Springtime Return Trip - Part 1

Similar to the trip south this past November, the trip home was not without events and a change of plans.  We had hoped to bring the boat home over a couple week period, and stop along the way to see a few sights we missed going south due to the weather.

We got to Charleston on Friday and prepped the boat.  It was in good shape and nothing was in a condition to delay us.  We spent Saturday at the farm market, buying some fresh veggies, raw milk, and fun stuff like pickled Okra.  Yes, oddly enough, I have developed a taste for pickled Okra.  We went to Hominy  Grill for dinner and had a wonderful meal.  

Sunday morning brought winds from the north northeast at about 25 kts.  Of course that is just the direction we needed to travel.  The weather service said winds would be north northwest at 10-12 kts.  We had limited time, and as we planned to take the ICW anyway, set off.

Heavy chop in ICW motoring against 25 kt winds

The winds stayed with us for three days.  We had a lot of chop on the nose and the apparent winds hit 45 kts at times.  This video gives you an idea of what it was like.

High winds on the ICW

There were few boats out and the tides were lower than usual.  A large trawler ran aground in front of us and was stuck hard until a PDQ 34 Powercat helped pull him off a few hours later.  

We had planned to make 12 hour days, if possible to try to get to Cape Charles for a Craft Fair on the next Saturday.  We didn't really expect to make it, but thought it might be good to see how far we couple get.  Renting a car to make the Fair was always on option.

Winyah Bay was very rough, and we entered it just as Bonnie has was serving dinner.  The broadside waves really tossed us around.  I turned bow into the wave for a while, even though it was not our intended direction of travel, so we could finish dinner.  That also got us to the windward side of the Bay and into a more sheltered run.

We made Georgetown at sunset, not a bad day's travel considering wind and currents.  We anchored as far back as possible, but the wind was still 18 kts on deck and 26 kts at the top of the mast.  But the anchor held well and we got a good nights sleep.

Bonnie had her perfect cappuccino ready before sunrise and we were off as the sun left a beautiful red ribbon across the sky.  The winds stayed just the same and we plowed through the waves for the entire day.

Barge traffic was much lighter than in November

We stopped in for fuel in North Myrtle beach at saw the boat Windward, owned by a wonderful couple we met in November going south. I knew Bonnie wanted to make time and it was only 3 pm, but we were very tempted to grab a slip and stay the night to visit with them.  We regret that we didn't.  Any yes, we know well that old adage; that sailing trips should never be made with a tight schedule.

We anchored just before sunset in a small marsh on the edge of a channel, just shy of Southport.  The winds across the marsh were 30 kts and I was feeling unsure of my judgement in selecting the location.  But it was the best around and pushing it as we did, near sunset, gave us few other options.  Our great little anchor (here's where you get to laugh) an 18 lb aluminum spade with 25' of chain, held perfectly as always.  I have been lectured on our ground tackle many times, but many people of various skill levels.  But I have to say that it has held through many a blow and I swear by that little spade anchor.  

Bonnie made her usual incredible dinner and we hit the hay for a early start again.  I must say that no matter what the weather, the rush, or other external troubles, Bonnie consistently creates the most wonderful meals for us.  I never cease to be amazed.

At sunrise we started off again, but it took a bit to get the anchor unburied.  It had set and buried itself quite well.  Once in 2010, in Cape May harbor we spent three days anchored in a nor'easter and it took over half an hour to dig the anchor out.

We passed Wrightsville beach bridge and the bride tender told us the Figure 8 bridge was broken and wont not be working for a few hours.  We figured we would get up there and then anchor or such.  The USCG Cutter Simlax that does all the channel marker work for NC and some of SC was among the parade of boats with us.  They radioed us to say they were going to drop their steel piling ,and become 'a pier', while they waited for the bridge.  I told them I wished I could do that, and they offered to let us tie up with them.  So we did.  We got a great tour of the ship and learned it is the oldest Coast Guard Cutter in the fleet, built in 1944.

