Nov 7 and 8

We motored all the way from St James to Georgetown. Again, bridge schedules and tides proved to be a challenge.

One of the bridges was quite unusual. It floated. Apparently, it is the last of its kind.

On the 7th, we left just before sunrise and anchored in Prince Creek on the Waccamaw River.

There is a 26 mile land cut that you must travel through to reach the Waccamaw. It is probably the worst section of the Intercoastal. Tides are strong and there is limited room to manoeuvre. Fortunately, most power boat operators are extremely considerate, radioing and then slowing down before making a pass. There is one section, however, that is so narrow that there is not room for a boat and a barge to pass. You must radio ahead before entering to ensure that it is safe. The area is called the Rock Pile. There are numerous rocks projecting from the edge of the river. We passed through at low tide. At high tide, they would be hidden and if you strayed out of the channel, you could be in very serious trouble in a real hurry.

While traversing this cut, you do get to see a lot of beautiful houses and golf courses.(including a gondola across the waterway), floating gambling casinos and even an outlet shopping mall at Conway.

The Waccamaw, by contrast, is undeveloped swamp land. The trees, hanging moss and vines look like something out of a movie. Absolutely beautiful! At one point, we had a real scare. There were all these weeds sticking out of the water. This usually means it is pretty shallow. The sun was low and shining off the water in a way that we could not see if there were any buoys. The GPS and Fugawi chart plotter program showed that we were on course but we came to a complete stop while we figured it out. It turned out to be a lot of debris that we could simply motor through.

In spite of the bridges and currents, we still managed to do about 75 miles on the 7th. This left us with only 20 odd miles to do on the 8th in order to spend the day in Georgetown.

The harbour is crowded (but not impossibly so), so it pays to arrive early. There are lots of restaurants and most stores are not too far away. They even had a piper on the boardwalk to serenade us as we had a final beer with newly found boating friends and before heading back to our boats. This was after Bev had made friends with 3 Torontonians at lunch who then offered to drive her to Walmart.where she got more material to make cushions for boat and work on project for Maggie(her granddaughter).

See, I told you it pays to marry someone who charms absolutely everyone!

Nov 5 & 6

Topsail Sound to St James Plantation Marina, Southport, North Carolina

Bev seemed to really be getting into this voyaging by boat.

Southport is at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. And I thought that Cape Fear was an invention of Steven King! St James Plantation is 15 miles West.

Bev had phoned our friends on the Great Catsby. We knew they were staying at St James Marina (a relative bargain at $1.05 per foot after the 25% Boat US discount), so we decided to join them. Fuel was also relatively inexpensive. The marina is the focal point of a gated city. Can you imagine? This concept is totally foreign to me but it certainly is nice. This community has something like 81 holes of golf, no stores (except for the one in the marina), no schools and houses start at something like half a million.

Unfortunately, our friends had already made dinner plans. So that left us at loose ends – but not for long. As we were walking our dogs, another couple (David and Judy), wine glasses in hand, stopped to talk with us. Their dog was the same cross of breeds as Tuck. And here I thought he was unique! After 5 minutes, Bev invited them to the boat for drinks. They countered by inviting us for dinner. Dinner turned out to be a feast of shrimp, hors d’ouvres and salad. The dogs seemed to appreciate the opportunity to play more with a new friend and our new friends turned out to be exceptional dog lovers.

After some internal debate, we decided to spend a second night at the marina. I used the opportunity to fix the outboard (dirt in the carburettor), break the outboard (fried the impellor since it was not quite underwater in the bucket when I was testing it) and sorted out a few other issues.

Bev got to go shopping and have lunch with the girl.

We also met a couple from Newfoundland the boat Intuition also going to Bahamas: Wayne and Geraldine.

That second evening, we were able to join our friends at a country club where weeks old friendships were rekindled and newer ones were made. Went back to a HOUSE for dessert. Thanks Rich and Carol (The Great Catsby) for having such great friends.

Nov 4

We had a cool but absolutely beautiful day for leaving Beaufort.

