26-28 Apr, Great Bridge, VA

 

   From our anchorage in the North River it was a 2hr transit up past Coinjock Marina and on to the Currituck Sound. After passing through the narrow and shallow section north of Coinjock, we were able to let out the genoa sail and get a boost from the strong southwesterly winds.

   We zipped along at nearly hull speed with the engine only having to work at a leizurely pace. The were a few strong gusts we weren't expecting that heeled us over and made a mess down below, but no disasters. Just a bit of clean up to do. 

   We wind our way up the North River which is mostly through grassy marshland, and eventually come to the Virginia Cut canal that connects between the North River and the Elizabeth River through Norfolk.

   There are a couple of opening bridges to pass through along the canal but no delays.

   Rivah sleeps most of the days now when we aren't pitching back and forth. She'll use anything handy to rest her head on.

   We had hoped to tie up to the nice dock before the Great Bridge bridge, but there was no room there, 5 boats tied up, so we had to pass through the bridge and tie up to the sidewall. Even on that rougher side, it was nearly full. We were lucky to grab the last available spot behind the other 5 boats already tied up at 2pm. 

  We'll be here at Great Bridge for a couple days as we have to wait for the northerly winds to die down before we can head up the Chesapeake for home. A frontal system with thunderstorms came through last evening, so today there are gusty northwest winds. We should be able to continue on tomorrow. 

25-26 Apr, Dowry Creek to Great Bridge, VA - Across the Albemarle Sound

 

   Another early departure. We have a full day today to get up to and across the Albemarle Sound. Will take us over 10 hours to make the 60 mile trip.

   Will be motoring over smooth waters with little wind until we get to the Alligator River, then the wind is forecasted to pick up and shift to the east which should be good for sailing.

   Motoring through the Alligator River Canal. It's a 3hr passage through the 20 mile long canal between the Pungo River near Belhaven and the Alligator River near nowhere.   Then, another two hours motoring up through the Alligator River.

   Passing through the Alligator River swing bridge. We thought it was going to be a hassle as there were two boats just far enough ahead of us that we couldn't make it through the same opening so we would have to wait for traffic to clear before we could get an opening. But it turned out there was a problem opening the bridge so they had to wait, which gave us time to catch up. The bridge operator kept the bridge open for us to pass through with only a slight delay. Good karma.

     I know, it looks like great crossing conditions but, looks are deceiving. We motored 2hrs up the Alligator River in no wind. By the time we got to the Sound, the wind was blowing 15-20kts from the southeast just abaft our beam. Great wind direction but the waves quickly built to 3ft or more and always steep faces in the Albemarle since it is only 20ft deep. 

   We held on and sailed across. Fortunately conditions did not get any worse and actually improved as we reached the other side of the Sound. Now it's a couple hours up to our anchoring spot.

   After a long day we have the anchor down and are tucked in with the wind forecasted to shift to behind the shore. Should be protected for the night.

  We are still having to use our secondary anchor as the windlass is inop, so we will set the anchor alarm for the night in case we drag. Good news is we have over a mile to drag downwind before we encounter any shallow water. 

23-24 Apr, Dowry Creek, NC

    Fortunately we do not have to depart early this morning as it's only a 4 hr transit up to Dowry Creek Marina from here at Mayo Seafood. That was good because it rained early in the morning, just starting to clear a little after 9am. 

   A Mayo Seafood shrimp boat is heading out this morning also after the rain stopped.  

   We passed on buying the fresh shrimp with heads still attached at the seafood store. Yes, they are cheap but more work to prepare, easier to order a nice shrimp basket at Dowry Creek restaurant.

   Underway heading north in clearing skies and, a tug and barge to pass in the canal. 

   Here's a interesting boat/ship passing by. Bet there's a lot of maintenance attached with this boat. Looks in very good shape.

   This is probably the flatest we've experienced crossing the Pamlico River, a total motoring trip today.

