Preparing for 1 Jan 2024 Departure for Florida and Bahamas

 

   December 2023 and Tides Inn is sitting peacefully waiting for the final stores onloading. 

   After returning from Florida in May 2023, we refinished the teak trim during the summer and repainted the bottom in the Fall, again raising the waterline a little bit. 

   The boat is loaded with fuel and water, plus 150# of dogfood upfront, balancing the dinghy and outboard hanging on the stern. Still need to load food stores for 4-5 months.

    Preparing for 4-5 months of stores takes a bit of planning and arranging, starting at home. We will be able to grocery shop in Florida for perishables but, we try to get everything onboard that we will need for a couple months in the Bahamas where the stores are scarce and prices high.  

  Best to do a bunch of shopping at Costco before departure.

  Once everything is carted down to the boat, its another round of organizing what to store where. Items that we need early on go in the salon behind the settee cushions. 

   There are large storage areas under the settee seats but they are all full of sailing gear, tools and spare parts.  The starboard side shelves are full of sailing gear and not available for stores. 

   Items that we won't need until later in the cruise go into bins and bags in the aft cabin. We still have a couple more blue crates to place in the open area.

  Once loaded up, we still have cockpit folding chairs and dodger covers to store back here. 

  Hopefully this year we won't have to unload all this to access the engine, transmission and shaft. The last 3 trips south we have had to unload it all at least once enroute for unplanned maintenance issues. 

   We have 3 bins of clothes for the homeless that we take and provide to shelters along the way. Sue collects these clothes all year long and we take them south.

   Just about fully loaded now and I see just a sliver of bottom paint still showing at the waterline. Perfect. As we eat our way through our stores we will rise up towards our normal level. 

   All still on track for a 1 Jan departure.

Dismal Swamp 24 Apr

 

   The Pasquotank River is another of the prettiest sections of the ICW. The river winds it way up from Elizabeth City to South Miles where you enter the Dismal Swamp Canal.

   An interesting observer watching the boats go by on the Piankatank. Fits right in with the Cypress swamp lands.

    Entering South Mills Lock. Got here about 30mins early and they finally opened the gates 8 mins before scheduled time.

   Wow, they really packed us in tight and the two lines holding us to the wall were not ideally placed so the boat could surge forward and back. We had about 3ft of space in front but only 1ft astern. 

   Then the water came boiling in from the front gate rocking all us pretty extensively. It was a rough rise of 8 feet.  

   But, all turned out ok with no contact with the wall or other boats. A bit nerve racking though.

   After a long delay getting the front gate open, they finally decided tha only one gate was going to open. We carefully made our way over to the other side of the lock and proceeded out slowly. 

   Clear of the locks and heading up the Dismal Swamp Canal. Turned out to be a nice day although on the cool side. Sue is up on the bow sitting on our pulpit seat.

   Here's the view of the canal from the front of Tides Inn. 

   The main thing to watch for in the canal is the overhanging trees. There are some places where you have to maneuver a bit to avoid hitting the branches with the mast - which could take off the $500 wind instruments up there. We made it through with no incidents.

   We did hit one log with the keel, a typical event in the canal. The solid full length keel and protected prop and rudder on the Island Packet is perfect for canal running. 

   Sue, trying some artistic photos of the sky reflected in the water from the bow. Not a breath of wind down here beneath the trees.

   Three hours later and we are in the Deep Creek lock being lowered back down about 8 ft. Its a much smoother ride going down. We also had a lot more room with only 3 of us in the lock.

   One of our few Bald Eagle sightings this trip north. This guy hangs out at the Deep Creek Lock most every day they told us.

   We got through the lock at the 4pm opening, then went up to Top Rack Marina to top off the fuel tank, at about $1/gal less than most other places in the Chesapeake. 

   We were then ready to head through the Gilmerton Bridge at 1730 after the rush hour closure period. However, the railroad folks had other plans.  Fortunately we only had to wait 30mins, the tug and barge ahead of us and others were waiting for 60mins. 

Finally at 6pm the bridge opened and we were on our way.

   The Portsmouth basins were full so we proceeded up to the anchorage off of Hospital Point. It was relatively empty, except for the buoy in use for the Monday night racing club. We got to watch the racers round the course in some fairly light but gusty winds. 

   It was a quiet night and we were on our way for Fort Monroe the next morning.

