0, then turn into Deep Creek where a lock will raise Spray by 8 feet to enter the Dismal Swamp Canal. it should be a great adventure so please stay tuned to see how it plays out.

 

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Blimp. And a birthday!

When we cruised to Solomons MD on Tuesday we saw a US Navy blimp out over the Chesapeake. It was out again the next morning as we departed Solomons, and came close enough for a few photos :

Also, today, November 7, is the birthday of one of Spray's crew. Here he is right after we dropped anchor today in Deltaville VA, very anxious to go to shore.

Riggs is 7 years old today. Middle aged. To celebrate we spoiled him rotten, just like any other day.

 

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Oh yeah, the oysters.

The last blog posting was titled 'Oyster Fest' and while I did describe the St. Michaels oyster festival some, as my dear Uncle Larry pointed out in the comments section I never mentioned how the oysters were.

I'm not a huge oyster fan but the few that I tried were pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. Certainly at the festival a ton of oysters were consumed, mostly raw but also in stews and fritters, and people seemed to like them.

Sheila braved the long line to taste 6 samples of oyster stew from local restaurants and vote on her favorite (sample D). We'll have to check which one won.

I was more impressed with the various traditional boats used to harvest oysters. For example, at the festival the museum relaunched the restored skipjack Rosie Parks, originally launched in 1955 :

Apparently these restored skipjacks are not just museum pieces. When we cruised from St Michaels to Solomons yesterday I was pleased to see another skipjack out in the bay, being propelled by its pushboat :

A while later I was really surprised to see yet another skipjack working as intended - pulling an oyster dredge :

As we learned in the museum, oystering in the Chesapeake is a pale shadow of what it was even 25 years ago but it still goes on, albeit with big restrictions on when and where harvesting is permitted. We've seen a few areas posted as oyster nurseries, meaning no harvesting allowed there.

 

 

 

 

 

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Oyster Fest

This past Tuesday we left Baltimore and cruised down the Patapsco River then south in the Chesapeake, passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (which is really two bridges), turned right up the Severn River, finally into Spa Creek to the Annapolis mooring field. Since we are post-season most of the rental moorings were free so we chose one close to the town dinghy dock.

We had never visited Annapolis before and while we expected a boaters' haven, which it is, I was surprised how large the city is and that its the Maryland State Capitol (who knew?). The historic buildings are beautiful and packed tightly together. We had to walk a ways to find green space for the pooches. Lots of shops, restaurants, bars, etc.

I probably should have picked a different mooring as ours was exposed to waves from the river/bay and we had a rolly night. Since Wednesday had good cruising weather predicted while Thursday didn't, we stayed in Annapolis just the one night. We left about noon Wednesday at about the same time as the Pride of Baltimore II. We cruised down the Severn and angled south down the Bay while the Pride hoisted sails and turned up the bay to sail to Chestertown for the Downrigging Weekend.

Conditions were OK for cruising to St. Michaels MD, although you need to go way south around one point, then back north around another, then south again in the Miles River. We anchored in Fogg Cove, right off the grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. The plan was to stay until at least Saturday for their annual Oyster Festival, which is a big deal here. A quick cost/benefit calculation prompted us to buy a 1-year family membership at the Museum, yielding these perks:

- Use of their dinghy dock and 24 hr. access to their grounds.

- Ability to tour their excellent exhibits at leisure.

- Free entrance to the Oyster Festival for us and guests.

- Unlimited use of their HOT SHOWER facilities.

It was a no-brainer. Plus we can use same perks on our return trip northwards.

 

So we had 2 full days to explore St. Michaels and the museum, which was real nice. Sheila is taken by their octagonal Chesapeake light house, which used to sit on screw piles out in the bay.

 

On Saturday my niece and her husband, Michelle and Dave Homsher, drove down Saturday from their new home north of Philly and joined us for the Oyster Festival (good weather - huge crowds - quite the success) and tasting some local beer and seafood in town. They brought us some much appreciated supplies :

 

- 24 cans of this (official cruise 2013/14 beer)

- and a rare bottle of this (proof of why grapes dominate in wine making?)

It was great fun to see them and catch up on their lives.

 

We would have left on Sunday to continue southwards, but high winds have kept us here for 2 extra days, and it will be tomorrow that we head farther down the Bay to Solomon's MD, which is about halfway down the bay on the western shore. As great as exploring the Chesapeake is, we are anxious to get all the way down to Norfolk VA and into the official ICW. We'll see what the weatherman says.

 

Here is Spray anchored in Fogg Cove.

 

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