Our Somewhat Complicated Life

 We left Miles Hammock on November 18. We enjoyed our rest day. Kim spent some time reading and I caught up on the blog and did routine maintenance on the boat. The weather was good, but kind of cool.

First up was a cut that required my full attention. The area around the New River is known for shoaling and it can get shallow in a hurry. The good news is we have some good tracks that are published by another boater. Almost all of the boats on the ICW use the Bob423 tracks and I have come to rely on them in the shallow areas. Kim has the track on our Navionics app on my phone and I am looking at the chart plotter and tablet. She can tell when we need to deviate from the center of the channel and just guides me through. We make a pretty good team. 

We motored on for 35 nautical miles to Wrightsville Beach. The only complication on the day was the bridge at Wrightsville. It opens only on the top of the hour. We did a poor job with our timing and had to wait about 30 minutes for the bridge. We did get lucky when a work barge was coming through and the bridge tender opened about 10 minutes early and let us through also. 

When we arrived at Wrightsville we anchored in the large anchorage. It was now about 2 pm and we had a mission to complete before dark (5pm). We had an empty propane bottle and I did not know how much was in the other one, because I had been using it for the grill. We got the dinghy down and used the hoist to install the outboard motor. It is a kind of complicated process, but we are getting better at it each time we do it. 

We loaded up the dinghy with the pull cart, the empty propane tank and some insulated bags. We then made a walk of about 1.8 miles to the hardware store that fills bottles and then hit the grocery store. We had to walk over two bridges including the one we had opened and gone through just about 2 hours earlier. All went well at the hardware store and the grocery. Then we had to walk the almost 2 miles back to the dinghy dock pulling our now loaded cart. Then we had to put the stuff in the dinghy. Then we had to motor out to the boat. Then we had to lift the stuff up into the boat into the cockpit. Then we had to put the propane back in the locker and the groceries in the cabin. A perfect example of what is easy on land, but a bit complicated for us. We did just make it back to the boat before the sun went down. 

This is the ICW across the bridge. The bridge tenders office is in that building. 

This is the ICW heading north. That is where we waited a few hours before.

This is a smaller bridge right by our anchorage at Wrightsville Beach. You can see SHIFT in this shot.

Here we are back on the boat. We had picked up the dinghy for the night and were ready to eat dinner. It was a beautiful calm night. 

  The following day we decided to take a much shorter walk to the beach and go out for lunch. We were a bit sore from our forced march the previous night. 

It was a nice day to walk along the beautiful Wrightsville Beach. 

No blog entry from a beach would be complete without the Kim on a beach shot. 

We had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant and went back to the boat to get prepared for our travel on the following day. We liked Wrightsville Beach and certainly would use it as an alternative to Carolina Beach that is only about 10 miles further south. Carolina Beach does have a mooring field, but it is currently closed for repairs. 

We were up early on November 20th to head a bit further south. We had heard about a small town dock in Holden Beach. It was just about the prefect mileage, so I called and got reservations for 2 nights. We pulled the anchor, just as the sun was rising and got moving. We cruised along the ICW for about 10 miles against the current to Carolina Beach. Then we turned to go through the cut that takes you out to the open water of the Beaufort Inlet. The current that was against us was now with us and about 2 knots. We also had wind behind us at about 10 knots. I unfurled the Genoa and shut off the engine. We had a great 10 mile sail down the inlet. We averaged about 7 knots with no motor. Yeah!

After those great 10 miles, we had to furl the sail and turn on the motor and head down the ICW again. It was only about 12 miles to Holden beach. When we arrived there were two boats already on the dock on this Sunday. I called one of them on the radio and one of them quickly moved to a dock across the ICW. The guy on the other boat helped us dock and we hooked up power for only the second time on this trip. It was cold (about 45 degrees F), so Kim turned on the little electric heater. 

The following morning, I went to the town hall to pay for the dock space. When I told them what had happened, they told me that we were supposed to be the only boat on the dock. It is sad that some people are always trying to cheat their way through life. 

Another Kim on a beach shot at Holden Beach. We took a couple of long walks and found some very interesting shells.

Holden Beach is very nice. 

Here is SHIFT on the town dock in Holden Beach. $1.25 per foot and $5 for electricity, $5 for all the laundry you can do and nice shower and bathrooms. Really nice place.

The dock is right next to the city park and Town Hall. 

We enjoyed out time so much in Holden Beach that we decided to stay an extra night making it three nights. We were once again watching a weather system that would impact our plans, but first we had Thanksgiving to celebrate. In my next entry, I will write about our Thanksgiving and what we would do to stay safe. 

