“Not All Days On The Water Are Fun and Games” by Karen Posey - June 15, 2015

The title for today’s report is…“Not All Days On The Water Are Fun and Games”, subtitled “Karen, Please Quit Your Whining”.  I am including it because I felt that I had to balance the previous reports with one that shows the not-so-glamorous side of cruising.  We pulled into Oriental, NC at ~noon yesterday (June 14) and were immediately aware that it is REALLY hot here. Temperatures were almost 100 degrees yesterday, and predicted to reach 102 degrees today!  It barely dropped below 80 degrees last night.  To make matters worse, the air is completely still, I mean NO wind or breeze, and VERY sunny.  Needless to say, living on a sailboat with no air conditioning is not the most pleasant way to experience such a heat wave L.  The photo below shows the thermometer INSIDE the boat this morning (95 degrees), and it was even hotter OUTSIDE the boat in the sun!

Thermometer in cabin of boat

Despite the heat, we decided to make a much-needed trip to the grocery store.  This involved pushing our grocery cart a mile in the heat to the nearest grocery store!  Thankfully, someone at the store gave us a ride back to the boat.

At this point we had been dripping wet all day, but the fickle finger of fate was not finished with us.  There was a leak in the water system, which had required that we turn off the pump the day before.  After returning from the grocery store, Murph crawled into a locker in the cockpit to find the leak.  Turns out that there was a broken connector and the water tank on the boat was empty!  Hmmm…not the best time to run out of water.  Murph was able to jury-rig a temporary connection.  We’ll have to wait until we pass a marina tomorrow to fill the tank.  The water heater is not operable, but heck, who needs hot water in this heat??

Windscoop rigged at Oriental dock to capture the light, elusive breeze

Oh, by the way, my laptop got wet from water coming into the boat yesterday. (Someone needs to point that fickle finger in the other direction!)  I let it dry for 2 days, but it is acting squirrelly.   For example, when I press certain keys on the keyboard, it types a pair of keys, then I have to edit all the text.  [Fortunately, it began acting normally a few days later.]

OK, I’m finished whining. One has to smile through all this and look on such things not as an ordeal but as part of the adventure.  :-)

”Dodging Bullets on the ICW?? Thankfully, NO!!” by Karen Posey - June 11, 2015

Camp Lejeune to Beaufort, NC

The title for today’s report is…”Dodging Bullets on the ICW?? Thankfully, NO!!”  We had to get underway at 6:45am in order to get through the Camp Lejeune 5-mile-long war game exercise area (which takes us over an hour to traverse) before they closed the ICW.  Traversing the ICW when it is “closed” carries a fine of $5,000.  More importantly, live fire could rain down on you and ruin a perfectly nice day on the water!

The photos below show the warning sign posted as you enter that stretch of the ICW and the Danger signs that are posted every 100 yards or so along the 5-mile stretch.  We were still hearing gun/cannon fire 2 hours after we exited the area!

Warning sign at Camp Lejeune war game exercise area

Danger sign at Camp Lejeune war game exercise area

Bird on Danger sign at Camp Lejeune

As we approached our final turn into the Beaufort, NC Harbor, we were approached by a HUGE barge being pushed by a towboat.  There was a tugboat tethered to the barge.  The towboat had pushed the barge along its route (probably across the ocean).  The tugboat was sent out from the Beaufort Harbor to direct the barge through the narrow, local waters. 

In the second photo below, the towboat begins at the aftmost tall white vertical structure.  Quite impressive to be approached by such a huge vessel and even more impressive to watch it maneuver the close quarters.

Tugboat tethered to the barge

Barge being pushed by the towboat

That evening, we docked at a friend’s pier in Beaufort.  Beaufort is a pretty little town.  There was a fishing tournament taking place…the harbor was filled with multi-million dollar fishing boats.

Boats in Beaufort, NC for fishing tournament

Beaufort, NC

OK, back to reality.  We will spend tomorrow making boat repairs.  Murph has to climb the mast (again!), this time to re-attach the radar reflector that came crashing down today; make some sewing repairs to the bimini, dodger, and mainsail cover; and change the engine oil (an arduous task because of its location within the tiny engine compartment :-(.  Maintenance and repairs are challenging on a boat. As for me, I plan to apply another layer of oil to the teak, and sand off the rust and paint sections of the grocery cart that we bought just before starting the trip.  Word to the wise…do not leave gear made of cheap steel on the deck in the rain.  Next stop…Oriental, NC.