   A few hours later and we are all tied up at our slip at Dowry Creek Marina. This has become one of our favorite stops with its low prices and onsite restaurant. We will stay here for two days waiting for good weather and favorable winds to cross the Albemarle Sound.

   Its a breezy day on the 24th with a front system passing through and northerly winds, which is why we are waiting to cross the Albemarle. We had a few showers but no hard rain.

   Tomorrow we will set off to motor through the Alligator River Canal, then should be able to sail across the Albermarle.

22 Apr - Transit to Mayo Seafood

 

   Up at first light for our trip up the ICW but, first we had to lift the dinghy and motor, then retrieve our 160ft of anchor line and anchor which took about an hour. 

   Now we are motoring the one hour leg over to the Beaufort Inlet, then entering the inlet with wind against the current which makes the waves bigger. They never look big in photos but imagine these are fairly rough waters as we fight against the 3kt current flowing out the inlet. Another hour and we are through the inlet and past Beaufort and working our way northward.

   Entering Adams Creek and we have to slow and loiter for a tug and barge to come down current through the narrow bridge opening. Not room for him and us both in the bridge waters.

   When I see these tug and barges I always think I am happy to not be a tug captain and have to deal with recreational boaters with no idea what they are doing on the water. Its amazing more are not run over by these large barges. Interestingly, nearly every bridge on the ICW shows evidence of being struck multiple times by barges in past years. It is clearly not easy handling these barges when the wind and currents come into play.

   The advantage of leaving Cape Lookout a day earlier than planned is there is good wind today to sail down the Neuse River. We finally have the sails out and the engine turned off for the first time since leaving Florida on our trip north. 

   We're sailing "wing-on-wing" with the main and genoa out to opposite sides. We're not using a preventer or whisker pole, so we have to be very alert for wind shifts to prevent the genoa from collapsing or, more dangerous, the mainsail boom from jibing across the deck and breaking something.   We have to turn in 30 minutes, so I don't want to go on deck and put out the pole and preventer lines (which takes over 30 minutes to accomplish). So, we will just be very careful steering for the next half hour. 

   We made the turn and are now sailing on a beam reach up the Bay River. We have all 3 sails out and are making good speed up the river. This is the type of sailing our boat is built for - and can rarely be experienced when you are trying to get south or north down the constricted waters of the ICW. 

   Had to insert this photo to show our speed at 7.2kts. That is hull speed for our boat, the maximum speed the boat can sail except when it is surfing down steep waves. 

   The wind has continued to build to nearly 20kts on the beam. We had to put 1 deep reef in the mainsail, but are still making 7kts. 

We got to continue this great sail for the next hour, then it was time to turn into the canal to our stopping point at Mayo Seafood. So much for sailing.

   Our dockage for the night at Mayo Seafood. There's no power or water but the price is right - $15 for the night and, a dock to tie up to so we don't have to anchor with our broken windlass. We'll head off to Dowry Creek tomorrow. 

   The docks at Hobucken. 

21-22 Apr - Cape Lookout, NC

   We left Holden Beach early Sunday morning, heading northbound up the ICW. Just down the road from Holden Beach is the Lockwood Folly's Inlet which is notorious for shoaling with many boats going aground here. 

   There is a safe but winding track through here which is available from other boaters on the internet. The USACE tries to keep the channel open  but, the channel fills in each year. There were two dredges working to clear the main channel as we passed by along the "shore route".  The drone shots from my brother Scott are pretty neat.

   We arrived at Southport a couple hours later where you enter the Cape Fear River. Normally we turn left and go up the river several miles, then pass through Snow's Cut to rejoin the ICW at Carolina Beach, then on to Masonboro.

    However, the weather conditions were favorable for an offshore trip to Cape Lookout and that would save us half a day and having to anchor at Masonboro. So, we turned to the right and proceeded out Cape Fear Inlet and rounding Frying Pan Shoals then direct to Cape Lookout. 

