Morehead City, NC

June 8, 2012
34 43.293N
76 42.280W

"Is that light flashing? Or is it the sun?"

We were out of bed at about 7:30AM this morning and underway within a few minutes. I recovered the anchor in my pajamas. When we arrived last night there were 7 boats in the anchorage, when I woke up we were the only boat! Obviously the other 6 boats knew something we did not, and so were are outa there! (We had heard thru the grapevine that sometimes the marines actually closed the ICW for live fire exercises!)  That was not the case today, but it turned out to be a decent decision because there was a turning bridge about 5 miles ahead that only opened on the hour. We were roaring along at out "fast cruising speed" of about 8 kts, with the bridge in sight about a mile away at 8AM, so I radioed the tender and asked if he would hold the bridge. The response was "No rush" - turned out  this was "the slowest bridge on the ICW" and it took about 5 minutes to open and 5 to close, and so we "sailed thru" not losing a minute.

It was a pleasant sunny day, so I sat up on the bridge in the warm morning sun while Deidre hustled up some breakfast. For the next 10 miles or so we were serenaded by the continuing marine artillery practice, till we left the base area behind us.

Barely a ripple

It was a perfect day, lots of sun and barely a ripple in the water. We were planning to join our new friends, Bonnie and John Bryant, at a marina in Moorhead City - just across the river from Beaufort, NC, about 34 miles away. We made good time and arrived about 1PM. They were waiting for us and had arranged a 50' space behind their boat on a face dock. Turns out they were not kidding about 50' - our boat is 49' 8" long and so we had about 2" spare at each end. Our anchor was just about poking into their cockpit - in the morning I was able to clean the ICW mustache off our bow from their swim platform!.

SFB at Moorhead City Yacht Basin

Immediately after arriving we enjoyed cocktails on their cockpit (shaded by our bow) and then went into town for dinner. The marina population was dominated by very nice and expensive Sport Fishing Boats. They were all gone before we woke up next morning. Jon and Bonnie were heading North next day, Deidre and I were planning to explore the area, so we parted ways again about 10 AM Saturday.

One Mile Hammock

Thursday June 7, 2012
34 33.049N
77 19.433W

Today was a "big day", 9 hours and 65 statute miles. This was not our intention but just the way it worked out.   Tonight we are parked in a "lake" that was dredged during WWII so that the marines could practice loading and unloading troop ships without going out into the nearby Atlantic, where the German U-boats were a threat.. The "lake" is a small part of Camp LeJeune which is a large Marine Base. Tomorrow we will start early and expect be in the Beaufort area after lunch.

Look out behind!

We were underway by about 9:15AM and headed NE up the Cape Fear river. There is a "real" shipping channel up the river and soon enough we were being overtaken by a large freighter. We kept out of his way and let him pass. After about 10 miles of the river, we took a cut over to the coast and resumed the familiar ICW routine. Except, that in NC the bridges all seem to open only once per hour. To lose an hour at a bridge is frustrating and awkward, so the whole day turned out to be an exercise in catching the bridges.

I think he has "Rght of way"

We were thinking we would anchor for the night a little South of Wrightsville Beach, but we were running with the tide and "Tide Hiker" was living up to its name as we "raced" along at 10 plus knots! Then it was 12:55 PM and the Wrightsville Bridge was opening in front of me and I just could not resist the temptation to sail right thru, and thereby Plan I went out of the window. The next bridge was at "Figure of 8 Island" just 6 miles away, and now we were fighting the tide, so that was just perfect and we sailed thru it. Which left all of our planned anchorages behind us, and the only feasible solution was to continue to One Mile Hammock. Oh well. The benefit is that we are now only a day from Beaufort "Gateway to the Outer Banks". We seem to be at the start of a favorable weather pattern, which may give us our chance to venture out into the Atlantic and maybe go to Cape Lookout for a night. We will see.

One Mile hammock turned out to be a poor anchorage, I would not chose it again. But it was a clear and cool evening, with a great sunset. I got to see the sunset from the boat deck where I was grilling our dinner.

South Port, NC

Wednesday, June 6
33 54.973N
78 01.395W

The "Southport Provision Company"

I am sitting here feeling like a total idiot. We are docked at a free "bar-restaurant" slip. (The deal is that if you buy dinner at the place you can stay overnight. It's not what you would call "fancy" - no table cloths, plastic chairs and tables, and probably a lot of fried food.) But that is not the issue. The issue is that I totally botched the docking because I forgot to disengage the auto pilot before I started to maneuver, and so (not surprisingly) the boat just fought me every step of the way as I tried to back in, and I missed the approach every time until Deidre said "Are you sure the syncro and auto pilot are off?". Damn! But even then, I was so discombobulated that I messed it up several times in a row. Oh well, I hope Tide Hiker can forgive me.

South Port is basically at "Cape Fear", like in the movie, but on the inside. We left North Myrtle beach this morning at about 8:15AM (after a great sleep, back in our own bed) and were here by about 2PM. We had left early because if this free dock had not worked out, we would have needed to steam another 15 odd miles to get to a documented anchorage. So, after we had tied up (and I dared to show my face) we went ashore and had a couple of beers in the restaurant, and then went for a stroll around town.

The trip from North Myrtle beach had been uneventful. It basically rained all the way, and was cold. After an hour or so, Deidre convinced me to move inside and run the boat from the RPH. She immediately rewarded me with hot soup (chicken and rice), buttered bagel and coffee for lunch. Not a bad deal. We used the "remote" automatic pilot and so I could sit on the RPH bench seat and watch the rain on the windshield, and steer the boat in the warm. (Next time I have to remember to turn the bloody thing off!)

