Up to Cape Fear...

I haven't been able to get the blog out lately, due mostly to not great wifi  connections.

We were in Coinjock at the end of the last blog, we have come along now in Charleston, SC as of tonight.

Crossing Albemarle Sound

What has happened... hmmm...After a couple days in Coinjock due to a small craft warning, we headed on our way again.  The ICW is tricky at times with watching the  channel markers that sometimes have been moved due to shoaling, crab pots, shoaling at nearly every inlet or where a creek may enter the channel and anything that might be lying just below the surface to grab us by the prop.  .  We put up the sail to cross Albemarle Sound, it helped with speed but not the rolly polly-ness of the sound.  These sounds are a challenge, they are shallow and as the wind may blow from one direction, the tide pushes from another, it can make for some real bouncy transits.
Then there is the entrances into the next inlet, some are a real dogleg to get around the shoaling, some shoaling really had no rhyme or reason for being where it is.  There are lots of places where you can't actually follow the charts or chartplotter as the bottom is shifting and changing constantly, so the markers are then moved accordingly.  Hurricane Matthew didn't help. This entrance is no exception and having knowledge from other peoples journeys has been a godsend. We have been mostly going into marinas at night some of these are also challenging to get into;

Alligator River-Pungo Canal

 Alligator River marina, no exception, you aim for a bridge and just before you run into it you turn 90 degrees to starboard and head to shore ,... its run by Miss Wanda and Logan.  She runs the show I think and Logan lands the boats into the marina.  Its also right by the highway and also has a gas station/restaurant/convenience store with all kinds of knick knacks of Alligator River area.  The place is reknowned for its fried chicken, of which I had to have some of.  It was good, nice and juicy and not oily.  All the serving ware is plastic, the plates are partitioned into three sections (like the old tv dinner plates), one section for the chicken, one for the salad etc..They don't make plastic forks and knives like they used to, it bends like spaghetti. We met a couple from Quebec here tonight, we will end up seeing them off and on over the next few days while our schedules jive, but eventually they will get ahead of us

See the turtles

Oct. 26th  We were up early next morning for a long haul to Belhaven, NC in hopes of finding a pumpout to start with along with groceries. The pumpout is of note as the last few marinas have had full tanks and won't accept anymore ..."stuff", and we're getting full of it!!
We were able to use the genoa today to help us along; up to 6.7 knots.  We passed a military exercise area where fighter jets were practicing, they are loud, especially the one that came up on us, a couple hundred feet over our mast.  They were at it for the whole time we were going along the Alligator river before we headed into the Pungo-Alligator canal.
This canal was a ditch to be sure.  There is only 90 width of actual dredged 'ditch' in which barges being pushed by tugs, boats in both directions are plodding or racing along depending on the current direction.  Along the edges of the canal there is still water outside of the 90 feet, however, we could see stumps, broken trees and all kinds of flotsom and jetsom peering out waiting for the next unwary boat.

Mile 130 of the ICW, starting at Norfolk

We got through and onto Belhaven mid afternoon to a lovely little marina.  They have golf carts for us mariners to use to get around town, what a hoot. As Al drove the boat all day I got to drive the cart to the grocery store about 2 miles away or more and back.  For dinner we walked back towards town to a little pub for dinner, then wandered back along the waterfront to the harbour.  The sunset was amazing this night but not as stunning as the next morning sunrise.

Sunrise at Belhaven

We left Belhaven early next morning to get to Oriental, NC.  Another long day of some canal, a couple crossing of sounds and down the Neuse River to Oriental. Along one section of a canal we found a seafood processing place that was unloading ships of yummy stuff.  We picked up some scallops the size of hockey pucks except nearly two inches thick and huge shrimp.  They are so good.
Finally arrived into Oriental and a tiny little harbour full of anchored sailboats, several fishing boats, two public piers and a marina in a space I could almost throw a rock across.  The marina has a tiki bar and happy hour was on when we got there. They have a little swimming pool and a nice little restaurant.

