NC: Beaufort

Day 335
June 23, 2016
NM Today: 57
NM To Date: 5328 (6131 statute miles)


Given we had an estimated eight-hour drive today to reach Beaufort, North Carolina, I decided that it would be a good time to defrost the refrigerator. Before I could start that job, however, I wanted to be sure Clark was all set on the upper helm and would not require my assistance.

Harbour Village Marina
(as seen from the bow of our boat at dock)

Although we targeted an 8:00 a.m. departure. we actually left the Harbour Village Marina about 8:20 this morning. We had a hard deadline of reaching the Surf City swing bridge to the north of us by 9:00 because the bridge only opens once an hour on the hour. I was concerned with the delayed start about making the bridge opening about five miles up the waterway.

I decided to wait until after we passed through the swing bridge before going below to start my chores and was rewarded with the sighting of an osprey nest full of young ospreys. How adorable!

Favorite Spot for an Osprey Nest - on top of a marker

As we made our way towards the swing bridge, three fast boats came up on us and requested that we let them pass. As Queen Bee II and the two other boats passed us, I watched a man on a stand-up paddle board who would need to deal with the wakes we all made. I was amazed to see that he handled all the wake that came his way without falling. In fact he seemed to paddle purposefully towards the wake so he could "ride the surf". He must have some kind of balance skills!

Because of their speed, the three other boats moved well ahead of us rather quickly. We were both a little concerned that the bridge might open a bit before 9:00, let those boats through, not know we were coming and close again before we got there. Clark could tell I was nervous about making the opening, so he used his rare wild card option and kicked up the speed to put us on plane for a few minutes to catch up with the other boats.

Whether it is dealing with locks on the western rivers or swing bridges on the ICW, the end result is almost always the same, i.e. "hurry up and wait". We all arrived at the swing bridge around 8:52 and then had to sit and drift until the bridge opening.

Waiting for the Surf City swing bridge on the ICW

Of course because we were afraid the bridge would open early, it opened a few minutes after 9:00. The bridge pivoted on the center island, and we started our parade through the opening.

Parade through the swing bridge just after 9:00 a.m. 

I asked the captain's permission to go below and start my chores. That given, I went below to tackle the fridge defrost job. As a result I missed some interesting sights along the waterway. The first of those was alligator bay. Clark said he did not see any alligators however.

Alligator Bay - like a swamp but different

Alligator Bay

Alligator Bay Landmark
pink building with pink lighthouse - used for dead reckoning 

Later, Clark passed through the military restricted "firing range" - Camp Lejeune. This section of the waterway is closed periodically for target practice. Practice is scheduled in three-hour segments and the specific hours of firing are announced at 9:00 a.m. each morning. Given the schedule is not advertised in advance, it is hard to make travel plans. We were fortunate today as no firing was scheduled for the day.

When we traversed this area, I was busy below making lunch. I had totally forgotten about this potentially exciting portion of today's route. I missed the whole thing!

Beginning of the Camp Lejeune Firing Range area 

A variety of objects litter the waterway

The Atlantic Ocean can be seen in the far background

Wonderful - "Danger Unexploded Ordnance"

Clark got a kick out of this ...

Sign says "No anchoring, beaching, disembarking, or other
bottom / ground disturbing activity from
Freeman Creek to Bear Creek" on the ICW in NC

The boat in front is anchored next to the above sign
that says "no ground disturbing activity". Really!?
It probably should say "no anchoring". Oh, wait, it does say "no anchoring".

"Big Brother" is watching
Lookout Tower at Firing Range portion of ICW

Maybe it was because I still had not had that nap I was looking for yesterday, but today I had a lot of trouble mustering up energy to do the chores that needed to be done and even more trouble keeping my eyes open when sitting on the fly bridge. Finally after lunch I succumbed and laid down on the bench seat and closed my eyes for a while.

Clark said I dozed through a very long and tedious section of the ICW - Bogue Sound. I guess that was good timing on my part.

Bogue Sound

We finally arrived at Beaufort just before 4:00 after seven plus hours of travel. I did some reading about attractions in Beaufort and found that Blackbeard's pirate ship Queen Anne's Revenge went down here. Given this notorious pirate plundered this area, it is no wonder that the tourism business here flourishes because of it.

Not quite the Queen Anne's Revenge
... Pirate Tours of Beaufort

As we walked down to the dock office to register, as well as later when we walked around town, we saw other pirate boats and pirate-led tours of the city.

