Alligator Watch, Dolphin Sights, and Bumps in the Night

We passed by Myrtle Beach, although we didn’t see the beach or a lot of the area. We did see a few golf courses and some of Barefoot Landing. We were going to dock there for the night but decided to continue on to a marina further on. We passed through the infamous “rock pile” where the edges of the canal are laced with large rocks. We saw and kept clear of any rocks, and had no trouble. We were travelling with about 6 or so boats that day, and were close together as we had 3 bridges to wait on. Little Second Wind tried to keep up, but way back from the main pack. After passing through Myrtle Beach, we left civilization for swamp. Just before the last bridge of the day, we thought we saw a floating log (not uncommon to spot drifters along the ICW) as we got closer, I jokingly said to Sal, oh look an alligator. We got a little closer and agreed that it looked like an alligator. I thought maybe it was a lawn decoration…. but then it MOVED! We spotted our first alligator. It was quite small, but amazing to see. By the time we got out of shock and grabbed the camera, we were quite far past it, so the pictures are not close-ups, and we couldn’t turn around, because the bridge was waiting on us. When we docked at Osprey Marina, we excitedly told my parents, they unfortunately had not seen it, when they went by that area. The marina was fantastic, on arrival they gave us a goody bag with some food items, a key ring and some small gifts! What a great welcome.

Friday, Nov 19, we had breakfast at the marina and chatted with a few boaters. They informed us about must see stops along the way. We returned to the swamp and headed out on our way. We arrived in Georgetown (the 3^rd oldest city of South Carolina) just after lunch. As we arrived, we detected the pungent odor of the paper factory nearby, luckily the winds were not blowing it towards us. We went ashore and looked around. Some great shops and restaurants. We wanted to buy some souvenirs but would not know where to store them on the boat.

(Downtown buildings in Georgetown)

We were awoken by the crowing of a rooster on Saturday. We were not expecting that. We passed numerous hunters in camouflaged boats and clothing, but other than that the rivers and creeks we were travelling down were very quiet. Currents are stronger now and tides are around 6 feet! We had another animal encounter today. While motoring along, I felt the boat move. I checked the depth sounder, it said 16 feet – ok so we didn’t hit bottom, I looked behind me and all the sudden, a dolphin surfaces about 3 feet from me! As Sal can attest, I freaked right out. It scared the pants right off me. Sal came running out and we watched the 2 dolphins as they swam away. The next morning as we were leaving, 6 or 8 dolphins swam by us, we slowed down and watched them as they played around our boat. They would come up on either side of the boat. We tried to get a good video of them but it’s sometimes hard to tell where they will come up for air. What a great way to start the day, watching dolphins as we finish our coffee.

We arrived in Charleston, South Carolina yesterday. We anchored in a deep anchorage among many other boats. We tried to find the elusive dinghy dock, and ended up tying up to what we thought was the dinghy dock. No one was around to tell us otherwise. We walked around Charleston, admiring the beautiful houses and tree lined streets. We had wanted to stay another day but dad was eager to go, and worried that we would run out of food. When anchoring, Sal and I tried to do a Bahamian Moor, which is putting out 2 anchors 180 degrees apart. We thought we had done it quite successfully until 2 am when we woke up to a thud. We had bumped into the boat ahead of us. Time to re-anchor (luckily the full moon provided lots of light for us). Unfortunately getting up the anchors proved to be quite a challenge. Somehow, we were not able to get 1 anchor up because they were too far apart and we didn’t have enough rode on either anchor to let on out, while we picked the other one up. We had to send Sal in the dinghy with the one anchor rode while I pulled up the other one… then I had to go pick up Sal in the dinghy with the other anchor rode and then we pulled that one up. We only set one anchor out after that. Needless to say our Bahamian anchoring experience was not a success… we just hope no-one was watching us last night.

(Palmettos, South Carolina state tree)

(Street in Charleston)

(No helmets necessary!)

On a pleasant note, the weather has been getting increasingly warmer during the day, still a little cool at night but nothing near what it was a few weeks ago. With the warm weather we are starting to see a few more bugs, specifically ‘no-see-ums’ which are small biting bugs that come through our bug nets. Ahh you win some, you lose some.