Fishing boats at Oriental

We ended up staying two days here because of an unfortunate incident - I slipped and fell off the boat as we were leaving the slip after the first night.  I am fine, I had my lifejacket on and it inflated as it should and there were a couple friends we've met along the way, who were on the dock to help me up the dock wall.  I have a couple scrapes and a good bruise to my arm and my pride.  I gave Al quite a scare as he thought I was tangled in the life line; I wasn't, just hanging on to it.  After the adrenaline subsided and I had a hot soapy shower - the harbour is scuzzy-  and did laundry - we decided to stay put for another day.  While I was resting Al went over to see if he could get some fresh seafood and came back with two pounds of shrimp, half went for supper the other into the freezer for another day.  He said it was amazing to see the piles of shrimp being sorted by size by about 25 people in the facility.  The fishing ships were lined up waiting to offload their catch most of the day.  The best ending to this day was heaps of fresh shrimps for supper and friends who came by after dinner with rum punch.  We also ran into the other couple Steve and Lise from Fifty Point here while we were out for a stroll later on.  It was fun to compare stories of our journey so far.

casualty of Hurricane Matthew

On to Swanpoint

Next day we moved on to Beaufort, NC to a small marina behind the town in a spot called Town Creek.  We went off the ICW to get there, and OMG talk about going blind - just markers to follow and hope for the best.  There is a new bridge being built that isn't on the charts yet, so that made for more interest in getting to the marina.  We did though with help from the dockmaster, he was very good.  Safely tied up and settled we caught a taxi into Beaufort proper to check it out.  It's a lovely little spot, very touristy though and goes along the waterfront behind sandy islands that block the ocean.  One of the island has wild horses on it, they had just been left behind and have survived quite well.  We didn't actually see them, just heard about them.

a transiting Monarch butterfly

Another couple we met near the beginning of our trip was here with the rally they are joined up with.  We found them on shore and had a quick catch up with them before we carried on our way.  We ended up walking back to the marina, it was quicker than waiting for the taxi to show up.  Nice walk anyway and only a couple miles.

enroute

matched set of nasty waves to come

Next morning, we were glad that the dockmaster came out to see up off.  He gave us directions to get out and back on to the ICW.  We had looked at two markers incorrectly and would have grounded quite well if he hadn't come along.  Never a dull moment.  We managed to work our way through the maze back to the ICW without incident.  The ICW started out from here at Bogue Sound which wasn't too bad until the end of it where the channel started to narrow down to land, channel and shoaled areas where the dredging material after being put to the side was starting to sift back into the channel in different areas.  A boat in front of us got caught but was able to get themselves off.  Then there's the bridges that have scheduled openings only, some on the hour and fewer on the hour and half hours.  With a current, wind and cranky sailors it can be a nasty place to be waiting for a bridge to swing open.  It's an art to time your arrival to the bridge just as it opens.  One bridge closed right in front of us, we were less than two minutes to the opening when he shut it - 'I gotta'  he said.  The next scheduled opening was an hour away.... fortunately a couple commercial boats came along and he let us through with them.  They are the only ones they'll open for between the scheduled times.  We missed the bridge because we were waiting for a barge and tug to get through a narrow section coming towards us and we had no room left to move to the side so had to stop.  We timed the next bridge better, but there were way more boats this time and a few not so great tempers and a huge current and a narrow bascule bridge....... we got through just fine.

Cape Fear River

The marina dockmasters have been great, they are very helpful, talking us into the slips over the radio, helping us tie up, giving any information that they can about their town, having a courtesy vehicle or peddle bikes to use or get us where we need to.  One marina owner of a small dock even came out after supper with a freshly made little coffee cake for our breakfast the next morning.
We've had some interesting times as we travel along the 'ditch'  particularly when we cross inlets that empty or flood in from the ocean.  The tide, whichever way it's going will pull or push us sideways as we traverse the opening.  Many of these openings also have shoaling along their edges that spill into the ditch.  There is a app called Active Captain that fellow travellers post to, warning of shallow spots, or places with issues regarding the markers.  It's great because the app works when there's no cell service too.  Using that and talking to fellow sailors who have been this way before has helped keep us on the right side of many shallow spots so far
.