Making Miles South

 As we waited in Washington, North Carolina, we noticed the weather making a big change. We arrived on November 5th,  a beautiful 80 degree day. We departed on November 14th. We had a low temperature on that morning of around 36 degrees. It was certainly time to make some miles south. 

The first thing we had to do was to retrace our track the 25 miles back down the Pamlico river to the ICW. The side trip to Washington did add 50 miles to our overall trip, but I am so glad we decided to do it. We loved Washington and there is no price you can put on our safety. 

As we left the marina we had to go through a swing railroad bridge. It remains open most of the time and as I approached it looked clear to pass. I was within about 200 yards of the bridge and without warning the bridge started to close. OH NO! I quickly spun the boat around. Kim heard the bridge tender yell to us that he was sorry, and that he would stop the opening and let us come through. All of this communication was done by yelling, not on the radio. No flashing lights, no loud horns, nothing! Oh well, we were safely through the bridge, and on our way. 

It was not long before we had the sails up and the motor off. We had a nice 10 to 15 knots just forward of the beam and SHIFT was really enjoying stretching her legs after being cooped up for the past 9 days. We cruised up the river at 6 to 7 knots. 

You may be able to see in this picture we are cruising along at 7 knots. It was a very enjoyable sail. 

We made the 25 nm trip in just over 4 hours. It was then that we had to rejoin the ICW with a sharp turn to starboard. We then motored 5 miles to a nice anchorage called Eastham Creek. It was a cool day, but we were very comfortable for the night. We had the anchorage all to ourselves. 

The sun getting ready to set over Eastham Creek, North Carolina

We had this beautiful place all to ourselves. Not a house in site, just a few duck blinds.

OK, so I like sunset pictures.

We had a nice calm night.

The next morning we got up early and got underway. We motored about 4 miles to R.E. Mayo Seafood. This is a dock that has a number of Shrimp boats. They do have transient dockage for the incredible rate of $.40 per foot. We stopped for fuel. We took on 24 gallons of Diesel at $5.35 per gallon. Our last fill up was in the Chesapeake Bay. We also bought 2 pounds of jumbo shrimp at $9.00 per pound with the heads off. I fixed a Shrimp pasta for dinner that night. 

As we left the dock, 4 boats had just departed in front of us. We got out into the open water of the Bay River and then the Neuse River. We had pretty good wind the entire way. We sailed with just the head sail almost dead down wind for the trip to Oriental down the Neuse. We also had some pretty big swell coming from behind us. SHIFT did her job handling the conditions and we made a another long trip without the motor. The other boats turned to go to Oriental, we decided to stay on the ICW and stop at an anchorage we knew in Adams Creek. Those 4 boats joined us in Adams creek later that evening. 

Sailing on just the Genoa in the large swell.

It is always better to sail. 

We were only going 28 nm that day, so going 4.9 knots was just fine. This was early in the sail when the wind was on our port bow at about 70 degrees. 

 We had seen wind of over 20 knots as we headed down the Neuse river, but when we turned into Adams creek we had great protection. The wind also subsided as forecast, so we had a very nice night in the anchorage with about 10 other boats. 

I sure do love a calm anchorage.

This is Willet. We anchored next to him the following night also. They passed us the following day on the ICW, that was the only time we communicated. Very nice Ketch. 

Later this shot would have had 5 other boats in it.

We were up at first light the following morning. We were underway before 7 am. I wanted to make the early departure to hit the tidal flow at the best time. I was happy to see it worked perfectly. We had good current behind us for the 15 mile trip down to the coast and Morehead City. Then we turned to the southwest in almost slack tide and then it built behind us and helped us all the way past the Camp LeJeune Marine Base. We stopped for the night in one of my favorite anchorages along this route at Miles Hammock. We made 50.5 nm on the day.

There we lots of boats in the anchorage that first night, but the spacing was just fine for the calm conditions.

This was the view out the other side.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset that evening. That is Willet again, the two masted Ketch just right of center. 

We had been moving for 3 days and made about 110 nm. We decided to take a day off and enjoy the nice anchorage. By 8 am the following morning we were alone. About 2 pm, a new batch of boats started coming in, some of which we had seen before. It is kind of cool how that works.

That is it for this entry. We were now on the coast of North Carolina. The weather was cool and we need to keep moving, but at the same time we have to pay attention to the weather. Come back to see what we do next. 

Washington, North Carolina

 We arrived in Washington, North Carolina on November 5, 2022. It felt good to be tied to a dock. It is so nice to be able to just step off the boat and walk around on land. I am sure that sounds strange to most people, but it is amazing what we have gotten used to. 