The walk to the office was longer than I hoped. Meaning once again it is a very long walk to the restroom / showers. By the time we got to the end of the boardwalk where the office is located, we decided to just keep going for a walk around town to get a feel for the area. Besides restaurants, we scoped out the location and hours of the Maritime Museum for something to do tomorrow or the next day.

As we wandered around town, we found a store called Scuttlebutt selling "Nautical Books and Bounty". After a short look around, I decided it looked like a place that could take a long time to explore. I was hungry and had a headache and managed to convince Clark to go get some food before doing further study of the book store. When we left the store, I found someone local and asked for the "best ice cream in town" and was told to go to The General Store. We headed there for a treat.

Afterwards we went back to the book store and spent a good long time looking around. I found so many nautical fiction and non-fiction books there I could not decide which to buy. Other than historical romance novels, my favorite is historical nautical literature. I finally decided that I definitely wanted the story about Blackbeard.

I am not sure how much time we spent in the store, but by the time we came out, we decided to make our way to a pizza shop for dinner. The town dock gave us a book with menus for many of the restaurants in town. I found one of interest called "No Name Pizza" advertised as selling pizza so good it did not need a name. The fact that they had gourmet pizza with eggplant topping sold Clark on the idea of going there.

Walking the several blocks to the pizza restaurant, we passed a number of historical homes. Most date to some time in the 1800s, but some we saw were even older than that. I was somewhat fascinated by the smaller dwelling on the right side in the picture below. It is clearly used as an upstairs apartment today, but my question is what was it in the past. The building's roof is shaped something like a barn's roof, but the overall shape of the building seems far too narrow to be a barn.

C. 1860 home in Beaufort NC

We took a different route back to the boat from the restaurant and passed more interesting houses along the way.  Given the shapes and design of many of the homes we passed in this part of town, it appeared that the houses began as much smaller buildings and grew via extensions added over time. Some, however, were clearly large from day one.

Note the Widow Walk on the roof
where a sea captain's wife could watch for the return of her husband

As we walked back to the boat Clark walked faster and faster to try to get to the docks in time to grab his sunset picture. He barely made it back in time.

Tonight's sunset as seen from the stern of Sea Moss

We traveled a goodly distance today to get to Beaufort, North Carolina before tomorrow's predicted foul weather. We plan on staying put for a few days to let the bad weather pass. Every once in a while I like to convert our total nautical miles traveled to statute miles to put our distance travel into a measurement that I can relate to more easily than a nautical mile. A nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles. Our distance traveled on the boat to date of more than 6100 miles is roughly equivalent to driving from Maine to Los Angeles, California and back again at approximately 10 miles per hour.

NC: Hampstead - Harbour Village Marina

Day 334
June 22, 2016
NM Today: 38
NM To Date: 5271

Last night Clark was 90% sure we would leave Bald Head Island this morning. He left that 10% chance in case the winds kicked up even harder and made it less appealing to leave. Although we enjoyed Bald Head Island immensely, we felt we had seen all we needed to for a "taste" of this area as we continue our Great Loop trek. The wind did not appear to be prohibitive so we decided to move along.

In preparation for departing the protected waters of the harbor and entering the choppy waters of Cape Fear, I "battened down the hatches", i.e. closed all the windows (lesson learned from yesterday) and made sure that anything that might get thrown to the floor by rough waters was secure.

Preparing to leave the calmer waters
narrow passageway made entering the harbor quite interesting yesterday

Compared to some experiences we have had with choppy water, including those we had yesterday coming into the Bald Head Island harbor, today's chop was nothing to speak of. We rocked, got minimal splash, and had a wonderful breeze in the bargain.  Given the heat and humidity I was glad for the breeze and sorry when it left us as we turned the corner to move north on the ICW.

After we left the choppy waters behind, I thought today would probably be a ho-hum day on the water, but instead we had a few sights and incidents that made the trip quite interesting. First, crossing to Southport from Bald Head Island, Clark noticed a lighthouse off in the distance which he said reminded him of Barnegat Light in New Jersey. Barnegat light is two-tone like the one in the photo but is red on top, not black.

Lighthouse that reminded Clark of "home"

We decided not to stop at Southport today and targeted two alternatives further north on the ICW instead (Plan A and Plan B). Clark took a couple more pictures of Southport as we continued on by.

