24 October 2023
Depart: Re Mayo dock, Hobucken, NC 9:20
Arrive: Fairfield Harbour near New Bern, NC at friend's dock 2:20
Distance: 38 nm
We are moving south as fast as we can to get to warmer weather. Sleeping at anchor with no heat can get a little chilly. We woke this morning to 53 degrees in the stateroom. Although we were cozy in bed, it took a lot of determination and a "call of nature" to motivate us to get out from under the covers.
Before leaving this morning, we explored their marine store. They specialize in selling items that a commercial fisherman would need on the water. I checked out their rain slickers that ran in men's sizes from small to 5X large. I am not sure I have ever before seen something 5X in size. That's one hefty fisherman! Although we did not buy any boat supplies, we did buy some frozen grouper for dinner one of these evenings.
The pictures shown below were taken from the dock at Re Mayo Marine.
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| One of the boats that bring fresh fish to Re Mayo |
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| Fine, morning mist over the waterway |
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| Our boat was docked here |
We had an uneventful trip and arrived at our friend, Ralph's, dock mid afternoon. Ralph was at work, but his dog Chewy was happy to greet us. He was particularly happy when he found out I was taking him for a walk around the neighborhood.
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| Chewbacca aka Chewy |
After we returned to the house, it became clear to me that Chewy was expecting something from me. He kept giving me, "Well, what are you waiting for?" looks. Finally, it dawned on me that Chewy gets a dog treat after a successful walk. I had fallen down on the job and quickly rectified the situation to get back on his good-girl list.
I made a spaghetti and meatballs dinner on the boat and brought it up to the house to eat with Ralph when he got home from work. After dinner, Chewy retired to one of his favorite spots atop the back of the sofa where he is clearly the king of the manor!
25 October 2023
no boat travel
Staying at Ralph and Chewy's dock allows us to have a great time with a friend and take care of boat stuff at the same time. I had a mountain of laundry, a bin full of garbage, and desperately needed to get to the store to buy bread. Ralph helped me take care of my chores. While I did the laundry and went to the grocery store with Ralph, Clark made some phone calls and attempted to rectify some of the issues we currently have on the boat.
While we were out shopping for groceries, Ralph remembered he needed a GFCI outlet for his deck, so he stopped and bought one hoping Clark would be able to install it to replace the one currently in place that keeps tripping. Clark was glad to help with the install; however, just after he started working on it, his phone rang, and he had to run off to talk to a tech about an inverter/charger never droping out of bulk mode. After a long time, he came back and mentioned that Mastervolt technical support had re-flashed the inverter/charger network interface breaking it so it would no longer charge the batteries. Fortunately, the interface could be unplugged and the inverter charger was functional again but without network access. Eventually, he managed to get the outlet wiring done and the outlet operational.
I took Chewy for a walk around the neighborhood today. I wasn't as prepared today as yesterday. Yesterday, I had sunscreen and a hat. Today I had neither. The sun was hot! Even so, most of the walk was pleasant until I got to a section where the mosquitos were thick. I hurried Chewy along as best as he would allow, but I ended up with multiple bites on my arms and legs.
On our walk, I passed the fire hydrant shown below. I am still trying to figure out why it has a "mailbox" attached to one side. I have never seen a hydrant with a suitcase before!
For dinner this evening we went to a restaurant called Sara's which specializes in Italian food. Having had spaghetti last night, I decided on having a hamburger that came with sautéed onions, diced bacon, and BBQ sauce. It was delicious. Clark went for the lasagna and Ralph had the Eggplant Flatatini.
We only stayed two nights at Ralph's. Clark had hoped to travel on the ocean, but after studying the weather, he decided that we had better stay on the inside. He is still trying to run from cold nights as quickly as possible.
26 October 2023
Depart: Fairfield Harbour dock 8:35
Arrive: Mile Hammock anchorage 6:15
Distance: 70 nm
Because we were targeting the Mile Hammock anchorage at Camp LeJeune, Clark wanted an early start. Ralph walked down to see us off and asked if he could use our boat as a "ladder" to reach his dock poles to put caps on them. Clark and Ralph managed to get caps on 2 of 3 poles. The last pole had a bigger circumference than the cap was made for. With that task complete we were ready to depart.
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| View of Ralph's house from the harbor |
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| Fairfield Harbour |
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| Nice reflections leaving the harbor |
We tried to get a holding tank pump-out at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Virginia, but their tank was full and they could take no more until it was emptied. Given that, we decided we would stop at the marina near Ralph on our way out to get a pump-out there. The tank said 52% full when we started and said 50% full when we ended. Clark and the dockhand tried several times to get it working, but it would stop shortly after it looked like it was working. So once again, we had to leave the dock with a non-empty tank.
Travel to and from Ralph's house takes us on the Neuse River - a side trip off the ICW. As we traveled the river, we saw the ferry making its way from one side to the other.
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| "Kinnakeet" Ferry |
The engines on our boat are showing unusual stats ever since we had maintenance done this summer. The fuel burn and related numbers are off from how they displayed in the past i.e. before work was done on them. As we traveled the Neuse River, we had a nice wide-open space where Clark could run the boat at a variety of speeds to collect some data for burn rates, etc. Clark adjusted the throttles and read out the numbers while I created a table comparing port to starboard. He then sent the chart off to a couple of engine experts to get their feedback on the results.