Edge of the Rock Pile

 The hurricane has changed things up too, and the Army Corp of Engineers who are responsible for maintaining the ditch are constantly moving markers to show problem areas.  So often what is on the paper charts or the chart plotter is not up to date and you have to rely just on what you see.  'Honour the markers' is the saying, no matter what the chart or chartplotter says.  We also had to go through a section called the 'Rock Pile' and for good reason.  A rock section about 3 miles long, that is literally a channel blasted out and so only the 90 feet wide.  Scary... we and others called out on the VHF radio that we were starting through in hopes that any barges coming at us would wait til we were though.  None were showing up as coming on the AIS, however,... just as we were coming out of the 3 mile area a barge met us, that we had to squeeze by.  Phew...

North Myrtle Beach

We've been through Myrtle Beach now, stayed there a night, walked to the ocean from the ICW, about a mile or so.  The beach is fabulous, the feet enjoyed the ocean and the sand.  The beach goes for miles in either direction and has lots of shells strewn about.  There weren't too many people at the beach, I guess because they aren't Canadian and find the weather warm and the water lovely.

Canal to Waccamaw River

 The Waccamaw River area was hit especially hard by the storm, with getting rain like you wouldn't believe.  There were many signs of ruin along the canal to the river with the water level showing on the trees as it having been at least 5 feet up the trunks.  Homes with water damage, as well has stuff on the lawns that was ruined, boats and docks that have been damaged.

Damage from the Hurricane

The marina we stayed at this night was just getting back on line, with only power, water and fuel available.  The restaurant and bar were still being cleaned up in hopes to be open soon.

Running to Georgetown, SC

We carried on to Georgetown next, we had considered anchoring out beyond Georgetown however the weather was showing to be very unsettled with a small craft warning up.  Georgetown is cute, small, one of the oldest towns in the state.  They have a great little boardwalk that goes along between the businesses and the fronts of visiting boats on the dock.  

We've been finding all kinds of seafood markets so have been eating lovely stuff, and this town didn't disappoint.  

Isle of Palms, SC

It got cold overnight, likely the coldest yet, I don't mind that we didn't anchor out, as we were able to plug in the heater on the boat.

We next had to transit a section of the ICW that needs to be done in mid to high tide to avoid hitting the bottom.  We were lucky this day as the tide went with us pretty much the whole way through.  We put on 55 statue miles going through mostly a swampy area; all you can see is the grasses along the sides, some trees and not much else for the most part. The closer we got to civilization the more homes we could see and of course the more homes the more boats racing around us.  We can't see far beyond the edges of the ICW but I'm sure that there is much more happening there than we see.
 We stopped at Isle of Palms at the end of the day.  Another lovely little touristy spot, that has miles and miles of empty beach.  We walked along until just before the sun went down. 

Charleston waterfront

Pelicans

Today, we moved along to Charleston which was only a couple hours away.  We're spending today and tomorrow to do some exploring.  Today we went on the famous carriage ride through the historic section of the city.  There are some beautiful buildings here.  We walked through the many blocks long market, full of vendors of all sorts.  The baskets that are made from the sweetgrass an art that came over with the slaves from Africa, have really caught my eye, they are hand made and beautiful.... Oh and we enjoyed a smokin good BBQ for supper...

Wonder if it's James Bond...

King Street, Charleston

Sorry this has taken so long to get up, and that I am likely somewhat long winded in my story.  The wifi along the way has been sketchy since I don't know when, tonight being the best its been for some time.  Hopefully, now that we're nearly in Georgia and in more population, there should be more chances to get my story up and the stories won't be so long. 

So, off to bed and to have the pistol shrimp under the boat lull us to sleep...if you don't know what they are... check them out on google.  Neat little critters.

Thanks for reading...

marina we're at tonight. Have to walk a long way to get to shore