Depart: Portside Marina Morehead City, NC 8:15
Arrive: Harbour Village Marina Hampstead, NC 3:00
Distance: 39 NM
The weather did not cooperate, so we never did get into Morehead City to have a look around. Our main concerns for today's trip - bridges with set opening times and areas of shoaling along the ICW. Two low bridges stood between us and tonight's stop - the first opening only on the hour and the half hour; the second only on the hour. Given these constraints, we decided to be on our way instead of walking into town before moving on.
Today's high temperature at 57 degrees greeted us when we woke in the morning, i.e. it would not be getting any warmer as the day progressed. With a chilly wind in our faces, we opted to pilot from the pilot house as we did yesterday. We cast off our lines as soon as we finished breakfast and started on our way south to our next stop.
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| Container Ship being off-loaded at Portside Marina |
The biggest difference between yesterday's travel and today's ... boat traffic! They must have all stayed put yesterday to wait out the rain and came out in force today. We saw trawlers, sailboats, and small and not-so-small fishing boats. The majority of the traffic headed south with us.
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| Fishing Boat Laying Down Nets (tied to the Red Channel Marker!) |
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| Brrr! Fisherman in the water by his boat! |
We passed a few marinas. The somewhat colorful one below is one we stayed at in the past called "Caspers". Even though their insignia is a whale (not a ghost). Clark called it "Caspers the Friendly Marina".
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| Caspers Marina, Swansboro, NC |
With "slow speed, no wake" zones, adverse currents, and miscellaneous other slowdowns, timing the arrival at the Onslow Bridge, the first with a rigid opening schedule, offered a challenge. After three hours on the water, Clark decided we had an opportunity to make the 12:00 opening of the bridge but only if we sped up. About 11:40 he pushed the throttle up to 2800 RPM and "let her rip"!
With the clock rapidly ticking the minutes away, we wondered if we would get there for the opening or just in time to see the bridge closing. As we sped along we referred to the chart and calculated we had around 3 more nautical miles to go to reach the bridge.Comparing watches, I remembered Clark's watch is three minutes faster than mine which is synced to my Verizon phone. Suddenly we had 3 whole extra minutes to make the bridge! Woohoo!
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| Onslow Beach Bridge - can we get there on time?? |
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| Phew! We made it just in time. |
One bridge down; one to go. Our next goal - get to the bridge that only opens on the hour for their 3 o'clock opening to make it to our marina for the night by 4:00.
With a greater number of boats on the water today, one of the day's main activities involved passing other boats or being passed by them. With a relatively skinny channel through otherwise low water, even with being attentive and diligent, we had a couple of episodes of getting too close to the edge of the channel during these passing events. The edge of the channel was rather unforgiving, and water went from 11 feet deep to 3 or 4 feet deep at a moment's notice.
Fortunately Clark follows the notes on Active Captain closely. One entry from September gave four GPS entries for coordinates to follow to pass safely through an area where the channel has significantly shifted from its old path. We entered the coordinates into our GPS and used these points to guide us through this particularly tricky area. Looking at the chart plotter, one of these GPS points was so far off from the channel, it appeared to be located on land. Amazingly, following the mapped path, we found deep water.
Shortly before 2:00, we realized we had a good chance of making the 2:00 opening of the on-the-hour bridge. As we neared the bridge, Clark called the bridge tender who told him he would be opening in nine minutes. Precisely on the hour, the bridge opened. As I looked behind us I saw two boats speeding towards us trying to make the bridge opening. Given the distance they had to cover, it did not look good.
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| Boats in front of us passing through open bridge - into the sun! |
When the swing bridge was full open, we passed through the bridge. I continued to watch the two approaching boats to see if they would make it to the bridge in time. I could see it would be a close call. It all depended on the bridge tender as to whether he would hold the bridge. He did not. The two boats arrived at the bridge as it snapped into place. They would have an hour's wait for the next opening!
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| Looking back on the Surf City Swing Bridge as it closed behind us. |
Given that we made the 2:00 bridge, we arrived at the marina at 3:00. Unlike yesterday, the sun had come out and despite a chill in the air, the weather was rather pleasant. However, also unlike yesterday, there is nothing here except the marina, i.e. no town to visit! So yesterday we had a town to explore and no time. Today we had time to explore and no town. Oh well! C'est la vie when boating! Instead of exploring, we relaxed on board reading and watching some TV.
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| Evening sky at Harbour Village Marina |
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