Elisabeth City 21-24 Apr

 

   Friday morning we were tied up at the Jennette Foods dock. This is a convenient place to moor with good protection from any weather. You do have to watch out for the trees though that can grab the rigging. 

   The Jennette company allows free docking and room for about 4 boats in return for you spending money in town at restaurants and other stores.

   Its a good deal and there are plenty of great places to spend money.

   One of our favorite coffee cafes is the Kraken Coffee House right downtown. It is an old 1930s gas station that has been reconfigured now to a coffee house. 

   Lunch/Dinner was pizza for me and salad for Sue. These are the lunch portions. Would hate to see the dinner portions. 

   The Paradiso restaurant had seating right over the waters of the Pasquotank and the sun kept the temperatures perfect.

   Happy hour at the 7-Sounds brewery recently opened up and on the Pasquotank. A good selection of craft beers there but we both selected the coffee porter. 

   A visit to Elizabeth City let us meet up with our good friend Carol who we have known since our days in Guam in the 1970s. It was a great visit.

   

   Elizabeth City is working to improve the downtown area for tourism and just to get the local populace shopping downtown. We love the fire hydrant tables in one of the alley ways. These tables were great during Covid days when we got takeout pizza and took it here to eat. 

   Our stay at Elizabeth City got extended a couple days when we learned the Gilmerton Bridge in Norfolk was closed until Monday morning.

  But Monday it was time to move on up the river. Here is an old railroad bridge that crosses the river just up from the city.

  Next comes the Dismal Swamp canal route.

Belhaven to Elizabeth City, NC 20 Apr

 

   Underway from Belhaven early and through the Alligator River Canal, now motor sailing up the Alligator River. Winds are light but we are getting a slight lift from the sail. Winds have been building each afternoon and dying at night and we are getting the afternoon lift. 

   Here's a classic Murphy's Law - the winds have been building in the afternoon all week long. They were quite strong in the Alligator River so I decided not to anchor without good protection. We would sail across the Albemarle to Elizabeth City. Of course, half way across the Albemarle, the wind died to zero, so we motored the rest of the way.  That's ok, most all this trip has been a motor cruise.

   

We motored into the Pasquotank, and then the wind returned near sunset, but we just motored up to a protected anchorage off the US Coast Guard Base. We were treated to C-130 and rescue helo training flights off the airbase. The flight activity stopped shortly after dark and we had a quiet and peaceful night.

   The next morning we motored up to Elizabeth City, through the bridge and over to a berth at the Jennette Food dock. 

   Our plan had been to stay for 2 nights, but it turned out the Gilmerton Bridge in Norfolk was closed for the weekend, so we were in Elizabeth City all weekend. There are plenty of things to do there.

Belhaven, NC 19 Apr

 

   Motoring up the Neuse River. We got the headsail out but its not doing much. Light winds from astern.

   Its been light winds all day until we arrived at Belhaven and anchored just off the town marina. Then we had 10-14kts of wind and 1-2ft waves until sunset. 

   The two other boats anchored by us stayed onboard but we had to take Rivah ashore. It was fine motoring downwind into the marina, but a wet ride back.  Once we were back onboard, the wind died down once the sun went down. Typical.

   In all our trips down the ICW we have never anchored off Belhaven. We normally stop at Dowry Creek Marina which is a few miles out of town.

   Walking around town, we haven't missed much. A few restaurants that were rated as good. In the morning we dinghied in to get some highly recommended "cheese biscuits". Not so great.  

   It was good to see a town we havent toured before, but we'll skip it next trip.

Oriental, NC 17-19 Apr

 

   Underway from Cape Lookout, and motoring into a mild breeze back to the Beaufort Inlet. It wasn't bad until we got right to the inlet where the wind was against the outflowing current.  Here you see the breaking waves on the sandbar west of the inlet.

   The Inlet conditions were really bad, some of the worst we've seen this trip. While the waves weren't that high and not breaking over the bow, it was a total washing machine with waves coming from all angles. The wind chose to switch from 10kts on the beam to 20+kts on the nose. Worse was the current which was running at 3-4kts on the nose. 

     We had to bash through, making about 3 kts until we could get through the narrow inlet and out of the strongest current. Then, its back to calm waters of the Intracoastal Waterway.

