Depart: Sugar Loaf Island, Moorehead City, NC anchorage 10:20 a.m.
Arrive: Private Dock, Fairfield Harbour, New Bern, NC 3:20
Distance: ~ 37 nm
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| AIS view of our boat at Sugar Loaf Island |
Clark said we had to wait until the boat was facing the
right direction to leave, i.e. he wanted the current to be with us on today’s
relatively short trip up the Neuse River in North Carolina.
When we were coming in from the ocean to anchor yesterday, we heard a ship’s captain calling the harbor and requesting a pilot to guide the ship into dock. When we departed this morning, we saw that ship docked
Earlier, while we were anchored, Clark got a phone call from our long-time friend Kevin from Koastal Karma. We looked for him in Marathon, but we waited too long as he was there in February, but we went looking for him in March. He had a question about a railroad bridge around the corner from where we were anchored. He wanted to know who he had to contact to get it opened. When we arrived at the bridge a short while later, the bridge was open enough for us to pass under.
As we left the area, I snapped a couple of pictures of the area as we headed towards Adam’s Creek.
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| Interesting brick structure on an island |
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| Marshes |
We have been up the Neuse River multiple times now, and I did
not take any pictures on this trip as I was busy reading a novel as we moved along.
Finally, I saw familiar channel markers and knew we were
close to our destination.
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| Distinctive Markers here |
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| Cone on the #1 marker |
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| Reflective markings on #3 |
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| Bird's nest on this one |
We pulled up to our friend’s dock in Fairfield Harbour mid-afternoon. Ralph was there to greet us and help us finish tying up at the dock. After spending the rest of the afternoon at Ralph’s house catching up, we decided to go into New Bern to eat dinner at Gemelli’s.
As we sat at a table outdoors, I looked across the
restaurant and saw a person at a table that reminded me of our friend, Pat.
But, it couldn’t be Pat because she moved to Michigan last fall. Finally, I
said to Ralph, “I can’t believe how much that person over there looks like Pat!”
He picked up his phone and called Pat’s number and got no
answer and thought, “It must not be Pat.” We were both so astounded at the
resemblance that he decided to walk over and say hello. At which point she
looked up, and wow, it was indeed Pat in New Bern for a few days to visit a
friend in the area.
What a coincidence that we would pick the same restaurant on
the same night to get to see each other. When we asked her how she liked
Michigan, all she would say was, “It’s cold.”
After a brief exchange of greetings, we agreed that she
would try to come visit us before she left to go back to Michigan on Saturday.
24 April 2026
Today, Friday, was a work day for Ralph, but he gave us free
run of the house. We took advantage of the washer, dryer, and the shower! It
was so nice to be able to get both clothes and ourselves clean without emptying
our water tank on the boat. I spent several hours on laundry as I washed
clothes, sheets, and towels to get caught up to a fresh start!
While I stayed up at the house doing laundry while reading
my novel, Clark was on the boat catching up with his email and playing his
guitar that he has not touched since we left Marathon!
Ralph worked until 5:00 and was home shortly afterwards. Our
friend Pat borrowed her friend’s car and came over late afternoon to visit. The
four of us went out to dinner together to a local restaurant, Sara’s, that is a
popular favorite to locals.
The picture of Fairfield Harbour was quite nice.
Last night at Gemelli’s I had pizza for dinner. Tonight, Clark
wanted to share a pizza, so I had pizza again tonight. Both night’s there was
more pizza than could be eaten, and both nights, we took leftovers home for
another day.
At the end of the evening, we said farewell to Pat who would
be flying back to Michigan the next day.
25 April 2026
Ralph did not have to work today. He had an amateur radio
breakfast to attend this morning. He invited Clark to go with him. They left
together just before 8:00 and were gone until noon. I had the morning to myself
and decided to spend the time coloring my hair as too much gray was showing at
the roots – basically a “spa day” for me!
During the afternoon, Ralph got a request from his son to be
available should his daughters need anything as he and his wife were going out
to a birthday dinner for the evening. I met the girls in October of 2024 and
found that I had much in common in terms of interest with the elder girl, Scarlet.
I suggested that the girls come to Ralph’s house, so I could spend time with
them.
The girls were dropped off around 5:00, and we got to enjoy their company for a few hours. The first thing they wanted to do was tour our boat. Then they wanted to stay on the boat. I pulled out jewelry-making paraphernalia, and we spent hours making bracelets and necklaces.
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| Picking out birthstone charms |
Both of the girls made birthstone bracelets for themselves. Aurora made a bracelet for her mother.
They were looking at pictures of our grandkids, and I mentioned that Lillian loved to do cartwheels like in the picture on the refrigerator. They went out into the backyard and started doing cartwheels and handstands much to Clark’s amusement.
(I have not shown the girls’ faces for privacy reasons.)
Ralph made dinner for himself and the girls. Tonight, I shared leftover pizza for dinner! That makes pizza three nights in a row for me. That should hold me over for quite some time before I crave pizza again.
After dinner, Ralph took us all to "Simply Natural Creamery" for ice cream. When we got back to Ralph's house from our outing, we found the girls' parents there waiting for them to take them home. The girls had so much fun with us they begged to be allowed to stay the night on our boat. The parents said, "No way", and that was the end of that.
Depart: Private Dock, Fairfield Harbour, New Bern, NC 12:05
Arrive: Gale Creek anchorage near Hobucken, NC 5:30
Distance: ~ 38 nm
Conditions: Rain, fog, 20 knot winds gusting to over 30 knots, waves crashing over upper helm
When Clark attended the amateur radio breakfast, there was a USCG auxiliary person that did vessel inspections, but Ralph said that he knew a person right at Fairfield Harbor that could do it and he called him. Clark set up an appointment with Karl for 9 AM the next day.