Last Few Days

(wind-whipped tree)

Sun. Nov 14^th we pulled up our anchor and went through the 7:30 bridge opening with about 5 other boats. We passed Beaufort on our left and Morehead City on our right. It was a cool, cloudy morning and a slight southwest wind was blowing on our nose. We motored against the current for the whole day. Around 11am the clouds cleared and the sun came out, warming us up a bit. We could spot the dorsal fins of dolphins in the distance, but none came too close. I don’t blame them with all the powerboats flying through, churning up all the water. We are starting to encounter more bridges to go through, most open ever ½ hour, but some only on the hour. We arrived just before sundown at Mile Hammock Bay (a military dredged basin, where you are able to stop, unless operations are going on, at that point they will kick you out!). All the boats we had left with, including our parents were peacefully sitting at anchor. A 9 ½ hour day with only 40 some miles to show for it! We went over to Chautauqua for a taco fiesta. When we were ready to go home Sal called down, “you better come up here” The boat that my parents were anchored beside was directly in front of them (it was empty, and just anchored there). It must have had out extra rode or just lying differently than all the other boats. My parents re-anchored and no other problems over night.

(A lot of large houses along the way, this one is an eye catcher though)

The next day, we left before everyone else, hoping to make a bit more headway. We just snuck through the first bridge opening at 10am, as we managed to get a favourable tide that helped us along. We were lucky all day and made all the bridges, arriving with the ‘big boats’. My parents, who usually leave about a half hour after us, missed the first bridge and arrived in the anchorage about an hour after us. It was the first time we were anchored before them. We anchored off Wrightsville Beach. We took our dinghy to shore and walked across to the beach and saw the Atlantic Ocean. It looks fairly passive, but we were happy to be inland.

(Sal looking at the big Atlantic Ocean)

Tuesday Nov 16^th we had another day with the currents against us for the whole way! It’s hard to catch a good current because all the inlets from the ocean. You will catch it for a while, then once you pass the inlet, it will be against you, and vise versa. It started raining and became quite foggy before lunch and we took a detour into South Beach and anchored and waited out the rain, as my parents said that it was quite rough where they were and to see if we could wait it out. We anchored for about 30 minutes until the rain cleared, then set off again. We had the current with us for about 30 minutes down the Snowy cut, then once we were in the Cape Fear River, it turned against us…and it was strong! We were only going about 1.5 knots at times. We left 10 minutes after our parents, and 30 miles/ 8 hours later we anchored, 3 hours after my parents had anchored. It is kind of frustrating.

(Tides are getting bigger here - 5 feet)

That evening after anchoring we went to the mother ship for dinner and afterwards, my dad called to us, ‘you’d better come out here’. The small boat that we had anchored behind was right beside us (it was empty too)!! We rowed back over and pulled up our anchor and reanchored in front of it. It was the strangest thing because we anchored significantly behind him! That boat’s anchor must have been dragging because in the morning it was at the back of the basin! It was a windy night and Chautauqua had to re-anchor as well because they were dragging. We put out a bit of extra rode and kept a close watch, but held for the night. Never a dull moment! Today we are hoping to make it out of North Carolina and into South Carolina – we like places that start with the word south!

Beaufort, NC

It seems that mother nature wants us to move south. For the past few days we have had a north wind pushing us down the ICW. After our night in the Alligator river ( I was on the lookout, but didn’t see any alligators) we proceeded to mile 153 and anchored in Eastham creek for the night. There we headed over to Chautauqua for a dinner of BBQ hotdogs and a bean salad. We had another cold night and were glad for buying fleece PJ pants in Elizabeth City.

On Remembrance Day we left at 7am and motored down a narrow canal and then were out in the Neuse River. The guidebooks warned us about this river, as it gets quite choppy depending on the direction of the wind. Another day of north wind, so we had our sails up and our motor off and were cruising along at a great pace, surfing down the 2-3 foot waves. By the end we had almost caught up with Chautauqua as they headed into Oriental. We anchored on the other side of a bridge with a 42 foot clearance. My parents just snuck underneath. They said that they thought they had a few inches to spare!! We were able to get in touch with a mechanic from Sailcraft – a boat yard in Whittaker Creek. We motored the boat around and spent the night at their dock. We were so impressed with the service there. Everyone was so friendly and our motor was ready first thing in the morning. The mechanic showed us some things about the motor and made some suggestions as well as answered all our questions. They didn’t even charge us for spending the night at the dock. We were able to borrow their bikes and ride around the quaint town and have a hot shower. We bought a baguette for dinner, and wanted to look around more but it was getting dark and we didn’t want to be biking around in the dark.

The next morning we left at 9:30 am and called our parents and told them we were on our way. They passed us on the other side of the Neuse River. We were able to sail right to where it got narrow, and could have probably sailed the whole way to Beaufort because the wind just funneled down the canal. There was a bit more boat traffic then we were used to and it’s starting to get more built up with houses.

My mom had promised that there would be lots of dolphins to greet us as we neared the city. We only got a short glimpse of 4 fins along the way, maybe they have all moved further south? The wind was so strong from behind (We were so glad that it was behind us and not from the other direction) as we approached Beaufort. We anchored among some derelict boats moored in town creek. The wind finally died down towards nighttime. At dinner we discussed the plans for the following day where we would dinghy around to Taylor creek and dock at the town docks so we could explore Beaufort.