Dessie rafted up to Simlax

Bonnie was quite impressed that a crewman was assigned 'catamaran watch' while we were aboard.  We had a nice tour and after about an hour and a half the bridge was fixed and opened for us.

We made the Cape Fear River, with wind on the nose again.  It was rough, and the tide was against us, as well as the wind.  I tried to motor sail for part of it, and we were able to get to 6 kts for about 1/3 of the river.  The rest was about 3.6 to 4 kts.  Needless to say it was a long trip.

Bonnie felt the salmon was not going to last too long, so she made it and roasted brussell sprouts for lunch. Pretty nice meal for a 'light lunch' in rough weather.

When we got to the cut, the current was in our favor and we made 8.5 kts through it.  Then we hit alternating patches of fast and slow as the tide and current was still rushing out of the various inlets we passed.

All in all we were making good time, until...

Do you now that horrible sound a garbage disposal makes when a spoon falls in it?  Well our starboard engine decided to start making that sound just before the North Topsail Beach bridge.  To make a long story short, the engine had never been quite right since we purchased the boat.  It occasionally burned oil, occasionally did not like to start, and just seemed to always need a bit more attention.  We had it fully serviced before we left and on the way south I checked the oil everyday.  It died on us once going south in November.  The Yamaha mechanic said its oil sensor was not connected and it was not running quite as it should.  

We limped up towards Sneads Ferry, but decided to drop anchor for the night off of the channel.  It was quite shallow and took a bit to find a safe spot.  I played with the engine, and called my brother who used to be a boat engine mechanic.  I pumped the engine oil into a mason jar and let it settle.  With the flashlight shining on the bottom of the jar I was able to make out a variety of 'star constellations' in the hundreds of metal flakes sitting against the glass. It costs $2600 to rebuild an engine that costs $3000 new.  Hmmm.

In the morning we strapped the dinghy to the starboard side and ran with it, and the port engine, up to Sneads Ferry.  

I called the Yamaha dealer there and they recommended the Swan Point Marina for tie up.  So we called them and they told us to come on in.

The marina owner, who has only had the marina since last July was wonderful.  She and her staff where great to us.  The marina is old and full of character (and characters).  We really enjoyed our time there.  Their main dock is a single, long floating dock that can hold 7 or 8 catamarans or trawlers.  Its too shallow for sailboats that draw over 5.5' of water, and even that is close at real low tide.  But their set up, with a Yamaha dealer just across the parking lot, is ideal for PDQs, the new Geminis, and Tom Cat catamarans that use Yamahas.  

Swan Point Marina has a pet Pelican that lets you hand feed it fish.  He waits for the commercial fishermen each day.

So the search for a new engine began after we tied up.  Unfortunately the spring orders for engines were already made by dealers.  The local dealer, as with most dealers on the Carolina coast, sell only larger engines.  A place in Oriental had one in stock, but it was a tiller handle version. 

The PDQ owners have a great forum and Facebook page.  So I posted our dilemma on their Facebook page.  A few owners told us of a place in Michigan that many of the PDQ owners custom ordered outboards from. So I called and sure enough they had one left.  An Amex number and the marina address later, and a new engine will be there by next Friday.  The Yamaha dealer next door said he could install it while we were away.  We could not stay all week as I actually have to show up for work these days.  

Dessie tied up and waiting for her new outboard engine.

A call to Enterprise got us a car.  We actually were able to get a rental car for two weeks that we return to Jacksonville, for half of the cost of a one-way, for just a couple days.  So as we will be back in two weeks, we chose that option.  Then, being near Camp Lejune on a Friday, many marines rent cars.  All choose the lowest priced options, as did we.  So the young lady asked if we wanted a free upgrade to a mustang.  We were not sure, as Bonnie had boxes of crafts for Cape Charles.  But after we determined that it would all fit, we took the cherry red convertible Mustang.  I asked the young lady if she gave it to us cause we are the old folks and wont drive like the marines would.  She replied that I wasn't 'that old', but yes, that's why we got it.

We had a nice drive to Cape Charles, with the top up, as the car was full of Bonnie's solar lights.