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| Commercial Vessel - Beaufort, NC |
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| Beaufort, NC |
Clark thought the Onslow Swing Bridge only opened on the hour, so he was "dragging his heels" as we made our way down the ICW. Then he heard someone on the VHF radio discussing the 5:30 opening. That made him decide to go for it. We had to push the RPMs up a bit to get there for 5:30, but we managed it.
Today was a good day for reflection pictures. I tried to figure out what the water tower in the picture below is associated with but had no luck in my Google Maps search.
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| Water and Cell Tower Reflections |
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| Marker reflection |
We saw plenty more reflections as we made our way along the ICW.
The terrain along this stretch is marshy and barren-looking.
After almost 10 hours on the water, we reached Camp LeJeune and the anchorage nearby. Sometimes in the past the anchorage was packed making it hard to find a spot to drop anchor. Seems like we missed the "pack" this year as only a few boats were visible as we approached the anchorage.
The picture below was taken from the boat looking at the government property of Camp LeJeune. In the past we have seen men fishing here. Today, I saw only a car and no one around. Sometimes we've heard the sound of munitions, but today it was quiet.
The sunset was one that just kept on giving. Every time I thought I had a good picture, it got better and better.
27 October 2023
Depart: Mile Hammock anchorage 8:35
Arrive: Carolina Beach dock 2:30
Distance: ~ 45 nm
Clark decided to stop at a marina in Carolina Beach where we have friends we met in Marathon, Florida over the past two winters. He hoped that he would be able to hook up with an engine specialist from nearby Wilmington, NC to look into the odd fuel burn data we collected.
Since he only planned on a 50-mile trip, Clark said there was no rush to get up in the morning. Our boat had other ideas. At 7:30 an alarm went off on the boat. We had a devil of a time trying to figure where it was coming from. Clark was in a deep sleep when the alarm went off, so I had to wake him up to help figure it out. There are an unbelievable number of things that generate an alarm on the boat.
Today's alarm was a true mystery. Clark detected that it was coming from the closet in the guest stateroom. I could think of nothing hiding in there except a vacuum cleaner. I have never heard of a vacuum cleaner with an alarm, but with modern technology, who knows. It was not the vacuum! After more digging in the closet, Clark came out carrying a small box saying "This is it!"
The small box contained an unused smoke alarm. It was not a dead battery problem. Apparently, it thought it detected something, but we could not smell any smoke or find anything that would have set it off (still in the box)! What a terrible alarm clock it made! Anyway, after that we were wide awake and figured we might as well get going with our travels.
Clark saw a reflection of a sailboat. The waters were exceptionally calm making the picture perfect.
We passed what appeared to be a shoaled-in inlet. Clark said it was "Mason Inlet". It certainly did not appear navigable as we went by.
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| I don't want to go on either side of that green marker. |
As we motored along, Clark got a text from a fellow boater who texted "I can smell you". I told Clark to respond "How rude" but he refused. He replied that what we could smell was a fire burning off in the distance. Turns out our friends on "Heliopause" were once again nearby us on the water. We didn't see them this time; however, as we were headed to Carolina Beach, and they had marina reservations in Wrightsville.
We passed under two bridges today that had a questionable vertical clearance for our boat. The first, the Figure 8 Island Bridge, turned out to not be a problem. Clark lowered the antennas and prepared to lower the mast, but it turned out not to be necessary as we had about 23' of clearance and need around 21'. We had the current against us so we were not concerned about being swept into that bridge.
The second bridge, "Wrightsville/Causeway Drive", was more questionable with the current taking us into the bridge. For that one, Clark lowered the mast as well as the antennas. He need not have bothered as we had enough clearance with that one as well even with everything up. Better safe than sorry! He made short work of putting the mast and antennas back in place after we got through.
As we made our way towards the marina in Carolina Beach, friends of ours that keep their boat there were departing the marina and heading to Wilmington for a couple of nights. We passed them and waved madly as we went by.
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| M/V "Avalon" with Robin and Del |
Around 2:00 today was a busy time for the Coast Guard. As we listened to the VHF radio, we heard discussions regarding a boat taking on water 60 miles offshore, four people in the water being rescued (not clear if this was the same boat or a different one), and a diver in need of medical attention. The Coast Guard asked a boater who recovered the four people from the water to hold onto them as the USCG had to address the diver issue as a higher priority.
We later heard on the news, as Clark suspected, that the diver had the bends. Those incidents plus the smoke we could see from the fire on land made for an interesting trip.
Tying up at the dock our friends told us to use at the marina was a bit of a pain. The dock has rollers on the edge of the dock instead of fenders. They would be nice to have if they didn't block access to the cleat at mid dock. There was no one to help and no way a line was going around that cleat except by a person on shore. The cleat I wanted to use for the bow was already completely covered in line by the boat in the next slip. The only cleat I could get a line around was at the stern.
I had to throw the lines to the dock and them jump off to tie them up from on shore. As I was doing this, Clark was worried about hitting the dock as he took the boat in stern first and could not see the dock. Somewhat chaotic! We managed with only a minor amount of swearing coming from me in the process.
My priority once we were docked was to hit the showers. Clark on the other hand went for a walk down the dock to say hello to a young college-aged girl named Shelby. She is the daughter of the owner of a boat named "Cuda" whom we met two winters ago in Marathon.
We had dinner on the boat and afterwards watched some episodes of "White Collar" which we have been binge watching for the past few weeks when we find the time. Neither of us enjoy the reality shows that seem to be all the rage these days.
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