There were two things which we tended to hold us up in our travels: tidal currents and bridges. The bridge schedules were sometimes pretty restrictive. Some would open on the hour only and some on the hour and the half hour. Anyone boating through should call 910 686 2018.before approaching the Figure 8 bridge and the Wrightsville bridge to confirm the schedule

It can be a real pain circling for significant periods in a strong current, in a narrow channel. The next day, after waiting for almost 30 minutes for the Figure 8 bridge to open near Wrightsville, we went aground just as the bridge was about to open and with a strong current pushing us further aground. Only quick action, turning the outboard to wiggle our keels allowed us to back free. Right after, a helpful soul in a small fishing boat came over to advise us that we were in dangerous grounds.

Maybe we were too distracted by the artificial palm tree on the artificial island. Who says that governments cannot be just as tacky as individuals?

After a long day, we stopped at an anchorage in Topsail Sound, North Carolina. Three monohulls followed us in. I think they were hoping that we would sound out the waters as the anchorage was unmarked. On the way in, we spied an old Piver plywood trimaran. Bob Williams, eat your heart out (not)!

Nov 2 and 3

The wind was not as strong as predicted but it was still pretty gusty. The storm which created the winds had turned into a hurricane but was held out at sea by a cold front which passed through during the night. It is better to be prepared for some really significant weather and have it turn out to be a false alarm than the other way around.

On the 2nd our “new” dingy motor refused to work after being fine the night before. We did not dare try to row anywhere. Even motoring in a small dingy might have been risky notwithstanding the lack of waves.

On the 3rd, we were liberated. We charged up the trolling motor battery and got it up and running again. We were mobile! The dogs were most appreciative.

Beaufort is a lovely little town with great restaurants, a fairly large maritime museum, a nice bar with internet access where you can update a blog over a beer and the normal selection of stores. Morehead City is right across the river, has many more stores but is much more industrial in nature.

Nov 1

We only had 45 or so miles to do this day, so we got up a little late after enjoying the morning. Again, we had a beautiful motor and motor-sail, the weather being warm and the skies mostly sunny.

The forecast for the next day included winds of 35 knots, gusting to 50, so it was important that we find an extremely well protected anchorage. I did not know if we would get a good spot in Beaufort as I had read it can be pretty crowded. All turned out well, however, and we ended up being snug as a bug in a rug, anchoring in a cut about 300 feet wide. I put out 3 anchors to ensure that we would not drift far. The anchorage turned out to have excellent holding ground but was a bit strange due to the tidal current. It was so strong that often, we would be beam to even the strongest gusts and sometimes they would even come in through the back of the boat.

Oh well, at least we are safe and sound.

Oct 31

We had intended to beat the rush and get off to an early start through the canal. Unfortunately, the canal was full of dense fog and snags or floating trees and logs. You had to be able to see to navigate.

Everyone waited an hour or so for the fog to life and then, bingo, off we all went. I used the time to rig some lazy jacks so it was not wasted.

The day was warm and beautiful. Bev spent much of it in her bathing suit.

We anchored in a small creek, where no-one else can go next to the entrance to the Neuse River. The wind was forecast to come up during the night from a direction that would give these other boats a very rough ride but, fortunately for them, the forecast was wrong.

As we passed the shrimp fishing fleet, I thought of Forrest Gump, one of my favourite movies.

That night, we broke out the bottle of wine that Gerry had given us. It made for a very pleasant evening.

This being Halloween, the goblins came out, offering rock candy. I am glad I did not bite into it as it really was coloured rocks that looked like candy!

Oct 30

What a beautiful day! With an early start, we were anchored at the entrance to the Aligator-Pungo River Canal by 3:00 PM This is a 20 odd mile canal, so for us, the drop dead time for entering was 2:30 if we wanted to anchor at the other end before dark.

Our friends on Autumn Borne, Dean and Susan, joined us for happy hour. As it turned out, the movie Apocalypse Now was based on his unit’s Vietnam adventures. Now I want to see that movie again.

I don’t know how anyone can go through something like that without serious mental scars, but he seems distressingly normal.