Currently she is at the craft fair, while I went to the Barrier Island Museum and am not catching up on the blog and work tasks.  

Barrier Island Center

We hope to return to the boat in two weeks and move a bit farther north.  But this time, we plan to go slow and stop a lot along the way.  We have a few good friends that are just leaving the Bahamas, and hopefully with catch up to us.

Stay tuned for the continued voyage.

Wishing Everyone a Happy Holidays and Great 2013!

Our environmentally friendly Holiday Card.  All the same great wishes, none of the environmental waste.

Away from the boat

Dessie on the webcam

Almost like being there, we can see our boat from the Marina webcam.  She sure looks small with all the larger boats around her.

Hopefully we will get down there in the next few days, and spend some time enjoying warmer weather.  If not, we will take some time in early January and try to get to north Florida.

Right now we are accomplishing some big projects on both houses and getting one ready for new renters. Bonnie's cork counter-top project is looking pretty good.

We hope all our friends and family, near and far, have a great holiday.

Back in Annapolis

Work and needs back home brought us back for a while.  We came home to a cat that decided to express that he was dissatisfied with our length of time away - and that Casey was not enough company for him.  He marked almost every carpet in the house at least once.  We have a new roof leak as well.

Other than that, the house, animals, and Casey survived us being gone quite well.

Here is a link to some of the photos from the trip so far.  Hope to add to it as I collect them all.

2012WinterSailSouth Album

I dropped off the motherboard from the Heatpump/AC unit to be diagnosed.  Hopefully it wont be too expensive.

Its quite a bit colder up here.

Arriving in Charleston

We were up early, partly as we were excited to get to Charleston, and partly because it was so cold in the boat.  We had the propane heater and propane stove running to warm things up.

We can't run the propane heater at night as it can burn up all the oxygen in the boat.  It only takes it a little while to make the Carbon Dioxide detector quite unhappy.

Bonnie got coffee going, and I got the boat ready to move.  We could hear all the duck hunters around us shooting like it was a war zone.

It was an uneventful and pretty run.  This was a nice change, as nothing broke and no mishaps happened.

As we entered the harbor, Bonnie saw seagulls following one of the late season shrimp boats working deep water in the harbor.  She grabbed some stale crackers and threw a few out.  Within a couple minutes, all the gulls left the shrimp boat en masse and moved to us.  We could have made our on Hitchcock thriller.

They followed us all the way to the mouth of the Ashley river.

We had been remiss on contacting the City Marina about a slip, and as it was Thanksgiving there was no one to answer a phone call or hail.  We thought it best to anchor in the 'new' anchorage across from the marina, and check-in, in the morning.  As with Beaufort, the currents would be opposing the wind.  Not fun.  We found a good spot near another catamaran and prepped to drop the anchor.

The owner of that catamaran came out and held up his radio mic for us to hail him.  I was having visions of the Frenchman in Beaufort.  We established contact on the radio and he warned us of a large debris field under where were looking to anchor.  We thanked him and started looking for a different spot.

I moved forward to the channel and close to the Megadock (the City marina's massive front dock).  It had many open spaces on it.  So I figured that we should just grab a spot - as we planned to check in with them in the morning anyway.  As we approached, we saw Fortunate and Comocean, two boats belonging to friends of ours, just on the back side of the Megadock.  So was tied up just across from them.

Our friends' boats

As we looked around we saw two other boats here from our travels - Ata Marie from our few days in Cape Charles, and Windward (actually they saw us) from our first days on the ICW. It was like old home week.

The next day My Pleasure, from our sandbar adventure day, arrived.  We spent an evening reminiscing those events, and helping them with their new iPad.

Tokkie on Ata Maria invited us for drinks and some great cheeses one night. We reciprocated by having them over for lamb chops.  Then today they took us to lunch at Hymans downtown, and played tour guide for us at the market.

Prepped for company.

