We are enjoying the good weather we are having since the Christmas Eve storm. It has been sunny each day since the 27th which provides us 60deg temps within our enclosure which acts like a green house. Nightly temps have been in the mid 40s which is a bit on the cold side hopping into bed, but not cold enough for us to break out the generator.
Rivah tried on some cool shades with the bright sun.
The challenge today is to get through two of the shallowest spots on the ICW in North Carolina, the inlets of Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte. The sands are constantly shifting in these inlets and the USCG is sometimes slow repositioning the buoys but, even with all the new technologies that help, sometimes it's just too shallow to get through at the lowest tide levels. We were fortunate at Lockwoods to have a work vessel in front of us that we could watch on our chartplotter transit the pass. The new path, which was not the same as earlier in the year, was accurately marked by the buoys and deep. No problems. At Shallotte, however it was a different story. The buoys were in the right spots and the chart guidance accurate, but it was very shallow and we just made it through with a few inches to spare. If we had been an hour later at dead low tide, we probably would have not made it through.
As I mentioned, there are always interesting sights on the ICW. This paddler came up and raced us for awhile. We were cruising at 7mph and he kept right beside us for 5-10 minutes or so, before tiring I suppose. Or getting bored.
All along this stretch of the ICW from Southport to Calabash there were many signs of the destruction caused by the several hurricanes striking this coastline the last couple years. Many docks were damaged and boats blown up onto shore. This shrimp boat has been beached since our last trip through in 2019 and slowly decaying.
The Calabash anchorage is just around the corner from that shrimp boat and it had 3 new derelict boats washed up on shore. Not the most reassuring sight to see from a narrow and slightly exposed anchorage.
We anchored here next to the stranded boats and were joined by two other sailboats later in the day. Another quiet night with temps in the mid 40s.
