South Harbour Village - Southport, NC

Saturday 11/11/2017 (Veteran's Day)
Depart: Harbour Village Marina 7:45
Arrive: South Harbour Village Marina 1:15
Distance: 38 NM

Desiring to make the 9:00 opening at the first bridge and the 10:00 opening at the second we would encounter today, Clark said we should leave as early as possible and eat breakfast along the way. We arrived at the first bridge at 8:45 and found a 24-foot clearance greeting us. We need 22 feet, so we did not need to wait and just kept going.

Upon hearing that the bridge offered 24 feet of clearance, a boat that had been waiting for the 9:00 opening, Capricious, let the bridge tender know that he only needed 20 feet if he dropped his antennas. He did that and continued on his way to the next bridge at a high rate of speed to try to make their 9:00 opening.

I piloted the boat through the bridge as Clark stood on the seat-back on the upper helm to spot the clearance. We had the current with us, so if we had insufficient clearance, we would have to respond rapidly to back ourselves away. After we passed under the bridge, Clark called the bridge tender to thank him for his help spotting from the bridge to let us know if he saw a problem with clearance. Their humorous conversation over the radio went something like this ...

Clark: "We had at least a foot of clearance."
Tender: "Glad you were able to make it through."
Clark: "Roger that, the alternative would have been quite messy."
Tender: "Yeah, I hate when that happens ... too much paperwork."

Having gone under the Figure Eight Bridge at 8:45, we only had 15 minutes to get to the Wrightsville Bridge for their 9:00 opening. Clark maintained about an 8.5 knot speed while we did some quick calculations to determine what speed we needed to reach the bridge in time. The calculation yielded a whopping great 24 knots. Since the boat does not go that fast, Clark backed our speed down saying, "There's no sense rushing to get there if we have to wait an hour anyway."

We could see Capricious waiting at the bridge for the 9:00 opening. Precisely at 9:00 the bridge opened, and they passed through. As we approached, Clark called the tender on the VHF radio, but the operator said that the bridge was already going down. The bridge closed just as we arrived! We got the 10:00 opening.

Wrightsville Bridge

Finally open!

Other than the excitement / boredom of the bridges, the rest of the day offered a typical day on the water.

Boat Traffic ...

Coast Guard Boat

Fishing Boats

Tow Boat U.S.

Sea Tow Twins

Live-aboard Boats --  Little Red Tug

Houses / Marinas / Buildings on the water ...

Wrightsville, NC

Dockside Bar

Water Scenes ...

A very small island on the waterway near high tide
the result of shoaling near bridge. 
As Clark waited for the bridge opening,
the wind kept pushing him onto this island!

Dark Clouds over the Ocean

Fishermen out by the ocean.

View of ocean at inlet

Rock wall - not visible at high tide!

Closer view of the rock wall

Southport ...

First view after exiting Cape Fear River

Marina in Southport

South Harbour Village ...

Dead End Saloon Restaurant

Condos at South Harbour Village

Anchorage near South Harbour Village

Sunken Sailboat at Anchorage

Park with interesting signage

Playground Equipment at park with interesting signage!

Classic boat Coastal Queen docked at South Harbour Village Marina ...

Sunset at South Harbour Village

Harbour Village Marina

Thursday 11/10/2017
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.

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.

Fishing Boat Laying Down Nets
(tied to the Red Channel Marker!)

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".

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!

Onslow Beach Bridge - can we get there on time??

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.

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!

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.

Evening sky at Harbour Village Marina

Fog and Rain in North Carolina

Tuesday 11/7/2017
Depart: Pungo Creek Anchorage 7:30 a.m.
Arrive: Upper Broad Creek Anchorage off Neuse River 2:20 p.m.
Distance: 60 NM

Long trip on damp, foggy day. No pictures along the way. No remarkable events.

Yacht Club at entrance to Upper Broad Creek
off the Neuse River near New Bern, NC

Wednesday 11/8/2017
Depart: Upper Broad Creek Anchorage 7:50 a.m.
Arrive: New Bern Grand Marina 9:05 a.m.
Distance: 7 NM

We anchored near New Bern the night before to make an early arrival into the town. Once again we had a foggy day - worse than the day before.

Foggy Day on the Neuse River
New Bern, NC

The drawbridge by the New Bern Grand Marina does not open between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 a.m., so we scheduled our arrival for just before 9:00.

Fixed-height Bridge near New Bern, NC

Drawbridge near New Bern Grand Marina
(Courtyard located at Marina in background)

We have Looper friends that live in New Bern, so we took the side trip into town for a visit. Pat from Dream Catcher graciously offered to drive us to the grocery store for provisioning. Since a car ride to the store meant I did not have to limit the weight of my groceries to fit in a backpack, I stocked up. In particular I replenished my meat supply. It took me a long time to store my bounty mostly due to the prep required to repackage the meat I purchased into meal-sized freezer packages.

We scheduled dinner with Pat and Dick from Dream Catcher for 6:00. Since we had some time before our planned get together, Clark and I walked into town and strolled the streets. Already New Bern has put up lights throughout town for the upcoming holiday season, so we enjoyed the decorations.