   The weather was good but, it still is another overnight ocean passage with rocking and rolling and winds astern, meaning another 24hr offshore motor sail.  

   Rivah is no longer a fan of offshore passages where it is difficult to impossible for her to potty on the foredeck.  She does figure out how to make herself comfortable though.

   We set our overnight speed to arrive at Cape Lookout at first light and at 0700 we were rounding the spit and heading into the anchorage area. 

   For the first time this trip, the wind offshore did not come up higher than forecast and we had an uneventful nighttime passage. Time for a nap now and then we will hit the beach this afternoon.

   Tides Inn at anchor inside the Cape Lookout hook. Note the anchor line off the bow instead of chain.

   This is our 3rd stop at Cape Lookout which is now one of our favorite spots to collect shells and walk the beach. It is a very protected anchorage area which is important as the winds can be quite strong here just down the coast from Cape Hatteras. The weather was very good for this visit.

 In past years we have collected lots of Atlantic Welk and conch shells here but, this year was fairly slim pickings. Lots of clam and scallop shells as usual but not many welks.  It was basically the same story as Holden Beach - not a good year for shelling. 

   We came back to the boat in our dinghy and climbed back onboard. A few minutes later I looked out and noticed we were drifting down the coast past the other anchored boats. We were dragging our anchor! 

   Because our windlass broke in Awendaw, which controls the anchor chain for our main anchor (which never drags), we are using our secondary anchor with nylon line instead of chain. This is a much less secure anchor solution as we proved. We repositioned in the anchorage and put out an extra 50ft of line, then set our anchor alarm system to monitor our position during the night. All was fine but, considering the shelling wasn't so great, we decided not to spend another night at the Cape worrying about the anchor dragging and set off on our way north the next morning.

17-20 Apr - Holden Beach

   From Bucksport in the Waccamaw River we motored up the ICW through Myrtle Beach, Little River and the Shallotte Inlet to Holden Beach. 

   We tie up at the Holden Beach town dock, which has room for 2 40ft boats. It is a nice service that thankfully not many boaters know about, or want to stop at.

My brother, Scott, took this photo of us at the dock with his new photo drone.

     Our timing was good again this year as this was the week that Sue's sisters come down from New York for their spring break at the beach.

   We were able to get the boat secure at the dock, all checked in at the office, then run down to happy hour with Sue's sisters and their families at their rental beach house. It was good to catch up as we haven't seen them since our visit last April. 

   The next morning the kids were able to come down to the boat and get a tour. Scarlett was the best at blowing the conch horn. 

   Visiting Holden Beach means walks along the beach at dawn. This year it was low tide at dawn, a good time to collect nice shells. 

      There are lots of shells at Holden Beach, better than most beaches along the East Coast. However, this year there weren't that many unusual shells, mostly clam shells and scallop shells. I suppose it has a lot to do with the weather, winds and storms as to what shells wash up on the beach. 

   Sue, the photographer, got this shot of shadows during our early morning walk on the beach with Rivah. What long legs we have!

   Watching the weather windows for continuing north, we stayed for 3 days at Holden Beach, which enabled us to visit with Mark's brother Scott and wife Lea for a couple days. They have a beach house at Holden and come down for the weekends to work on the house and enjoy the beach. 

   Three days of visiting with family and walking the beach for shells was great but, it was soon time to hit the ICW again and continue our trek northward.

   Our next destination is Cape Lookout along the Outer Banks. Its a two day trip with a stop for the night anchoring at Masonboro Inlet near Wrightsville.

This is another drone shot from Scott as we pass through the Holden Beach bridge.

16-17 Apr - Waccamaw River to Holden Beach

 

   We always try to come back off the ocean in Charleston or Georgetown to be able to motor up the Waccamaw River. This is the prettiest section of the entire ICW between Norfolk and Miami, especially in the spring when the trees have leaved out and everything is green.

   This is a cypress swampy area where the trees grow right down, and into, the river waters. There are many ospreys and bald eagles throughout this area and we saw some of each.