The dock we are tied to is a long face dock along the waterfront of Washington. It is managed by the city and is provided for free to visitors for the first two nights. We do not have shore power electricity, but our solar system makes that unneeded. After the first two nights it is $.75 per foot or $30 for our boat. The crazy thing is that after the first week, you get to start over and get two more free nights. We ended up staying 9 nights and only paid $150. We thought that was a great deal. They have nice bathrooms and showers and a pump out system ($5). There are about 20 restaurants within walking distance.

Washington is a very historic town. It was founded in the 1700's by James Bonner. He named the town after his friend George Washington. I found Bonner's grave. He served in the Revolutionary war. 

The town is known for it's boat building. There are still over 10 builders in the local area. Most build small power boats, but my favorite is a sailboat builder called Pacific Seacraft. They build a very capable blue water boat that is certainly capable of crossing oceans. They don't build many new boats these days and there is not much demand for them, so they focus on refits to the existing fleet. 

As I walked the docks of Washington, I saw this beautiful Pacific Seacraft 34 called "Bella". It looks like to me she is ready to go cross an ocean, just waiting for her crew.

The first morning that we were in town, we went to church at Mother of Mercy Catholic Church. It is a beautiful little church and school that was started in the early 1900's. It was about a mile and a half walk to church, but that gave us the opportunity to get a look at some historic buildings around town.

The very nice downtown area of Washington has many business. 

Mother of Mercy Catholic Church

This is the school that I am not sure is still open, but the building is in excellent condition.

One of the many classic old homes. This is one of the larger homes, most are much more modest. Many have the date of construction and the original owner on a small sign on the porch. Many date back to the 1700's. 

We waited and watched hurricane Nicole form in the Atlantic. The first predictions had it coming to Florida and then right up into the Carolinas. We talked to the dockmaster and they were fine with us staying as long as we wanted. They even pitched us a great price to stay for the entire winter. We met a number of other boaters in the marina that were also waiting out the storm. It was a very pleasant way to wait out the storm. 

I made walking trips to get many domestic tasks done including groceries, prescriptions and boat parts. I am trying to fix a problem with my water tank gauge, but it is not a big deal. I logged over 15 miles walking while we were in town. I loved the old churches.

A very unique bell tower on the United Methodist Church

This church was celebrating 200 years.

This was the original courthouse dating back to the 1700's, but is now used as a library.

One of the highlights of our visit was a concert that was provided by the community for free by the Air Force Band on Veterans Day. I was expecting it to be ok, but I was totally entertained for the entire 2 hour performance. They had a vocalist that was a staff sergeant, she was amazing. The performance was held at a beautiful old theater in the downtown district.

I took a number of video clips of the performance that I may publish in the future. All of the members of the band are active duty. They are based at Langley AFB.

There was a gazebo that was just a few feet away from where our boat was docked in front of the park. We saw a proposal (She said, "YES") and a wedding while we were there. 

A wedding going on just a few feet from our dock. 

Kim worked hard during our time in Washington. She finished our cockpit enclosure. We now can be inside of a layer of clear plastic all the way around. The difference in comfort is amazing. She also took advantage of the laundry ($5 for as many loads as you want) while we were at the dock. 

 Nicole came to Florida and did some significant damage, but thankfully our friends that were in harms way were spared. The storm prediction kept moving further and further west of our location. We did get some 40 knot gusts as the storm passed, but honestly we slept through the worst of it. We were very happy to wake up on the next day and see we had no damage.

We were now ready to continue our journey south. We had lost 9 days, but we are sure glad we took the time to stay safe and to get to know Washington, NC. In my next entry, I will tell the story of the next travel days. 

SHIFT waiting at the dock for the adventures to come. 

Real Time Update and a Problem Called Nicole

 As I promised in my last entry, I wanted to start with a real time update. We are currently on the North Carolina coast enjoying one of our favorite anchorages. We survived a glancing blow from Hurricane Nicole (then Tropical depression) with zero damage. In the entry below, I will tell you what we did to protect us from this threat. 

On November 3rd, we were ready to head further south. We had a great time in Edenton and really appreciated the time that we had with our friends Merry and Chuck. 

Our sailing friends, Merry and Chuck. Thanks so much for the help!

The day before we departed, the marina staff came over and told us that we needed to depart the next day or we may be blocked in by the Elizabeth 2, which is a replica of a boat from the 1700's. She came into the bay the night before our departure and dropped her anchor about a half mile off shore. She was coming in to give tours to the local folks. We got a private viewing the following morning as we departed.

Here we are ready to depart Edenton. You can tell because our lines are looped around the cleats, so that they can be removed from the boat. The lighthouse in the background was restored and moved to the harbor by a group of local folks to preserve the history of the area. 

The Elizabeth 2 at anchor. Very cool square rigger. 