New Bern lit up ready for the holiday season

After browsing a few shops in town, we headed over to Captain Ratty's Steak and Seafood restaurant. We arrived quite early. Fortuitously, my son, Chris, called to say hello, so we had a lovely chat until our friends came to join us. We thoroughly enjoyed good food and conversation with our friends, but all too soon it was time to head back to the boat for the night and prepare to continue our trip south.

Thursday 11/9/2017
Depart: New Bern Grand Marina 11:00
Arrive: Portside Marina in Morehead City, NC 4:45
Distance: 39 NM

Today's forecast calls for rain! Ugh! Although we were up and about early, we had a number of tasks to complete before leaving the marina this morning. We needed to have our holding tank pumped out and our drinking-water tank filled. The earliest we could get the marina crew to do the pump out was 8:30. Clark decided to do that first and then fill the water tank afterwards. To do the pump out we had to move our boat to the pump-out / "Z" dock. After the pump out, we moved the boat back to "B" dock by the slip we had overnight so Clark could fill the water tanks.

The water tanks are large and take a long time to fill. By the time we had accomplished these two time-consuming chores, it was 11:00 before we finally left the dock. Before we threw off the lines, Clark called the bridge to verify that they would be able to open for us. With that confirmation, we dropped our lines and set off.

By the time we left New Bern, the light sprinkle of rain had turned into a steady stream. Even though the weather app on my phone showed the rain stopping midday, it continued all day long fluctuating from light rain to steady rain. With the dismal weather, we had an ugly trip on the Neuse River. The rain made piloting the boat on the upper helm with the full enclosure open extremely unpleasant. Rain collecting on the closed front panel of the enclosure seriously reduced visibility.

Clark decided to drive from the pilot house for a change. He has never done that before, so it was a new experience. We had some difficulty transferring throttle / speed control from one helm to the other; otherwise, we found it to be a good experience and certainly much better than struggling with the poor visibility and damp weather when above.

The brightest part of our trip came after we rejoined the ICW when we passed some very colorful houses on the canal. The first house I noticed sported a bright turquoise color with red trim. It stood out among all the more-typically colored houses. Shortly thereafter, I spied a lime-green house. Normally I would flinch at such a color choice, but the trim did not clash with the siding, and colorful sea-life decorations added a nice touch. Unfortunately, I was at the lower helm and the camera sat at the upper helm, so the only picture opportunity to come along while I had the camera in hand was a bright yellow house. Of the three, I much preferred the lime green!

Colorful house on the way to Beaufort, NC

Clark gave me Beaufort, NC as our destination for the night numerous times, so when we stopped for "Discount Fuel" in Beaufort, I thought our marina must be just around the corner. We took on 300 gallons of diesel and left the fuel dock around 3:45. Shortly afterwards, Clark called the marina. I assumed he planned to tell them of our imminent arrival and was dismayed to hear that we would not be arriving there until later than originally estimated - 4:45. What!?

Finally, just after 4:30 we approached the marina passing a some working ships nearby.

Two Tugs at Work

Container Ship being Off-loaded at the dock

Three dockhands greeted us upon our arrival at Portside Marina and had us tied up in no time. The dockmaster recommended a trip into town for dinner only two blocks away. Unfortunately, the rain refused to give us a break and made a trip into town less than appealing. To see our location versus town center, I pulled up my Google Maps app. To my surprise, I found us located in Morehead City and not Beaufort! Now the time it took to travel from the fuel dock to our stop for the night made a lot more sense!

I planned to cook on board tonight, so with the nasty weather, we decided not to walk into town. I spent the night updating the blog while watching reruns of "Blue Bloods" on ion TV.

Colder weather is on the way, so we will be staying at marinas the next couple of nights to have electricity for heat.

Sunset at Belhaven, NC

Monday 11/6/2017
Depart: Coinjock Marina 7:30 a.m.
Arrive: Pungo Creek Anchorage #1 4:30 p.m.
Distance: 78 NM

Unlike the busy naval and industrial sites near Norfolk, today we traveled canals and waterways displaying only trees and brush for mile after mile (other than crossing Albemarle Sound where we saw only water).

Although we had heard that we may encounter delays at the under-construction Alligator River bridge, we decided due to oncoming inclement weather to travel this more protected route. Fortunately, we had virtually no wait at the bridge when we arrived. In fact two trawlers that had sped ahead had to wait for us to arrive before the bridge tender would open for them.

Swing Bridge on Alligator River
(Under construction but opened on demand)

You know its boring / tedious on the waterway when the captain says, "We have some excitement up ahead. There's a bridge." When I asked if we would have to have it open for us, he said, "No, it's a fixed height bridge!" We had two such exciting events today!

Today's typical view
(Alligator River - Pungo River Canal)

After over 8 hours of watching trees go by, I found myself more than ready to find our anchorage spot. We had multiple choices for the night. We could either stay at Dowry Creek Marina where we have stayed in the past of pick one of multiple anchorage options near Belhaven, NC. We chose an anchorage with good reviews on Active Captain in Pungo Creek.

Approaching our Anchorage for the Night

View from Anchorage just prior to Sunset

Sunset at Pungo Creek anchorage

Sunset at Pungo Creek anchorage 

Just-After-Sunset Sky at Pungo Creek Anchorage

Post Sunset Sky at Pungo Creek Anchorage