Saturday we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, as we had no milk for cereal, all our instant oatmeal was used and we had only 1 egg left… time to get some more provisions. We ‘car-pooled’ with my parents around to the main docks in Beaufort. We saw a boat from when we were stuck in Sandy hook, about a month ago! They had come down on the outside route and were stuck here waiting out the remains of wind from hurricane Thomas that had created waves 18-22 feet in the Atlantic. It’s exciting to run into boats that we have met along the way. We walked around the downtown and bought a few sailing books at a store and some updated charts. We had coffee with our parents at a cafe and then all went to the maritime museum (where I tried to memorize all the poisonous snakes in the area). Afterwards mom and I walked 1 mile to the grocery store, and the men went back to the boat. We took a taxi to the docks with all our groceries and dad picked us up with the dinghy. Again, we wish we had more time to explore Beaufort, but we need to keep moving south if we are going to make it to Florida before Christmas. We put Beaufort on the list of places to explore more on the way back.

Just an aside note, before to comment, I think you had to have a google or some other account and then sign in. Sal and I changed this so now anyone can comment. We really enjoy reading the comments and will try to answer any questions.

Cool Days and Cold Nights

The last few days have been uncomfortably cold. We are wearing at least 4 layers of clothes and most mornings and evenings can see our breaths! It’s time to move south.

We spent the weekend in Elizabeth City. We now have fresh laundry, a full gas tank, lots of food and all smell nice. We checked out the Museum of the Albemarle, which showed the history of the area, as well as an exhibit on the Plott hounds, moonshine and the Coastguard. On Monday we brought the boat over to the shipyards and they lifted her out for us. It was a little nerve racking seeing her hang ,but Sal reassured me that seeing the lift was capable of 60 tons, Second Wind should be in no danger of breaking the straps. Once out of the water we took off the rudder and put it back with some washers to snug it up. We took a trace of the centerboard (in case we lose it – hopefully we don’t though) and changed the centerboard line to a stronger one. The owner had a look at the motor and showed us how to adjust the idle, but didn’t have a mechanic around. We fixed it so that it doesn’t stall while idling lower but will still need to get it serviced. We wish we knew more about engines in order to do more of the work ourselves, but I’m terrified of breaking something and then having it cost more to repair. We were done in an hour and she was placed gently back in the water. The rudder now works great! There’s less play in it then we’ve ever had it before.

Monday night we got invited out to this gentleman’s boat for dinner. We met him the first day arriving in Elizabeth City and seen him almost everywhere around town. He is fixing up a 28 foot Cape Dory that he has on land that he will be putting in the water in spring. We had a delicious spaghetti dinner and great conversation. He had a small wood stove in his boat and it was the warmest I’d been in probably 2 weeks as I sat beside it.

(Blimp factory outside of Elizabeth City, NC)

Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5am!!! We left at 6am with a few other boats and motored out of Elizabeth city and towards Albemarle Sound. We had the wind behind us for the first time in a long while. We put up the sails and were surfing down the small waves. We entered the Alligator River and had a lovely sail with sails wing on wing. We had to start the motor up at 2 or we would have never made it to our anchorage by sundown, which unfortunately is an hour early now a days. The river is protected by swamp on both sides and we had a peaceful evening aside from the military fighter planes flying around overhead. They stopped by 8pm and we had a quiet starry night.

(Moon reflecting on the calm water at dusk)

Elizabeth City, NC

We spent 2 nights in Hampton among the hustle and bustle. When you get used to anchoring in quiet, secluded creeks, it’s a big change to be right near a city. At 7am the banging from digging a well started, followed by traffic sounds from the land and boat traffic on the water. It’s a nice change. We had a personal tour of the History of Hampton Museum, by a gentleman who gave us stories and anecdote from it’s original Indians to James Cook, Pocahontas, to the history of Fort Monroe. It was very interesting. We picked up a bit of food from the Dollar Tree and were ready to go Thursday morning.

Thursday morning was a rainy, cool, miserable kind of day. We picked up anchor at 8am and left across Hampton roads, went by Norfolk and into the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). We passed many huge navy ships along the piers and then the port, with containers pilled high. We wound our way past Norfolk, seeing the Naticus and it’s downtown. Red bouy number ‘36’ is considered mile 0 of the ICW. We waited for a few bridges and then reached a fork. You could take either way, the Virginia cut, or the Dismal Swamp. We chose the Dismal swamp because it is more scenic and has less boat traffic. We motored down a narrow canal and went through an 8 foot lock with about 7 or so other boats. The lock tender entertained us for the 30 minutes it took us to go up 8 feet. We even got to hear him play his conch. We motored 18 more miles and rafted up 3 deep at the visitor’s welcome center. Drenched and cold, we warmed up in Chautauqua with their propane heater. It definitely feels like fall now. Trees are in full change and the days are cool and night cold.