As we motored out into the sound, I was concerned that we would not have any wind. There was a light fog that was burning off, but it was still cloudy and cool. As we turned to the east out of the channel, the wind started to pick up a bit, after we motored about 2 miles to the bridge the wind was filling in nicely and we put up the sails. Before long we were cruising at over 7 knots in about 12 knots of breeze right on the port beam. 

You can tell in this shot that Kim is a bit chilly. This is all the motivation she needed to finish some canvas work on the boat. 

We made the 25 nm run down the Albemarle Sound in a little over 4 hours. I was very happy with our speed and we then turned south on the Alligator river. In a short distance we had to furl our genoa and wait for the Alligator River Bridge to open for us. After clearing the bridge we had 20 knots of wind right on our stern. We had some building chop, but set up wing on wing and took off down the very wide river. 

The white thing in the background is the Alligator River Bridge. We were cruising down the river in a moderate chop at around 6 knots of boat speed. We had about 15 knots of apparent wind, which equates to about 20 knots of true wind. 

 We had planned to stop along the bank of the river, but the chop would have made it a rough night. There was a very protected anchorage at the end of the river, but we would be getting pretty close to sundown. My calculations showed we should make it by about a half hour before sunset and that turned out about right. The only issue would be if there was room in the anchorage. We had seen a number of boats running along the ICW. This was now part of the ICW and there were plenty of boats heading south. 

When we arrived there were 11 boats there, but there was plenty of room for us, so we found a spot in 8 feet of water and dropped the hook.  

The wind died off at sundown and we had a nice night. We slept well after 50+ miles of sailing. 

You can see there is plenty of room for more boats. Great protection from a north wind. 

I always watch the weather closely, but I was really paying attention to what the professional weather watchers were saying about a possible hurricane that may impact the east coast of the US. It was about this point that I started looking at the map and trying to decide what we would do. I had heard about a town that I wanted to visit that was 25 miles off of the ICW up the Pamlico river that is known to be a great place to ride out a storm. It also is a very historic town and would be a cool place to visit. We continued to watch the weather and keep moving south along the ICW. 

The next day we had a 30 mile motor trip down the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal to Belhaven, NC planned. The wind was very light and it was a beautiful day.

It was a beautiful sunrise in the anchorage. 

We took our time and we were the last boat to depart. If you look closely you can see the conga line of boats in front of us. We were happy to just cruise along at about 5.5 knots. 

The fall colors of the cypress trees

I love to sail, but just motoring along is nice also.

 Very near to the end of the canal, I saw something crossing the waterway in front of us. As we got closer, I was able to see that it was first 3 black bears. A mother and 2 cubs making the swim across. Then another adult crossed by themselves and then reunited on the left side of the canal. I shot a video of the entire event, but it is hard to see the bears in the shadows. I may do some work on it and publish it later. It was a very cool wildlife experience. 

We pulled into the Belhaven Bay that is protected by a breakwater and dropped the hook. We spent some time walking around the town last spring, so we never got off the boat this time. It was a bit of a rolly night, but we slept fine. That night, after I talked to the dock master in Washington, NC, we made the final decision to make the trip up the Pamlico river. 

We got going on the November 5th and headed out on the ICW with a bunch of other boats. 

It was a flat calm and we had a bunch of company as we headed out of Belhaven, NC. 

We motored along with the other boats for about 10 miles until we got to the Pamlico river. They went straight to stay on the ICW, we turned to starboard (west) and made the 25 mile trip to Washington. We tried to sail part of it, but the wind did not cooperate. When we arrived in Washington, it was a busy Saturday and quite warm (around 80 degrees F). We had to circle for a bit to wait for the dockmaster to find a place for us, but before long we were greeted at the dock and got tied up behind the same boat we were next to in Edenton a few days before. 

Washington, North Carolina has a very nice waterfront with some slips and some face dock. The face dock is free for two nights. 

Here is SHIFT tied up behind Vahevala. This is where we chose to ride out whatever comes our way. 

Our first impressions of Washington, NC were that it was very busy with lots of boat traffic. As it turned out, that was just the beautiful fall day. The rest of the time we were there, it was pretty quiet as the temperatures returned to normal. 

I was watching the weather carefully at this point. The storm was forecast to form over the Bahamas and then head to Florida. That was good for us, but then it was going to head north into the Georgia and then the Carolinas. That was bad. A 50 knot tropical storm can still do some damage. We thought that we were in as safe of a place as we could be, so we decided to stay here and let the storm pass. That could mean a stay of about a week. 

In my next entry, I will write about our time in Washington, NC and what it was like to wait for Hurricane Nicole to come to visit. Thanks for reading!