Barefoot Marina

Sunday June 3, 2012
33 48.083 N'
78 44.874 W

We have been told that the ride from the Georgetown to Myrtle Beach is one of the best on the ICW. The ICW is really the Waccamaw river and it winds thru a large Cyprus swamp. The water is virtually "tannin black" (I flushed and flushed the salt water toilet  until I realized it was not dirty - just the color of the "sea" water). The osprey nests are a feature, often on the tops of the channel markers, and often with nesting birds in place. It was a perfect morning, sunny and calm.

Greg Norman "An Australian Grill"

We only had about 20 miles to run, and so we were all tied up at our new home by about 1:30PM. The marina is called "Barefoot Marina" and is part of a whole "Barefoot" tourist and retail development. (We are across the water from Greg Norman's "An Australian Grill". We thought we might have dinner there till we saw the "Australian prices"). The kids went off to the pool for the afternoon and Deidre and I took the time to do a bit of a cleanup.

Connor

After the kids returned, we let them "help" us launch the dinghy and then went exploring across the river.We found a bungee jump for Connor, who was totally fearless and entertained us with his aerial antics. Followed by a pizza restaurant and dinner and the dinghy back over the ICW to Tide Hiker.

Deidre and Fiona

Next day we took a cab to a "put-put" course (Myrtle Beach is the put-put capital of the world) and then to the beach. Deidre made sweet and sour chicken for lunch. It was a good day.

The kids returned to Houston on Wednesday. Kylie drove up to Barefoot from the IOP in the morning to pick them up and drive them back to the Charleston Airport. It was quite a squeeze in her little car.

Osprey River Marina

June 2, 2012
33 40.877 N  79 02.465W

In Osprey Marina

This is a "cute little marina" dug out of the cyptus forest that happens to have the best diesel fuel price in the region. I had been pricing fuel since arriving in Charleston, and this was the best, so it went onto our itinerary. We arrived about 3PM and went straight to the fuel dock and told the man "fill her up". Much to my surprise she only took 410 gallons, when I was expecting at least 600. Now I am a bit unsure about Tide Hiker's total capacity.

We had made a reservation for the night and was allotted slip C22 which was really a 40' dock, which meant I really had to back her in. There was about 50' space between the end of the slip and the forest canopy, so I had to push the bow into the trees to make the reverse turn. It all ended happily.

Osprey nest

The run north from the Butler anchorage was very pleasant and uneventful. David has a new fancy camera and so got some great shots of the Cyprus swamp and some of the innovative Osprey nests.

Butler Island

June 1, 2012
33 25.580N
79 12.357W

Tide Hiker at Georgetown

Georgetown is a dozen miles north of the Santee, and is a pleasant coastal town (with a small steel mill and a paper mill) and was the target for lunch. It has a quaint "old town" on the river harking back to the sail boat era with an interesting water front and plenty of free places to tie up. We arrived about Noon and let the kids lose. Also, Deidre had a little shopping to do (milk and juice) and I wanted to visit the bank, and we thought a break from the boat would be good for everyone.

Sunset

About 4 PM we headed out again, intending to anchor behind Butler Island about 10 miles north. Just about then a change blew in with some strong winds, and that had me a bit nervous. But the anchorage was a beauty, with lots of deep protected water and lots of room. When we arrived it was blowing from the south-west - nothing serious, maybe 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph, but Deidre and I did a good job getting the anchor down

It turned into a perfect evening. The rain settled the wind down to zero, and after the rain passed the water was dead calm and slate gray. David and I sat on the aft deck with a Tequilla Sunrise and soaked in the ambiance. Nice, it cannot get much better than this.

I decided (since I am the captain!) that we could all sleep without air conditioning, which we did, but seems like it was a mistake as some people did not sleep very well that night. Lesson learned!

South Santee River

Thursday, May 31st

David and Jen and the two nips arrived yesterday. It is going to be a bit of a squeeze - David & Connor in the Vee berth and Jen & Fiona on the Pilot House bed (that had to be made up each evening)

We left Isle of Palms Marina at about 11AM. It was a bit awkward collecting everybody and getting organized, but Deidre had put on a "French Toast" breakfast and that at least got everyone on the boat. Both Kylie and Ryan had to work, so the only send-off we received was from the few "live-aboards" on our dock. We did not have far to go - just a couple of hundred yards down the creek to the marina where we picked up a 100 gallons of fuel as "reserve". Soon we were on our way north.

Secret Weapon

The weather was fine. "Beryl" had passed thru Wednesday with a few showers (about 10% of the effect predicted by the local news) and was now well north. The only real problem we did anticipate was "the attack of the marsh flies" and we had a secret weapon in store for them! In the previous days we had learned that all we had to do was put a penny and a small piece of aluminum foil in a zip lock baggie with a few ounces of water, and hang them on the bridge.We made 4 of the concoctions and dutifully arranged them in anticipation of attack. I think our preparations worked well, but I wonder if I had any converts on board as I found myself alone on the bridge!

Connor

The kids took turns driving the boat. Grandpa's trick was that I was really steering the boat with the remote control, so the kids could spin the wheel to their hearts content without effect. But after 10 minutes of that they were looking for the next activity. The surroundings were "a la Georgia marsh" and so it was not long before the DVD player was playing. We made it to our target anchorage on the Santee River without either of the toilets breaking down, and settled in for the night.

David and I retreated to the boat deck with a couple of beers and took on the awesome responsibility of cooking the brats for dinner, plus spotting for the local alligators, both objectives that were fully satisfied.

Crocodile checking us out.

According to the ICW guide book, the Santee is "alligator infested" and therefore water sports were not recommended. But its a good anchorage!