27 April 2024
Depart: Little River, Bird Island anchorage, North Carolina 7:35
Arrive: Masonboro Inlet anchorage 2:15
Distance: 52 nm
Conditions: Ocean and ICW travel today, 3 to 4 foot waves on ocean, Sunny, chilly, windy
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| Sunrise at Bird Island |
Our first target for today was Cape Fear River near Southport, North Carolina. We wanted to get there with the current flowing in our favor for a fast ride. We traveled 31 nautical miles on the ocean and arrived at Cape Fear at 11:00 which gave us the conditions we hoped for.
As we traveled up the Cape Fear River, we saw the ferry coming our way.
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| Bald Head Island / Cape Fear Ferry |
Scenes as we traveled the river ...
We saw some of the typical sights on the ICW.
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| Tow with Barge (I liked the blue tug) |
Later we came upon a dredge operation with lots of piping.
Next we came upon lots of docks for small boats.
Sometimes the docks were practically on top of each other.
We dropped anchor near Masonboro Inlet for a quick jump onto the ocean in the morning.
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| Sunset at the anchorage |
Depart: Masonboro Inlet anchorage, North Carolina, 8:45
Arrive: Beaufort Inlet, Sugar Loaf / Morehead City anchorage 5:30
Distance: ~ 70 nm
We got lucky today. With the reports we heard on work that will be ongoing at the Onslow Bridge, we decided we better go outside on the ocean to avoid the chaos and closures.
Clark snapped some pictures as we traveled out onto the ocean.
The ocean was reasonably kind to us - wavy but not outrageous. We had a very long day on the ocean, but I managed to enjoy a peaceful trip for at least part of it.
As we approached Beaufort, North Carolina, the sun was setting. The ocean gave the appearance of hundreds of diamonds sparkling as the light hit the waves.
We arrived at the Beaufort inlet just before 5:00. We hit rush hour coming in from the ocean. With it being a Sunday night, all the boaters must have decided they had to be home by 5:00. It was crazy.
The craziest thing of all was the guys who walked out on the bow of a fishing boat to wash down the boat as they entered the inlet. The boats had no rails around the bow or sides, and the men walked around on them with no apparent cares in the world!
A boat named "Rebelette" had two crew washing down the bow of the boat.
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| "Rebelette" |
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| "Re-leased" washdown underway |
With our plans for tomorrow's travel being a trip up the Neuse River to New Bern, North Carolina, Clark chose to anchor at the Sugar Loaf anchorage in Morehead City.
29 April 2024
Depart: Sugar Loaf anchorage, Morehead City, North Carolina 8:15
Arrive: Fairfield Harbor anchorage, New Bern, North Carolina 1:00
Distance: 35 nm
We traveled fewer nautical miles today than usual as we headed to the New Bern area to visit our boating friend Ralph whom we met when we did the Great Loop in 2015 - 2016. After moving every day and traveling long distances each day since we left Vero Beach, we looked forward to a two-night stay to take a short breather from being constantly on the move.
As we left Morehead City area, we passed a sight not normally seen.
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| an interesting tow coming our way |
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| Pyramid-shaped cement blocks on a raft |
Today we navigated Core Creek to Adams Creek to the Neuse River to Fairfield Harbor. Along the way we passed ICW MM 195 indicating we were that far from Norfolk, Virginia. Translating that into nautical miles and dividing by an average of 8 knots, we figured that indicated a 3-day distance.
We had hoped to arrive at Fairfield Harbor by noon, but we got a later start than hoped and a current against us as we traveled.
We dropped anchor in Fairfield Harbor, deployed the dinghy, and made our way to Ralph's house to tie up at his dock. Besides Ralph and his dog Chewy, we found another friend from our Great Loop trip, Pat, and her friend Barbara.
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| Chewy was happy to see us again. |
We took full advantage of visiting Ralph as we brought garbage, recycling, and two loads worth of laundry with us to dock. I also brought my reusable grocery bags in hopes of a trip to the grocery store. Barbara made that wish come true as she volunteered to drive me to the nearby Food Lion to pick up what I needed as Clark stayed to visit with Pat and Ralph.
Once we returned from the food store, Pat and Barbara said their goodbyes while Ralph, Clark and I went to a restaurant for dinner. Since our first choice was closed on Mondays, we went to the "Beartown Bistro and Pizzeria" where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and decadent desserts.
30 April 2024
No boat travel
Today Ralph had to work from 11:00 until 5:00, so after 10:00 we were left with Chewy to entertain ourselves.