Southport Water Tower

Southport

The scenery along the ICW changes constantly. One minute I was looking at trees, rocks and sandy soil that reminded me of the rivers in Tennessee ...

and the next I was looking at mega-houses that reminded me of Florida.

I decided the place with the large houses must be yet another resort town. As we came out from under the bridge we were greeted by a new sight on the ICW.

Stand-up Paddle Boards and a "do-it-yourself" island

 The "island" contained a flagpole with a U.S. flag and a plastic palm tree along with a boat or two and a few people sitting in beach chairs. There was one serious issue with this island; however, it clearly disappears with the high tide.

Rapidly disappearing island as high tide rolls in
Those beach chairs are sinking fast!
I wonder if the palm tree floats.

Continuing northward we came to the Figure 8 Bridge.

Figure 8 Bridge

As we approached the bridge, we were the third boat in line. Boat 1, named Bad Idea, requested an opening of the bridge for himself and boat #2 - Celebration. He must have decided that we could clear the bridge without an opening because he did not include us in his request. It was clear from the way his request was worded that the owner of Boat 1 did not know the owner of Boat 2.

The next opening would occur at 2:00, and it was several minutes before 2:00. The bridge tender asked Bad Idea what vertical clearance he needed, and based on the reply, told him he did not need an opening. For Celebration, however, the bridge tender was not as definite, and although the bridge tender called Celebration to get his vertical clearance, Celebration did not respond.

Clark got on the radio and told the bridge tender he definitely did not need an opening and asked Celebration if he did. Clark said, "If you need to wait for the opening, let me know and I will pass you." Surprisingly, Celebration answered Clark. He said, "I am going to try to squeeze under."

Every once in a while Clark makes me laugh out loud with his responses. Today, he told Celebration, "Okay, I'll follow behind and pick up the debris." Whereby Celebration responded, "Roger that, but I'll need the TV antenna back or I'll get in serious trouble". I.e. his wife (the admiral) would be unhappy with him.

Bad Idea (in front) and Celebration  behind

We all made it through with all boat parts intact. As Celebration approached the bridge, Clark called him on the radio to tell him he would clear. As he passed under the bridge, Clark told him he had a good six inches of clearance. Fortunately the bridge tender had noticed the speed boat flying by us as we approached the bridge. Rocking caused by the wake from that boat could have been enough for Celebration to hit the bridge. He waited for the "speed demon" to pass before attempting the bridge.

As we exited the bridge we could see something off in the sky in the distance that looked pretty ominous.

Storm Cloud??

 Clark was getting ready to look at his weather / radar app on the phone to see what was coming our way when the bridge tender said "... forest fire ...".  Our next thought was "which way is that smoke blowing".  Fortunately, the smoke was not coming our way so it did not interfere with our travels.

Smoke from forest fire in North Carolina near the ICW

Our next bit of excitement came when suddenly a boater announced over Channel 16, "Anyone near marker 121, I just ran aground there." Clark jumped on the radio and called to him, but the announcer did not reply to Clark. By this time Clark was at marker 121 himself and had to pay careful attention to the channel. From the reading on our depth sounder, we basically had zero water under the keel. Fortunately, we did not "bump".

Still further along the ICW we saw some dredging equipment. (Somebody should tell them to move further south!) That by itself was not of great interest. However, the fact that the dredging platform was being propelled across the waterway using the backhoe as a makeshift oar proved quite interesting to Clark.

Dredging Equipment

Of course by the time Clark had the boat close enough and the camera aimed in the right direction, the operator had swung the backhoe arm around, so it was no longer propelling the platform across the water.

Backhoe Oar?

As we travel through North Carolina and Virginia we will pass some military locations. Given that, I expect I might see some out-of-the-ordinary sights. Today Clark saw an unusual aircraft - one that has vertical take off and landing capabilities.

Vertical Take Off and Landing Airplane

Once again Clark had a Plan A and a Plan B for places to stay tonight. At 1:00 we made the decision to keep going. As a result, our final destination for the day turned out to be Harbour Village Marina in Hampstead, NC. From a boater's point of view, there is nothing at this location except the marina. With this in mind, Clark decided that we would dock, turn on the air conditioning, and just hang out for the rest of the day. Bravo! My objective - take a nap!

