24 October 2024
Depart: Cape Fear River anchorage, Southport, NC 7:25
Arrive: Winyah Bay anchorage, SC 5:10
Distance: ~ 82 nm
The sun was just coming up this morning as we pulled up our anchor to leave the Tina's Pocket anchorage on the Cape Fear River.
Early morning view from the anchorage ...
As we finally reached the last of the inlet markers to turn southward, Clark set a waypoint on the navigation equipment for 66 nautical miles ahead at the entrance to the inlet where we planned to exit the ocean. With an 8+ hour trip on the ocean, we tuned into an audible book and sat back to listen.
Exiting the inlet at Cape Fear, and also traveling south, Clark saw a Fleming named "Reveille". Since we know a couple of folks that own Flemings, Clark haled him on the radio to touch base. As it turned out, this boat will be at Marlin Bay in Florida when we are there. The marina was recommended to the owner of this boat by our friends, Guy and Barbara, on "Patience".
As we talked we discovered that "Reveille" had the same anchorage destination for this evening that we did. They, however, were traveling at least 2 knots faster than us. As we traveled, we got further and further apart until they disappeared over the horizon.
Since our travels today once again took us out past the 3-mile line, Clark decided to see if the holding tank could be emptied via the macerator pump even though we had just emptied at the dock in Wrightsville Beach. The test was successful, so Clark was happy.
As we traveled, well over 3 miles offshore, we found more and more flies hitching a ride on our boat. Clark said the west wind was blowing them offshore and apparently they needed a place to rest. The upper helm had a swarm of them.
We passed a familiar-looking lighthouse as we came into Winyah Bay from the ocean.
After anchoring, I went into the salon and found another swarm of house flies - larger than the amount up top. With windows and doors shut, they came in and could not escape. They seemed to want to go into the light, so instead of killing them I opened the door and shooed them out in droves. The unlucky ones that tenaciously stayed in the salon met with a very angry fly swatter. I am convinced that the flies have gigantic fangs on their tiny bodies. It hurts when they bite!
After clearing flies out the salon, we went through the rest of the boat killing them off as we went.
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| M/V Reveille (Fleming) sharing our anchorage for the night |
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| Sunset at Winyah Bay anchorage |
25 October 2024
Depart: Winyah Bay anchorage near Georgetown, SC 7:45
Arrive: Steam Boat Creek anchorage south of Charleston, SC 5:00
Distance: ~84 nm
Once again Clark took us out into the ocean for today's travel. M/V Reveille had already departed as we pulled up our anchor.
As we navigated towards the ocean, we saw almost a 3 knot push from the rapid current here. When we start our trips from an anchorage, Clark is on the bow bringing up the anchor, and I am at the helm receiving hand signals from him regarding which way to steer to give him slack on the anchor line.
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| View from the anchorage at Winyah Bay |
Once the anchor is up, I start our day's trip heading in whatever direction Clark has told me we need to go. Today, that direction was directly into the sun. I ended up tacking to avoid heading directly into the bright light of the sun and its reflection coming off the water.
When Clark took over the helm, I headed below to work on preparing breakfast for the two of us. I managed to get his breakfast up to him with no problem. However, by the time I had my cereal ready to be eaten, we had entered into a current-versus-wind situation that had the boat rocking like crazy.
I felt like I was at the rodeo, and I was the one riding the bucking bronco! The waves were tall and close together. Yee Haw! Ride 'em cowboy! I had to hold on and wait until we got to the end of the inlet where Clark could turn south for calmer seas. Amazingly, after he turned, the seas flattened out to give us a pleasant, rest-of-the-day ride. Once this happened, I could get a spoon to my mouth and not loose its contents along the way!
On the ocean, we experienced higher than normal speed for a portion of our trip. Even so, we were over 8 hours on the ocean. We saw very little of interest today. I suppose that is a good thing but can get monotonous. We continued listening to our audible mystery book to pass the time.
We did notice something out of place and shiny up ahead at one point. I wondered what it could be. Clark pulled out the binoculars to check it out. Sadly, it turned out to be a pink, Mylar balloon! I wish folks would not release balloons as, over the years, I have seen far more on the ocean than one would think possible.
Turning onto Steam Boat Creek, where Clark planned to drop anchor, we saw buoys marking a danger zone and rows of floats.
It appeared to be a massive amount of fish traps strung together.
As we entered the creek, Clark said we had 30 feet of water under the keel. We use a combination of chain and line to anchor whereas some use all chain. I am the one at the bow when the anchor goes down. I do the mental math to calculate how much line we need to have the right angle (called scope) on the line so the anchor will not drag as the tide goes up.
I have to add 12 feet to whatever depth number Clark says is shown below the boat to allow for the height of the bow. To that I factor in the tide change. Then I multiply the total (height plus tide) by 6 to get the amount of line needed for the night. 30 feet of water under the keel means a whole lot of line is required. Moving further into the creek, Clark found a place with 11 feet under the keel. Phew! the more line we put out at night, the more we have to pull back in the next morning.
As I prepared to work on tonight's blog update, I started humming the song "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. I wonder why!
The plan for tomorrow is to travel the ICW to Beaufort, SC and visit boating friends we know from Faro Blanco in Marathon, Florida. They plan to go to the Bahamas for the winter, so we will not see them in Florida this season. We are hoping / planning to stop at the Port Royale Marina to join them for lunch before we continue our day's travels.
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