H.S. Reunion, Maryland & Wrightsville Beach by Karen Posey - June 5-9, 2015

We anchored in Wrightsville Beach Harbor on June 3, picked up a rental car on June 4, loaded our 4ft x 8ft dinghy with our “stuff” (laptops, clothes/toiletries, snacks/drinks, trash to throw out, propane tank to fill in MD…barely room for ourselves!), tied it up at a local pier, and drove to MD for my high school reunion.  Had a wonderful time at the reunion, then drove back to the boat the next day.  Of course, we took advantage of the opportunity to have a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich and other unnecessary culinary delights, knowing that the opportunity would not make itself available again for quite some time.

McDonald’s breakfast sandwich

June 10, 2015

We departed Wrightsville Beach on June 10.  While cruising along Alligator Bay near Camp Lejeune, we passed the infamous “Pink House”.  It is located on its own peninsula, with its own lighthouse.  It is noteworthy enough to be mentioned in one of the cruising guides.

“Pink House”

Also that day, we were surprised to see a fake palm tree with the American flag erected in the water, obviously at low tide, given the exposed sand bar.

Fake palm tree with the American flag on a sandbar

 We tied up for the night at a small marina in Sneads Ferry, NC that was more of a boat ramp and fuel dock for the RVers camped there.  http://www.newrivermarina.com/

Calabash River to Southport, NC to Wrightsville Beach, NC by Karen Posey - June 2, 2015

Today we passed a 315ft freighter, the Stella Nova, built by Jumbo Shipping out of Rotterdam (photo below).  To get some perspective, the catamaran that it is carrying is ~40ft in length, which is ~25% longer than our boat.  Given that the catamaran has two hulls, it has about twice the living space that we have.  Rather impressive to encounter such a huge vessel so close by.

The Stella Nova

Southport:  Free Dock!

June 4

Beautiful on the water last night. The sailboat in the third photo below is Kelly IV.  The powerboat in the first photo belongs to friends we met on the water.

MV Ocean Spirit

Wrightsville Beach Sunset

Kelly IV - taken by Ocean Spirit crew

Waccamaw River to Calabash River by Karen Posey - June 1, 2015

Cruising Behind Myrtle Beach 

We woke to a beautiful morning at our anchorage in the headwaters of the Waccamaw River.  We were the only ones in the anchorage, the water was quiet and still, and the birds were chirping.  The photo below shows the reflection of the swamp trees on the water.

Reflection of trees at sunrise

We passed some old ocean buoys along the shore of the canal near Myrtle Beach and a gondola over the canal that ferries golfers from the parking lot to the Pro Shop.

Ocean buoys

Gondolas over the canal

We entered the Rock Pile in early afternoon.  The Rock Pile, a 2.3mile sector of Pine Island Cut, SC, is a man-made canal-like section of the ICW.  It is narrow and lined with submerged rocks and a rock shelf just 1-2ft below the water’s surface at low tide.  One must stay as close to the middle of the cut as possible since the submerged rocks are not visible and hitting the rocks can create a hole in the boat (NOT a good idea!).  This makes it extremely difficult for two larger vessels to cross each other.  For that reason, when approaching the Rock Pile, one must radio that information to all other boats so that any boat traveling through the Rock Pile in the other direction can make its presence known and thus exit that stretch of waterway before another boat enters. The photo below is misleading, because there are rocks under the water that you cannot see.  Fortunately, I can report that we made it through the Rock Pile without a hitch.

The Rock Pile

Last but not least, the photo of the sign posted in the swamp that says “Wing Kings – We Deliver to the River” shows that even in rural isolated swamps, the entrepreneurial spirit thrives!

"Wing Kings – We Deliver to the River"

We will be underway for 2 more days, then anchor at Wrightsville Beach and rent a car to drive to my high school reunion this weekend.