When we woke this morning, it was clear that it would be pouring rain at 9:00, so they shifted the start time for the inspection to 11 AM. The weather cleared enough by 10:30 so Clark texted him, and Karl came to our boat just before 11:00.We passed inspection easily and now have a sticker on our window saying so!
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| Paperwork for the USCG vessel inspection |
Because the weather was miserable this morning and looked like it would continue to be miserable throughout the day, I did not expect to be traveling today. Clark, on the other hand, had other ideas! Although I grumbled that it was a nasty day, he was insistent that we needed to “make progress”.
As we pulled in our lines and power cord just before noon,
it started to rain once more. Clark had told me the rain would be done by noon!
Hah! My weatherman is rarely wrong, but he failed me today.
After bringing in all the soggy lines and stowing them in their appropriate places, I came in to check that we had the stabilizer engaged and flipped on the running lights. The heavy mist / drizzle led me to believe this would be a good idea.
The trip down the Neuse River was a lonely one with almost no other boats sited for the entire duration of the trip. Clark had the radar running and spied what he thought must be a boat showing up on the screen. He could not see a vessel on AIS, so if we saw the boat, it would be by visual only. Eventually, we did see the sailboat up ahead bouncing through the waves like we were.
Since the sailboat did not have AIS and we could in no way see the boat’s transom to obtain the boat’s name, we could not hale the boat. As we got closer and closer, the sailboat shifted direction to pass across in front of us. We doubted that the sailboat knew of our presence, so at one point as we were near each other, Clark sounded our horn, “one whistle”, to let them know we would pass them on our port side. We got no response, so we just kept an eye on them to make sure we avoided each other’s paths.
At the lower portion of the Neuse River, we fought the 4’ waves caused by the headwinds. The short period between waves made the ride even more treacherous. At our normal RPM, we were traveling at less than 8 knots for the majority of today’s travel – at least a full knot less than we would expect to see at that RPM.
As we reached Pamlico Sound, we encountered another sailboat. This one we could see on AIS. We appeared to both be following the ICW. We kept an eye on them as we traveled in proximity to each other. However, keeping an eye on them was not particularly easy as our range of visibility was severely reduced by the conditions. Fog rolled in. Rain came down. Waves crashed over the top of the boat.
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| Viewing the horizon through a drizzle-covered panel |
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| Visibility at times -- especially after a wave hit us |
For much of the ride, our path took us directly into the oncoming waves. After we turned, the stabalizers couldn't keep up with the larger waves and the boat bucked and rolled as it encountered the waves. Looking over at the nearby sailboat fighting the waves, we could see large portions of its hull as it tipped to port as it traveled over the turbulent water.
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| S/V company on the ICW |
Besides being windy, rainy, and foggy, it was cold today.
The weather app said that it was 54 degrees and felt like 50! With three layers
of clothes up top, I was still feeling the chill. I knew we would be anchoring
tonight, and I dreaded going up to the bow to drop the anchor.
At 5:00 we had to make a decision as to where to drop the anchor.
We had a canal coming up. We could anchor before the canal or after. I was
ready to call it a day, but I had hoped it would be a little less miserable
when it came time to go outside and deal with the anchor.
As we approached Bay River, the waves started to settle
down. That was very good news. Traveling the latter part of the Neuse River
into Pamlico Sound, we had heard ominous sounds coming from down below several
times as one thing or another crashed to the ground. I had no desire to go down
to investigate the crashes. Earlier I had made the trip to the head, i.e.
bathroom. The waves were not as bad at that time. That trip was grueling enough.
I wanted no part of checking out the crashes coming with the heavier waves.
First a box of electrical parts that Clark had in the pilot
house deposited itself on the floor and scattered its contents all around.
Later, a cabinet in the galley opened itself and deposited a fry pan and lid
onto the galley floor. On a different wave, our Ryobi fan tried to jump to its
death by falling down a flight of stairs to the area below the lower helm. On
yet another instance, the shelves in the guest stateroom emptied themselves of
all the papers contained on the shelf. A shelf in the salon deposited its
contents on the floor as well.
While Clark was doing one of the multiple trips down below
to investigate each of these events, his remote control for his autopilot flew
off the upper helm, where he had left it, to deposit itself on the floor of the
upper helm with a particularly severe tip to port from a large wave that caught
us. I left it on the floor for him to pick up when he returned up top.
Fortunately, nothing broke as a result of the turbulence. The
papers strewn across the guest stateroom looked the worst as the mess was huge.
I found other items, like electric fans, that had fallen over but not crashed
to the ground. Shortly after anchoring, we had everything stowed as near to
normal as possible.
I had not wanted to travel today, and I reminded Clark of
that fact several times as we traveled the waves. It’s not too often that I am
miserable out on the water, but today was up there near the top of the list.
When I told Clark this, he said, “What about Penobscot Bay in Maine?” I agreed
that was at, or near, the top of my list of miserable trips, but that did not
mean I could not add another one to my list! I now have three boat rides that I
could have done without.
The third of my top three was a miserable night spent crossing from Long Island to New Jersey in July many years ago! When I start wondering if we will survive the ride, like I did that night in July, the voyage gets added to my “thank you, but no” list!
Today’s trip joined that list. Besides being crazy rocky earlier, it was wet and chilly! As we lowered the anchor, I stood outside in the wind and rain. It's going to be a chilly night at anchor!