Somewhere in there, as group of happy sailors came by and asked about Bonnie's lights. It ended up that they were from the Annapolis area - one couple owned a marina in Tracy's Landing, one couple left to explore the east coast this winter on their Lagoon 44, then plan to go to the UK in the spring. Also among them was the Lagoon sales rep from Annapolis.  We had drinks and played Mexican Train dominoes with then until late one night.  Notice a trend here?

The folks at the City Marina were great. We signed up for a month, and they moved us to a spot near, and on the same side, as Fortunate and Comocean.

Dessie at the Megadock

Tomorrow we will arrange for a rental car to take home for a few weeks. We'll also check out downtown again, and start setting up Desert Star for her few week rest here.

I need to coordinate new parts for the AC/Heat pump and record all the model and serial numbers.

So that was pretty much our Thanksgiving weekend.  It'll be hard to top it next year.

Butler Island to Beautiful Marsh

ICW 395 to 430

We were up at 6:15 to try and get an early start so that we would have time to visit Georgetown, SC and still make Charleston tomorrow in the early afternoon.

We awoke to a cold boat.  I thought the generator ran out of fuel, but actually the heater broke.  Can you say Brrrrr?

We had the current with us and made Georgetown in an hour and a half.  We got gas at the first gas dock and the staff there apparently did not have their coffee yet.  They lacked any sense of southern hospitality.

We moved to the town dock to tie up and go for a walk.  We came upon the Ship's Booty in the 'Mall' as they call it. The owner's husband opened early and we had a very nice chat with him.  Bonnie found a few cute things.  We ate lunch at the Big Tuna by the dock.  They had a special of steamed oysters. It was a large tray of clusters of oysters.  It took me an hour to eat them all and my hands got a good workout.  They were very fresh.  Bonnie had the Grouper sandwich with well done fries (Thanks Arnon and Nancy for the well done suggestion).

Entering the harbor, and leaving, Bonnie donated some old bread to the gulls.  It was quite a show.

We had a mixed current the rest of the way.  We came to Leland Marine and looked in their creek for a place to anchor.  It was too tight.  We passed a guy on the dock and asked how much they charge for the night. We are pretty sure he said $6 a foot.  Probably not, but we took it as a sign to keep moving.

We anchored near whereMark Doyle had a good anchorage listed in his cruising guide.  It was quite and beautiful.  Probably the most beautiful so far - and that is saying a lot.

Sunset in the marsh in South Carolina

I dropped the dink and did some fishing.  No luck.  But I got some great photos and video of the boat at sunset.

Pretty nice!!!!

Bonnie made Scallops Provincial for dinner. It was incredible. But that's what dinner is most every night with her.



Bonnie will be baking a lot tonight to heat the boat.  :-)

Shallotte Inlet to Butler Island, SC

ICW 335 to 395

The night went very well.  I got up once when the tide changed and the anchor alarm went off.  Dessie was sitting just fine and the anchor held fine.  The current was probably 3 kts in each direction and the winds were howling again at gusts over 25 kts.  Will it EVER get warm and sunny!

We got up while it was still dark and were underway just as the sun was rising.  We really wanted to make Georgetown, SC, but that was not to be.

We entered South Carolina about 8:08 am.  The current was with us much of the way.  Then it changed.  We seemed to have it and the wind against us for the next 45 miles.

We passed the Casino boats, a lot of bridges, and the rock pile (a narrow cut with rocks on each side).

Casino Boats

Lighthouse along ICW

Three tugs, a large barge, and couple hundred feet of pipe.  The  last tugs was steering from behind like a  large fire truck

The bridges were monitoring channel 9 and opened on request.  However, we found if a boat was just far enough ahead of us, that the bridge just closed, they will make us wait a while.

We passed our friend Brooke's house.  We tried to reach her, but no luck. So we anchored on the back side of Butler Island, where two other boats also dropped their hook for the night.  I tried some fishing with a little lure, and even tried hanging the dive light over the side to attract fish.  No luck.