Checking in at the marina took an inordinately long time from my perspective. Clark and the marina manager got into a very long and detailed discussion on Yanmar engines related to the engine overheat problem that Clark discovered with our port engine back in March in Marathon, Florida. I listened intently for quite a while but eventually decided my nap was way more important and left them talking.

I never did get that nap as while I was lying down on the bed, my cell phone rang and it was my younger son, Chris, calling. Instead of sleeping I had a lovely long chat with him including, of course, updates on my four-month old granddaughter, Lily. After I got off the phone, it was time to make dinner, then do the dishes, then do the blog, then ... I guess I will take that nap at bedtime.

After dinner Clark stepped out to use the marina washroom and came back with his POD (picture of the day) for Facebook. Tonight's picture was the sunset consisting of a combination of the sun and the forest fire smoke.

Smokey Sunset in Hampstead, NC

NC: Bald Head Island

Day 333
June 21, 2016
NM Today: 42
NM to Date: 5233

We knew that Panda Bear and Firebird planned on leaving around 9:00, so we set our alarm to be ready to leave about that time. At 8:50 I saw Firebird pull away from the dock at Barefoot Landing. It just so happened that at that time Clark was up at the marina restroom. He noted that both boats were missing from the docks when he returned to Sea Moss, and I told him they had left about 10 minutes before he got back.

With a few things remaining to be done before we could leave, we left the Barefoot Marina dock around 9:15. both Firebird and Panda Bear were going to Southport for their night's stop. Clark decided we should go to Bald Head Island instead so that we could see our friends Tom and Julie on Sum Escape. 

Danger Rocks
Beginning of Rock Pile Section of ICW

Shortly after leaving the marina, we had to navigate Pine Island Cut known as the "Rock Pile". This section of the ICW is a notoriously dangerous passage. Boats are advised to keep in the center of the channel, not move over for on-coming boat traffic, and make a "security call" before entering this section of the ICW so that boats coming from the opposite direction know to wait their turn. We met no on-coming traffic as we passed through this stretch, but we were "buzzed" by numerous jet skis flying by us as we tootled along.

I wondered why this section was so narrow, and Clark shared a book with me containing background information.  When the waterway was dug in the early 1930s, most of what the engineers encountered was clay and sand. However, for this 2.5 mile stretch, they hit cretaceous limestone dating back 65 million to 144 million years old. As the excavation team moved further and further into the cut, the work to remove the rock became harder and harder to accomplish so the engineers reduced the width of the "ditch" commensurately.

Passing through this section of the ICW gave us a drastically different view than what we saw during most of yesterday's travels. I found many of the houses amazing to look at. Houses that appeared to be condominium complexes were in actuality private homes.  Many had pools and hot tubs. Most had docks with lifts. One house that particularly caught my interest was the one shown below.

along the ICW in Myrtle Beach

Unlike yesterday when I had my head in a book, today I paid close attention to the sights.

Hard-aground Fishing Boat

Kayak Convention
(2 guides in orange kayaks and 12 guests in green)
Hey - those are the colors of our kayaks!
Makes sense since Clark is my guide!

In contrast to the million dollar homes seen earlier

As we got closer to Southport, NC, we caught up to and passed first Firebird and then Panda Bear.

Firebird - Captain Joe

Panda Bear - Larry and Flora and new kitten
boat has a new paint job

Clark decided to sneak into Southport for a look around before heading out to Bald Head Island for the night.

Town of Southport, NC

I noticed that the wind had picked up and thought that trying to dock at one of the slips in Southport would be an interesting endeavor. However, the wind at Southport was nothing compared to what we got hit with when we exited the harbor to cross to Bald Head Island. Thank goodness we keep the life jackets attached to the railings on the boat, or they would have taken off like kites. As we bounced in the rough surf, Clark asked if the windows below were closed (of course not), so I had to make my way down to close windows, pick up items that had blown around the cabin, and dry the walls and floor by the steps to the staterooms where water had splashed in through the open window.

As waves splashed over the bow of the boat, Clark explained that we had current against wind thus the serious wave action. We confirmed we had found the entrance to the Bald Head Island harbor when we saw the ferry exiting the harbor. Navigating the entrance to the harbor as we were tossed around proved interesting, but as soon as we were inside the breakwater, the waters calmed right down so docking presented no problems at all. Phew!

