Sunday morning and we are ready to head out offshore with a 2 day weather window which will allow us to skip the shallow and meandering ICW rivers and canals of Georgia and southern South Carolina. The forecast is for light winds from the east which should allow some motor-sailing on relatively smooth seas.
It started out fairly smooth but soon the swells grew in the St Mary's inlet as the incoming swells met the outgoing tide. We took a little bit of water over the bow but nothing compared to departing Georgetown back in January.
As soon as we cleared the inlet breakwaters the conditions settled down. Unfortunately the wind was too light to do much sailing and we had to motor all day. But at least we were avoiding the Georgia ICW and not getting beat up by the waves.
Our last sunset while out in the ocean for this trip. Still a flat ocean and motoring along. Good thing we got our heat exchanger leak fixed as we motored for over 24 hours on this leg.
The next day the wind finally came up in the afternoon and allowed us to motor sail as forecasted. We were able to make it all the way to the Georgetown inlet north of Charlestown, savings us over 3 days of traveling up the ICW.
Here's an interesting sight - breakers out in the ocean on a fairly calm day. As we approached the Winyah Bay inlet I noticed on the chart there were offshore shoals and the chart says "breaks in even settled wave conditions." We were able to confirm exactly what the chart said. The ocean bottom goes around 40-50ft to about 10ft at these shoals.
Each time I make an ocean passage I am reminded how much safer it is today with good charts and GPS.
Back in the ICW in the Waccamaw River making our way up towards North Carolina. Always interesting sites in the ICW.
At Little River we saw two of these large canoes paddling up the river. The first had 20 paddlers and this one, the second, has 18. All seemed having a good time on the water.
We anchored for the night at the Little River crossroads near Calabash. Once safely anchored we received weather warnings of approaching dangerous thunderstorms with hail. We watched the billowing thunderheads approaching.
Fortunately, the severe squall line steadily diminished as the frontal line reached the ocean boundary and we only had steady rain with some lightening but no hail.
Our next stop was Holden Beach where we could visit with my brother who is still able to work from home at his house on the beach. One of the benefits of the COVID pandemic.
We saw that someone at Holden Beach is copying the Key West tiki bar idea. This bar is for rent for those visiting Holden Beach.
Next stop up the ICW is Masonboro Inlet at Wrightsville. There is always some twist on the water that makes things interesting. As we came around the corner towards the anchorage we encountered this dredge. It would have been no problem except he appeared to be exhibiting the safe passage diamonds on the wrong side of the dredge. Sue finally got him on the radio and he confirmed the diamonds were on the wrong side. Still it was a bit confusing as there were two large buoys that normally float the effluent waste pipes positioned on the safe side. Apparently they were just buoys to warn you to stay a safe distance away, not floating a pipeline.
Next stops are Hammock Bay at Camp Lejeune, then we made it to the Goose Creek entrance near Hobucken. Then comes the Alligator River anchorage and finally on to Elizabeth City.
We had good weather for this whole portion of the journey. No complaints. Even got to see a bald eagle sitting on a stand, but no nest.