But what a great time we are having.  We motor, motor sail and even sometimes sail, for many miles - with our well provisioned home and all the comforts.  We stop when we want, or go when we want.  We have cell phone coverage much of the time, and talk with family and friends as easily as in Annapolis.  When evening comes, we drop the hook, eat a terrific meal, do a little fishing, make new friends, and/or have a quiet evening together.  It can't be beat!

Wrightsville Beach to Shallotte Inlet NC (Monk's Island)

ICW 283 to 335

We spent three nights in Wrightsville Beach, waiting for the Nor'easter to pass.  It hasn't yet, but we decided it was time to move on anyway.  A few other boats had the same idea, and the front floating dock was full all weekend with cruisers.

We did have a very nice time.  We had use of the loaner car at SeaPath YC, and did a bit of exploring and shopping.  We slept great and made the most of the weather.  We even caught a movie.

Bonnie found the recycling center and I found West Marine.

Winds on Sunday night gusted to 42kts.  We sure felt trapped.  This morning is was a bit better.  Gusts only to 26 kts.  We had the tide and current and wind with us, so we decided to go.  It wasn't as rough as we thought.  The cut had a 3 kt current in our favor and we flew through to the Cape Fear River.  The river tide was slacking and not too bad.  There were long and large swells, bit they were from behind, with the wind, and were gentle on us.

We turned west on the ICW past Cape Fear, and went as far as we could go until dark.  As the sun was setting, we passed a beautiful inlet (other than it being low tide, 25 kt winds and a 2 kts current) that looked incredible in with the setting sun shining from behind us.  So we decided to drop the hook here.

Its probably not the wisest spot, but we have are good enough at this to get a shallow spot out of the channel and the wind almost anywhere.  I will be checking our position often, but we seem to be holding well.

There is 3G coverage, and we saw a beautiful sunset.  I even did a little fishing - caught nothing.  I'll try again at first light.  Tomorrow we hope to make South Carolina about lunch time.

Mile Hammock to Wrightsville Beach

ICW 244-283

We were up by 7 and underway to time the bridges.  Not far down the ICW, we passed a Hunter 46 (My Pleasure) at New River inlet (72A) that was aground.  We asked if they were okay, and they weren't.  Although the tide was coming in, it was pushing them farther into shallow water and the current was 3 kts from the Inlet direct on their broad side.

We decided to try to throw them a line. Not my brightest idea.  Bonnie was at the helm and not able to keep us moving perpendicular to the current.  The current pushed us into them and bent our BBQ up a bit, and knocked the base off of one of their life line sanctions .  We got away from them before we did any more damage, and I dropped the lines - which quickly proceeded to wrap around their rudder.

We could not leave them like that.  So... we anchored nearby and I took the dink over to them.  I should have done that in the first place.  The lines were all wrapped up and not coming out. So it was time for a swim.  I was really hoping the next time I put on my wet suit it would be in a warm place.  But that was not to be.

It did not take too much effort to untangle the lines.  Of course after unbending the rudder the other day, anything would seem easy in comparison.  We did have a real problem with passing boats.  A group of USMC boats and a few large power boats all passed without slowing down at all, even after repeated hailings on the radio - and seeing them pointing at us.  I can almost expect that from large powerboats, but I was more than a bit disappointed in my fellow Marines.

I then used the dink in combination with their bow thruster to get them off the bar against the current.  It took a bit, but eventually worked.  We were back underway at 9:45am, but our bridge timing was now a mess.  We waited 20 or more minutes at both bridges, with strong currents and winds driving us towards them.  At least the rest of the day was less eventful.

A view of the strong currents while waiting for the bridge

Bonnie called around for slips, and we got a nice one at Seapath Yacht Club.  They were great, and even have a courtesy car and on-site laundry.  We walked to the beach and found a cute surf shop to look for a present for a friend's son's upcoming birthday.  We ended up buying  a used paddle-board for us instead.  The guy there, Mick, delivered to our boat in his pick-up truck.

We ate at the South Beach grill, which was okay.  We enjoyed the Wifi at the Yacht Club and caught up on things while doing laundry.  Its nice to have power and water.  We crashed by about 11pm.