   We normally anchor in the Waccamaw but our windlass died at the Awendaw anchorage, so now we are preferring to stop at marinas.

   We left Bucksport at first light continuing up the river, through Myrtle Beach, and on to Holden Beach where we would visit with Sue's sister and family, on vacation from New York, and my brother that lives there.

 It doesn't show up well in the photographs but the mist rising from the warm river waters reflecting the sunlight turned the entire river surface pure white. It was a remarkable sight, one of the prettiest in our boating experiences. 

   These are the sights that make all the tribulations of boat maintenance and repairs and rough offshore passages fade in significance. This is why we are cruisers.

14-15 April, offshore from St Mary's to Charleston

 

   We decided to come into Charleston at first light on the 15th rather than continue offshore to Winyah Bay as the winds were steady at 20-25 with higher gusts and forecasted to increase during the day. Meanwhile the seas were up to 5-7ft and being dead astern, we were rolling pretty heavily. 

   It was not a comfortable ride and we were not looking forward to 12 more hours of rolling and entering the Winyah Inlet in 30+kts of wind. 

  This turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made since sailing. The entrance to Charleston was quite benign with winds on the beam of 18-20kt and seas less than 2 feet as soon as we passed between the breakwaters. We then drove up the ICW in 10kts of wind and were anchored in the protected Awendaw Creek by noon and ready for a well deserved beer and nap. 

    

   Here's a screenshot of the forecasted winds for 15th. The orange areas are bad and the red, very bad. It turned out that the real winds were a little bit worse than the forecast as it is always extra windy at the Winyah Bay Inlet and gusting to 35+kts. That would have been very bad conditions to try to enter the inlet.

   Another option would have been to continue sailing north another 24hours and come in at Little River Inlet, which we would have done in our earlier years of several day offshore passages but, those days are over. We weren't up for another 24hrs at sea in these conditions and, our very comfortable entrance at Charleston and motor up the ICW proved that toughening out ocean passages is not an essential activity. There are options!

   The Charleston entrance takes you by a bit of Civil War history, Fort Sumter at the mouth of Charleston Harbor.

 Notice how smooth the waters are. It was still blowing 25-30kts offshore with seas of 5-7ft and higher. What a smart decision to get off the ocean here. 

11-14 Apr Fernandina Beach

    A view of the city marina from our anchorage spot. We transited up on Friday with light winds and will sit here at anchor for a couple days of north winds. Then on Monday the wind shifts to the southwest and we will ride that up to Charleston or Georgetown.

   Here's the view on the other side of the boat away from town. This is the start of the grasslands that extend from here, through Georgia, and up past Charleston to Georgetown.

   It is pretty your first time through the grasslands with the meandering ICW waters but not something you want to do by choice if you can avoid the tedium, shallow waters and 8ft tides with strong currents.

   We always try to transit offshore past Georgia which saves about 4-5 days.

Fernandina is a very cute small town, quite touristy, and would be a great place to live if it wasn't for the two foul smelling factories. This is the paper plant to the north that produces corrugated cardboard for boxes.

   This is the wood products factory to the south, equally bad smelling.  I suppose the residents get used to the smells and capitalize on the jobs they provide. It certainly smells better than the fish meal plant in Reedville, in the Chesapeake. That smell drove us off our anchorage at 4am when the wind shifted directly towards us. 

  Downtown mainstreet in Fernandina. Very quaint town. Our favorite spots are the Amelia Island Coffee, AIBC Tavern, First Love Brewery, and Aloha Bagel. Also Timoti"s for seafood baskets.

   Full moon rising over Fernandina waterfront.

   Heading out St Mary's Inlet for sea, heading for Charleston or Georgetown SC. We'll see how far north we can get over the next two days. 

   Winds are forecasted to increase over the day and night. We hope to get to Georgetown in the mid-afternoon tomorrow before the wind shifts to the west, the direction we need to enter the inlet there.