I had brought all the ingredients and food-prep equipment necessary to bake applesauce cake for Clark as he was, heaven forbid, almost out! I planned to use Ralph's stove, but Clark suggested I bring the toaster oven as I knew precisely how to work it. By 11:00 I had made enough cake to last us until we get back home in New Jersey.
Shortly after the cake came out of the oven, our friends, Beverly and Dave, drove up to visit us. Normally we see them in Beaufort; however, they had other plans for Sunday night when we arrived for a one-night stay in that area. They decided to drive the distance to Ralph's house, a little over an hour, to see us!
Last night when we planned to go for dinner with Ralph, we hoped to eat dinner at a restaurant called "Sara's". However, since it was Monday, it was closed. The four of us (Clark, me, Bev, and Dave) decided to go there for lunch today. When we got there at 11:30, we found a sign on the door that indicated they would open at 12:30. They had a broken pipe and the restaurant was under repair. We decided waiting was not a viable option and drove to a place called Mayo's instead.
We had a lovely lunch and visit. They dropped us off at Ralph's again at 2:00, and we had the rest of the afternoon to relax with Chewy until Ralph came home. I decided to take Chewy for a walk around the neighborhood. We both needed the exercise.
Shortly after we started out, we came across two women walking three dogs. I could hear them in the distance, "Is that Chewy? No, that's not Chewy. Yes it is! Chewy!!!" Chewy went nuts because the dogs are all his friends, and his best friend, Darlene, was walking at least one of the dogs. We ended up with all the leashes entangled with each other due to Chewy's exuberance. We chatted briefly before continuing onwards. Chewy actually "cried" as his friends continued their way as we went ours.
I always see interesting things as I walk around Ralph's neighborhood.
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| Bear-shaped mailbox |
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| Insert mail in butt hole |
When Ralph got home, we decided to go out for dinner. They say "three times a charm" so we decided to try Sara's again. When we arrived, we found it open, and we enjoyed their outdoor dining for a delicious dinner.
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| Part of the landscaping at Sara's |
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| Also outside Sara's |
Ralph told us that Sara got married over the weekend, and as we left the parking lot, we passed a jeep decorated in white with "Just Married" written on the back window.
It was 8:00 and dark by the time we got back from the restaurant, and as we did last night, we drove back to "Sunset Delight" in the dinghy in the dark.
1 May 2024
Depart: Fairfield Harbor / New Bern anchorage 10:00
Arrive: anchorage at the entrance to the Pongo River Canal 6:00
Distance: 66 nm
Conditions: Rainy day predicted
We made one last dinghy ride to Ralph's house for a short chat before getting underway this morning. We had to cut the visit short due to the threat of stormy weather coming our way.
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| Fairfield Harbor |
We took Chewy out before sitting down to talk for a while.
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| He thinks I have something for him in my hand. I don't! |
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| Time to go back inside for a treat |
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| Clark enjoyed having a stare-down contest with Chewy |
Sadly, we had to leave Chewy behind and get back to the boat. Before we could get going we had to stow the dinghy and pull up the anchor. We could see the storms coming on radar. When we looked out first thing this morning, we saw sun. When we dinghied back to the boat, we had heavy cloud cover and needed a jacket. The storm would arrive earlier than originally predicted.
We had everything taken care of and were underway in less than 30 minutes. I took some pictures as we left the anchorage.
Since we have traveled the Neuse River more times than I can remember, I saw nothing new. At the end of our time on the Neuse River, we rejoined the ICW to continue our travels north.
As usual on our ICW travels, we passed RE Mayo where we saw a lot of trawlers at dock.
I decided to take some scenery pictures today.
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| A structure on the water used by fowl hunters |
We watched the radar and lightning reports carefully as we made our way on the ICW.
We managed to avoid rain for most of the day, but we did get rain for a potion of the ride. On occasion Clark would say he saw lightning in the distance - most likely over Albemarle Sound. We saw nothing near by.
I got lots of pictures of clouds today.
Below is the radar picture as we approached the anchorage. Fortunately we were in a blue / green section.
The sun tried hard to break through the heavy cloud cover. Fortunately, it stopped raining as we approached the place where we planned to drop anchor. We could see a couple of sailboats and a power boat in the anchorage ahead of us. We followed a power boat, "Sirene", for quite a while. They aimed for the same anchorage as us. We anchored at nearly the same time.
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