The harbor is rather wide and they assigned us a slip about as far away from the marina office as possible. It was a long walk from the boat to the office. As we walked there, we kept our eyes open looking for Sum Escape, found them, and stopped by to say hello before continuing on to check in.

Since they had already seen the town and had other immediate plans, we agreed that we would tour the island and meet back on their boat at 7:00 to reconnect. We checked in, grabbed our bikes (after the long walk back to the boat), and headed out to see the sights.

Golf Carts everywhere - no cars allowed on the island!

non-pay phone booths - local calls only
(we saw one at the harbor and one in town)

Miniature Cannon - so cute and so deadly

The Lighthouse
(Clark is attracted to tall things where he can get a view!)

Paid $6 each to climb to the top

Clark waiting for me to catch up

Schematic of "Old Baldy"
(I should have studied this diagram more carefully.)

I carefully and slowly climbed the stair steps to reach the top of the lighthouse. The steps were narrow and taller than usual. However, they were nothing compared to the ladder I found when I reached the second-to-top floor.  I stood at the bottom of the ladder for a few moments wondering if I should / would tackle that to get to the view. Well, it cost $6 to get to this point, and it was hot in the lighthouse. I decided the breeze and the view better be worth it and decided to continue up.

The last few steps getting to the view proved to be challenging!

As I ascended the last of the steps on the ladder I recalled the words of a man I had heard talking back at the entrance. He said, "I guess you can't be fat if you want to climb that lighthouse." I understood what he was saying as I wiggled my over-sized derriere up and out to the top level for the view.

View of Harbor from Lighthouse

Cape Fear Inlet (as seen from lighthouse)
Note the parking lot full of golf carts and the one crossing the bridge.

Yes, the view was worth the climb although climbing back down that hole onto the ladder was another challenge. I held onto Clark with one hand while I grabbed the handrail with the other and got myself down without incident.

After leaving the lighthouse we rode our bikes into town on the divided highway through the island.

Divided Highway on Bald Head Island for Golf Cart Traffic

 Although the sun beat down and the wind blew like crazy, we were well protected from both on the tree-shaded streets into town. Bicycling was pretty easy with shallow, rolling hills.

Well-shaded streets

On our little excursion we checked out two different ice cream shops - one at the harbor and another when we got into town. Clark has become an ice cream snob and opted not to get anything at either stop as the flavors were not enticing enough. Still recovering from yesterday's ice cream treat, I had no interest in ice cream regardless of flavor, so we passed on both opportunities.

After we left town, we still had some time before our meeting with Sum Escape, so we headed over to the beach to check out the wind and wave action.

Beach at Bald Head Island

I decided not to venture out onto the beach because of the wind. Clark said he got "sand blasted" as he walked out to get some pictures.

Before returning to the boat, Clark had one more spot he wanted to investigate - Fort Holmes Battery #4. Built during the Civil War to "guard the Confederate life line" of supplies, Fort Holmes Battery #4 was an earthworks fort built out of sand. The walls covered 1.7 miles of terrain and stood 24 feet high in some places. The fort no longer exists due to erosion and growth of vegetation. Pretty amazing really!

Estuary and River Guarded by
Fort Holmes Battery #4

We made it back to the boat at almost precisely 6:00 - the time I had specified I needed to be back in order to make and eat dinner before our 7:00 rendezvous.  I cooked dinner while Clark ran for a shower. We did not quite make the 7:00 date; we arrived at Sum Escape about 15 minutes late. We brought Delicious Orchards Apple Pie for dessert to make up for being tardy.  We bought the pie in New Jersey. As with ice cream Clark is a pie snob, and he says Delicious Orchards pie is the best anywhere.

We enjoyed a lovely visit with Tom and Julie. In addition to our pie offering, Julie had a big bowl of popcorn to share. At 9:00 we made our escape from Sum Escape as Julie and Tom said that they are on "looper time" where 9:00 is "looper midnight" and therefore bedtime. I still had dishes to do and a blog to write, and Clark had boat travel planning to do. We were not going to be in bed by 9:00 or 9:30 or anywhere near that time - we never are!

So, here it is another late night for me as I finally submit my blog entry for today's adventure. With Bald Head Island, I found another place to add to my favorite-stops-on-the-loop list. What a truly amazing place this would be to bring family - only bicycles and golf carts, no cars, and a beach with lots and lots of public access points. I would definitely come back here again. I loved what I got to see of it, but they need better ice cream flavors.