Friday we left early to make the first lock opening at 8:30 am. We continued down the narrow canal lined with trees on either side and it started to widen and meander, snaking its way south. We saw why they named it the dismal swamp. We passed a few boats with deer hunters. They send their dogs into the swamp and then they chase the deer out towards the water. We rounded a few more corners, went under a bridge and arrived at Elizabeth City. Elizabeth City is a known and loved stop by cruises. We tied up to a free dock and were invited to a cocktail party at 4pm. About 15 or so other boats were tied up there and all came to this party where we talked and had one of the rose buddies tell us the history of the river and give us some updated chart information. There were a few assorted beer and some wine and cheese. Then the director of tourism gave us information on the city. It really made us feel welcome and a chance to meet some other cruisers, many of them Canadian. People would also stop by the boat and say hello and ask about our boat, usually give us lots of compliments about second wind and want to know where we were from.

We will be staying in Elizabeth city for 3 nights and Monday morning have an appointment to get our boat lifted out of the water in order to properly repair the rudder and replace the line on the centerboard. We are also getting our motor serviced as it is not running quite right. We wanted to get it checked out as we have quite a bit of motoring ahead of us. A great city to spend the weekend.

Demasted!!!

We left the Solomon's Thursday the 28th of October. The night before, there was a tornado warning for the area about 20 miles south of us. We only saw a bit of lightning and a few gusts of wind. The next morning Solomon's was cleared out because everyone took this opportunity of good weather to make some southward progress. We lead the way at 7am before sunrise and probably about 20 or so boats followed us out. We had a beautiful sunny day with light winds and small waves. We made good progress and made it to the Great Wicomico River which was about 40 miles by 4:30 pm. Just before entering the anchorage we saw about four dolphins which was really exciting. We anchored and watched a beautiful sunset. The winds picked up overnight and were howling the next day, we decided to hunker down and had a cosy day of reading and we started watching The Blue Planet (absolutely excellent show).

We left the following day and had a day of light winds. The creek we went into had a very narrow entrance and my parents went aground both on entering and exiting the next day. Sunday October 31, we had another long day of sailing. Good winds and large waves. It was quite rough for about half an hour, then the winds seemed to die down so much that we needed to put the motor on if we were going to make it before nightfall. We anchored in Back Creek. Not much civilization around, just the odd power boater driving by. We did not have a very exciting Halloween. No boats were anchored there other than ourselves. We brought over some decorated napkins for dinner and mom gave us a little bit of chocolate. We talked about getting dressed up, but nothing panned out.

Monday November 1st. We had an 8am start. Motored out of Back Creek. Winds NE 10-15 knots, waves 2-3 feet. We unfurled the jib and raised the mizzen sail. Sal had just gone below to change the batteries in the GPS, when what I originally thought that the jib had ripped...but then everything was falling down. Sal says that I covered my face protectively, all I remember is saying "Oh my God!" The mast had fallen down! We turned off the motor and i went up deck to inspect what had happened. We pulled the jib up from the water and wrapped the sail up so it wouldn't get caught on anything. From what I could tell, the pin holding the furling to the bowsprit had come out. We got the lines out of the water, turned around motored back the 3 miles to Back Creek. My poor mom had a fit when she saw that our mast was no longer in it's proper position. They met us and followed us in. We rafted up together and assessed the damages. As unfortunate as we seem to be, we have also be so lucky! No major damages, just a lost pin (connects the jib to the bowsprit), broken pin (that connects the boom to the mast), a hoop that guides the furling line back to the cockpit also ripped out and a telltale came off. Luckily the mast fell to the side and no one got hurt. It took us about 20 minutes to sort everything out and get the mast back up and everything secure. We left again and had an uneventful trip to the Hampton River, which is across from Norfolk, Virginia.

Back in civilization. We are anchored beside Hampton University. We blew up the dinghy and got a few things sorted and exhaused, had an early night sleep.

Today (Nov 2nd) We went ashore to Hampton and explored a little. We visited the Hampton History Museum and had a private tour of the history of this area. We then paid 1$ each and got to have a well needed shower. There are a lot of boats here especially Canadians. Many are waiting to leave on the Caribbean 1500, a rally heading for the British Virgin Islands that was scheduled to leave a while ago but got delayed because of Hurricane Thomas. They are planning to leave on Friday. We are going to stay another day and will leave Thursday morning. We will be entering the Intercoastal Waterway.