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!