Calabash River Anchorage north of Myrtle Beach

Minim Creek to Waccamaw River by Karen Posey - May 31, 2015

Today had its own interesting moments.  The water was smooth as glass…beautiful to look at but not great for sailing.

Smooth, flat water

As we traveled the Esterville Minim Creek Canal, we came upon a floating swing bridge, with length ~150ft (the width of the canal).  It swings to allow cars to cross the canal.

Floating swing bridge

We spent most of the day traveling the cypress swamps on the Waccamaw River.  Several times we saw very small floating islands in 30ft of water, again something quite surprising and unexpected.

Small floating island

What amazed me were the cypress trees growing in the water. As you can see in the photo below, even the telephone poles were in the water!  And note that the green under the trees is lily pads (or something similar) floating in the water, not ground or grass!

Cypress trees growing in the water

Traveling through the swamps reminded me of the Pogo cartoon that was in the Sunday funny papers when I was a kid.  Some of you may recall that Pogo was an opossum that lived in the Okefenokee Swamp. (OK, I had to Google the name of the swamp.)  Perhaps Pogos’s comrades (or maybe someone who was not so lucky on the ICW) left that abandoned boat along the swamp’s edge.

Abandoned boat along the swamp’s edge

Speaking of “boats with problems”, we next encountered a HUGE barge coming toward us along the swamps of the Waccamaw.  We were quite surprised to see such a large vessel traveling such a narrow waterway.  After he passed us, he had to make a sharp turn at a bend in the river, and guess what…he went aground (photo below).  As you can see in the photo, it’s hard to believe that he could even make that turn, given his length.  We did NOT consider pulling him off!  Guess he’ll be there for a while.    :-(

Large tow and barge piloting the upper Waccamaw River

We went to bed that night thinking that tomorrow we have to navigate the dreaded Rock Pile…more on that to come.

"Horseflies?? REALLY???" Charleston, SC to Minim Creek by Karen Posey - May 30, 2015

Underway at 6:30am this morning …without coffee!!!…in order to take advantage of the tides.  We knew that we would have a touch-and-go situation while traveling through Meeting Reach.  Meeting Reach is a dredged ICW canal that separates the Isle of Palms, SC from the mainland…tricky depths as low as 6.8ft, and that’s with 3-4ft of tide.  We draw 5ft.  No nav aids to tell us where to go to avoid going aground, so we had to zigzag with a close eye on the depth sounder.  (Clearly, the dredging activities of the Army Corps Of Engineers cannot keep up with the sediment that is continually deposited as a result of the many inlets.)  A sailboat behind us actually went aground.  It was a falling tide, so she will have to wait at least 6 hours for a rising tide to be able to float off.  We would have gone back to try to pull her off, as we did with the sailboat that was aground south of Daytona, but the boat was significantly larger than ours and we were concerned about going aground ourselves.

Another photo op…an isolated house along the salt marshes north of Charleston…do you think these people get out much?

Isolated house along the salt marshes of South Carolina

At the other end of the financial spectrum, a multi-million dollar motor yacht passed us that same morning.

Motor yacht

That day also provided us with the title for this trip report…”Horseflies??  REALLY???”  Believe it or not, when you’re moving along with the wind in your face, you can still have horseflies swarming around you for hours on end!  We were swatting those suckers and being stung by them all afternoon (including one brave fly that flew up Murph’s shirt!).  Even bug repellant did not deter them. They were up to 1” long, looked more like cockroaches than flies.  I wanted to get a photo of them in the cockpit, but, of course, the little buggers are fast.  But then I opened the door to the head and saw one flying around. So I quickly closed the door, grabbed my camera, stealthily crept into the head and lay in wait for him to light so that I could get a photo.  (For those of you in the Book Club who are reading Sick Puppy, I must say that I felt like Twilly Spree, though there were no dung beetles involved.  :-)  It did finally land on the portlight (window) in the head, and I got a photo (see below).  I guess it’s a rather uneventful day when the major headline is “horsefly in the head”.  :-)

Horsefly in the head

Our neighbor in the anchorage, cruisers from Colorado

Minim Creek Anchorage Sunset