   The rest of the day was uneventful with calm conditions and a small current on the nose. By noon, we were at Oriental and found the town dock unoccupied, so we quickly backed into a spot on the dock.

   You can stay on this dock for 48hrs, so we will spend a couple days here at Oriental.

   Oriental advertises itself as the "sailing capital" of North Carolina. There are over 3000 sailboats registered here and under 3000 residents. They have a nice waterfront on the Neuse perfect for long walks.

   There are several unique spots in Oriental including the Labyrinth, opposite the waterfront park. The white dots are little electric candles.

   The candles were easy to see in the day and pretty for people to see at night, but Rivah didn't understand you weren't supposed to knock them out of place. Sue had to abort her nighttime walk through the labyrinth. 

   The best thing to do in Oriental, other than morning coffee at the Bean, is an afternoon beer at the marina. 

   After a couple great days with perfect weather it was time to move on. Not much wind this morning. We are heading to Belhaven today.

Cape Lookout Anchorage 13-17 Apr

    This is the first time in all our travels south that we have stopped in the Cape Lookout anchorage. It can be difficult getting here or back out because the winds are always blowing strong around the North Carolina Capes.

   But reading the reviews, it was a place not to be missed. Since we were not in a hurry and the weather was forecasted to be good for the week, we gave it a try.

   We had no trouble transiting over from Beaufort in the light winds and the anchorage turned out to be very protected from the southwest winds we had all week.

   We ended up staying for 3 days. The winds were mild for the whole visit. We did have rain showers a couple times but no strong winds.

   We made two trips to the beach each day at low tide, morning and late afternoon. The only challenge was dragging the dingy back to the water after the tide would go out during our walks and shelling.

   Sue is in shell heaven. Laid out on deck are the shells she collected in Holden Beach, a good place for shells, during two days of shelling.  The four plastic bags contain the shells she picked up this morning at Cape Lookout.  The beach is loaded with shells.

   Sue walks along the surf line looking for good shells. This is the southwest shoreline of the Cape Lookout spit. It had the most shells.

   Mark walks Rivah along the high tide line looking for sharks teeth. In the 3 days, I found 2 probable worn shells that look just like sharks teeth, but I think are shells. No sharks teeth. There must be some on this beach, just hard to find.

   Here's an Atlantic Welk just waiting for Sue to walk by and grab it. 

   There were normally 8-10 boats in the anchorage but, in the 3 days we were here we were the only ones walking this section of the beach. There were some campers up the beach a mile or so to the north and many people boat over from Beaufort to the southern tip of the island but no one where we were walking.  So the nice welks were just sitting there.

 

  We only found this one live welk the whole 3 days. He was trying to work his way back off the beach to the surf. Sue gave him an assist and dropped him offshore. He was a fairly old guy with lots of barnacles on his back.

      Another live guy - I came across this large crab out and about. Most all the crabs burrow holes in the sand and hide out during the day, coming out at night to feed. Not sure why this guy was out in the daytime. 

   I did notice that he was extremely hard to see, blending right in with the sand and shells. You had to know he was there to notice him.

Note all the shells on what is now Sue's favorite beach.

   Our last day we dinghied over to the lighthouse side of the bay. The Cape Lookout lighthouse has the diamond pattern with black diamonds orientated east and west and white diamonds north and south. 

   This is the northeast shore of the cape. Fairly protected from the southwest winds during our visit. I'm sure this shore is quite rough during a Northeaster. 

   Not very many shells on this beach. Turns out we anchored off the best beach for shells.

   Some innovative photography - "let there be light".

   Interestingly, we never saw the lighthouse working over our 3 day stay. But during our walk over on the ocean beach we were able to get it to light up for us. 

   After walking in the sand for 6 miles a day for 3 days, Rivah has had enough of shelling.

   We've just about maxed out the available deck space to wash and dry the shells. Time to move on north.

   We've been watching the weather to see if there is a good 2 day window to head north around Cape Hatteras with no luck. Its a challenge because the weather south of Hatteras is frequently significantly different from that north of the Cape because the cold fronts sit right on the Cape. If you leave Beaufort in ideal southerly winds, by the time you get to the Chesapeake the wind has shifted to the west or even north.

  So we will head up the ICW and stop in Oriental, Belhaven and Elizabeth City along the way home. What a great time we had at the Cape Lookout anchorage. One of our best cruising experiences.