A crisp morning for our second day enroute to Florida. That's 36 degrees outside and 42 inside the boat. We need to make tracks south quickly. Usually we reach reasonably mild temps by the time we get to South Carolina, or at least south of Beaufort, NC, as the warm Gulf Stream comes up the coast to Hatteras.
We are off to Coinjock today where we can plug into shore power and have heat tonight. The forecast is for low 30s, so heat will be nice.
No problems transiting to Coinjock. There is a very shallow spot just before you get to Coinjock where we went aground on our second trip down back in 2006. We only had a hand-held GPS in those days which was only accurate to 30-50 feet which is not good enough when it starts getting narrow and shallow. These days with our modern chartplotter plus the GPS on our phones which is accurate to 3-5 feet, there is little problem keeping in the middle of the channel.
Up early and ready to go as soon as Rivah has her morning walk and potty stop. Just a light layer of frost on the deck and windows. Still blue skies so we will be warm in the cockpit.
The winds are still forecasted to be light and the Abermarle should be smooth. Another motoring day but no bashing across the Sound as we have done the past few years.
As forecasted, the Abermarle was very smooth. The genoa headsail is out and keeping full but the wind is only a few knots so it is mostly for looks. We are motoring along with the wind providing 1-2kts of assistance. The good news is we are making good time and will have no problem reaching our anchorage at the mouth of the Alligator River canal well before dark.
This is one of the few sections of the trip where there is no good place to pull into a marina, so it is anchoring in the cold tonight. We have a portable generator that we can run if we decide we really need heat. As it turned out, we passed on the generator and jumped into bed with pajamas plus plenty of blankets.
Across the Abermarle and starting down the Alligator River, you come to the Alligator River Swing Bridge. This can be a problem when the wind is blowing hard as the bridge wont open in over 25kts of wind and there are no good protected anchorages nearby.
No problems today with the light winds. We zipped through with no delay.
Not so sunny today so its a fleece and gloves day, but not too bad. Rivah likes to keep me company and keep me awake on the long 10 hour trip with a droning diesel engine.
Anchored and fed, we'll be heading to bed by 8pm tonight. Temperature in the mid-40s inside. Not bad unless you are sitting, meditating.
Monday morning, Jan 9th, and we are underway and approaching the mouth of the Alligator-Pungo River canal. This is a 21 mile long canal connecting two of the North Carolina Sounds.
Cloudly this morning but the skies are clearing off to the west so hopefully we'll get some solar heating today. Its another 10hr motor drive to the next stop - Mayo Seafood in Hobucken, NC.
Approaching Mayo Seafood. This is a working marina for the Hobucken scallop fleet, but they let pleasure boats tie up to the dock at the far end. There's room for about 5-6 boats. In January there are seldom that many boats coming through although we had 4 boats by the end of the day.
The main attraction of Mayo Seafood is they have electrical hookups, so we will have heat tonight. They also have inexpensive shrimp and scallops for sale.
Nothing fancy but there is power. We also stayed here a couple days or more in previous years waiting for good weather in the Pamlico Sound and Neuse River that are next along the journey.
This trip the big high pressure dome is still sitting overhead bringing clear skies and no wind, so we will be off motoring in the morning.
Tuesday morning and still blue skies and little wind. We are motoring across the Pamlico Sound, then up the Neuse River past Oriental into Adams Creek that takes us down to Beaufort.
Pretty rare for the Neuse River to be this calm.
This was a nice surprise as two dolphins came up to swim with us as we motored up the Neuse.
We often see dolphins in the Sounds but they normally are feeding and don't come up to play in the wake as they do offshore.
Heading down Adams Creek now for Beaufort. Here's a fishing boat coming back from the ocean.
We anchored just off the ICW in the protection of an island off of Morehead City. Usually we anchor off the Coast Guard base by Beaufort but that is an hour or so out of the way and the weather was very calm so we decided to anchor near Morehead City off of the bulk fertilizer loading pier.
It's a very convenient anchorage area and quiet after all the fishing boats have gotten back to home base. Interestingly, when we arrived in Miami and met another Island Packet owner he told us he was in this same anchorage last fall and was hit by a recreational fishing boat in the night with quite a bit of damage. The fisherman was watching the mullet running, not where he was going. Maybe not the safest place to anchor?
Wednesday morning and off again making tracks to the south. Still blue skies and little wind with the big high pressure system sitting overhead.
With the sun out temperatures are up in the cockpit. Long sleeve polyester weather.
Today its transiting through the Camp LeJeune firing range. We have only been stopped once in our many trips through here for a firing exercise. No problems today and an uneventful transit.
We did get to see some military exercise activity, just no firing. These Navy riverine patrol boats passed by and later 4 more high speed Navy boats passed us. Interestingly, these were the only boats that gave us the official passing horn signals as each came by. Good to see they're following proper maritime rules.
Wed night and another calm evening. We are anchored in Hammock Bay which is an artificial protected anchorage area dug out by the military for Camp Lejeune but not used any more. Its a great place for ICW boats to anchor and there are normally 5-10 or more boats here. There were just 3 on 11 Jan.
12 Jan and we are off for Wrightsville Beach today. Here come the Navy high speed river patrol boats passing by.
Two bridges to get through today, the Figure Eight and the Wrightsville bridge. The bad thing is they open on the hour and half-hour but they are 40 minutes apart so there is no way to get through without a 20 minute delay at Wrightsville.
Through Wrightsville bridge and time to anchor for the evening - through the bridge and cut to the left through a channel that takes you over to the Masonboro Inlet area. Its a large protected area (the wind is normally blowing hard along this section of the NC coast) with many anchoring spots.
Anchored for the night. Not many boats here in January. Normally very busy during the migration periods.
Temperatures are in the high 40s along the NC coast, so cool but not freezing. No need for a marina and heat but, it will be nice to get further south where we don't need 4 blankets.
Friday the 13th and we are actually doing some real sailing down the Cape Fear River with the engine turned off. Its only for a few hours as we will soon reach Southport where we turn west back into the ICW canal that runs along the coastline towards Little River, South Carolina. But a nice break from the droning diesel.
Tied up at the Holden Beach town dock. There is room for 2 boats here and in Jan, we are the only ones here.
We will spend a couple days here visiting with my brother who has a beach house on Holden Island and spends much of his time here fixing up the house, now that he is retired from his job with the government.
Not a fancy marina, but they have electric power, which means heat, plus hot showers and a laundry. After 7 days on the road we are ready for laundry and a day off from the grind. And, Sue loves to walk the beaches here for shells.
