Everyone looked bright and well rested this morning... a good night's sleep does wonders. The day was gorgeous and we took advantage of it to do some washing down of salty decks and Dan worked on troubleshooting John and Betty's running light problem. The solution was they needed to be replaced, luckily under warranty, so new ones are being FedExed to Charleston. Dan opted to change the oil and do a few other engine chores as did Pete and John, so the girls decided to head to town to look around (Glen and Maureen had headed in earlier.) The walk was a pleasant one, past several lovely old homes and took us to Front Street, the main drag. We saw several people lining the streets with expectant looks on their faces and realized it was Veteran's Day and a parade must be in the offing. We chose to walk back along the River Walk and were just leaving the end of it when we heard the announcer start the parade. We walked back toward Front Street and watched several bands, ROTC (high school groups), antique cars, service groups etc. march by. We couldn't stay long because we needed to get back to go out to dinner at Lands End, a good seafood restaurant right next to our marina. Tomorrow is a 6:45 start, so I'm off to bed.
~~~_/)~~~M&D
Kathy Bruzik caught this amazing picture of us as we were watching the sunset and waiting to see the green flash. Both Dan and I are pretty sure there was one that night!
I need to make a correction. Katherine pointed out that she noticed snouts on many of the porpoises pictured in yesterday's blog and questioned whether they were tursiops truncatus (better known as bottle nosed dolphins) our not. Most of what we saw were bottle nosed dolphins (a mammal) not porpoises (also a mammal, but with a much stubbier snout and thicker body. I was wrongly under the impression that the only true dolphins were the fish dolphin and people calling Flipper types dolphins were incorrect. Not so, if you want to learn more, here is the link Katherine sent.
The only boat we saw today was this USCG boat that was in the Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Georgetown!
I was glad we had sent out our nightly SPOT signal to family members (we get a copy too) because I clicked on it to find out where we actually were! We arrived here in Georgetown at 8:20 pm after an overnight passage from River Dunes, and the unlighted approach to this marina (the only one in Georgetown with any dock space left) was not our favorite part of the trip!
The conditions were perfect for our first trip "outside", so we left River Dunes after fueling up and headed for the inlet at Beaufort. We were able to sail down the Neuse, and through a bit of the Adams Creek canal, and enjoyed an easy passage through the crowded harbor area of Beaufort/Moorehead City and were out the inlet around 3 PM. The breeze was perfect, 8-12 out of the NW, and we all rolled out jibs and motor-sailed through the night. It is a great comfort to look back and see three sets of running lights all night long! Well, 2 1/2 sets anyways.... Andiamo found that the breaker would trip every time they tried to turn on their running lights, so they were visible only by their steaming light, but they kept in close to the pack and we didn't encounter anyone until we passed within a mile and a half of a tanker (easily identified by AIS) without incident around dawn this morning.
We rounded Frying Pan Shoals (off Cape Fear) at daybreak and headed further west. It isn't possible to head straight from Beaufort to Georgetown because the Frying Pan Shoals stick WAY out from Cape Fear, so it adds a bit of time and distance to the trip.
Today dawned bright and brisk and breezy. We had quite a ride until early afternoon when the wind, which had come around to the NE, started to quiet a bit. The waves were sometimes a little rough, but we were willing to accept them because they brought pod after pod of porpoises that spent hours, literally hours playing in our wake and jumping to ride our bow wave. Hence the preponderance of porpoise pix. We even had a few that followed us in the inlet in the evening. As has been our luck with the inlet here, we had to fight the current all the way up (11 miles) to Georgetown, but we wanted a quiet dock to tie to for the night. Everyone else has turned in, but I wanted to send this off while I could! Tomorrow we plan to stay and enjoy Georgetown and give Andiamo a chance to work on their running lights. Maybe tomorrow I will figure out how to send the video of playful porpoises to the blog. It (whoever it is) told me the video exceeded the allowed size of megabytes, oh well! ~~~~~~~~~~_/)~~~~~~~~~ (extra water under our keel this leg) M&D
It started at River Dunes, Oriental, NC. We all prepared to head our separate ways. Martha started the day with her last luxurious River Dunes shower-please note the four spray jets that tickled and massaged. Then she and Dan saw Jay, Pegg and Mom off from their cottage. Around 9 AM all four boats headed for the fuel dock before heading out as the next leg would be a long one. Out the canal-like entrance and on down the Neuse to Adams Creek. Then it was out the inlet at Beaufort around 3 pm and offshore we went for our first overnight passage of the trip.
Hopefully you are ready to be bored to death by a plethora of playful porpoise pictures...here they are.
As mentioned earlier, we headed back to PA to pick up Dan's mom and drive her back down to River Dunes to await Jay and Pegg who will drive her the rest of the way to their home in St. Augustine, FL. The trip home was on a dreary and rainy Thursday, but the company of the McElderrys made the trip easier. We arrived at their house in Edgewater, MD to find their son and his girlfriend stocking the refrigerator with dinner and food for the weekend! A very welcome treat. We stayed to have dinner with John and Betty (thank you Paul and Jess) and headed out around 6:30 (hoping to miss some of the rush hour traffic - - - no such luck) The dreary conditions had followed us up the coast and had made a mess of rush hour and it continued until we were around Baltimore and well up into PA. We got home around 8:45 after having left the boat 12 hours before. The rest of the northern sojourn went easily and we got Dan's mom packed, vetted with the doctors, and ready to go early Sunday morning. We took a leisurely trip back south with many stops to keep old joints moving and bladders empty and also included a dinner with Amy Bliss in Washington, NC just before arriving back at River Dunes. We had signed up for a two bedroom cottage on the grounds and I spent the night there with Grandma Peddie. She was very concerned that Dan was suffering on the boat, but we finally convinced her that he had heat (there was a frost advisory for Sunday night) and would be very happy back on the boat!
Today was beautiful, sunny and warm, so we drove to Oriental and enjoyed a lunch on the deck of the Oriental Deli & Grill right along the waterfront and paid a visit to a marine consignment shop that had more junk than our basement! Jay and Pegg arrived around 4 - enough time to get the lay of the land before we all headed to the Club House for our "last supper" at River Dunes. Everyone heads out tomorrow morning - - - headed for Florida (and beyond). Some by boat and some by car. No contest about who will get there first, but WE'LL have more adventures to be sure! ~~~_/)~~~M&D
We return to River Dunes, near Oriental, NC, with better weather than when we left on Thursday!
No SPOT, no track, no photos. A very relaxing but dreary day. Everyone (Andiamo, Pekabu III, Sevilla and Surprise) all came aboard Brunelle for Bloody Marys at 11 and we spent at least two hours swapping stories and sharing ideas. Some people did laundry during the afternoon, but we are driving home tomorrow and will save ours until we get home! We feel like college kids coming home for the weekend with all our dirty stuff! We all also opted to dine at the clubhouse again. You can't beat good food at a reasonable price and all the atmosphere and camaraderie availble there! We even had live entertainment tonight. A guitar playing singer entertained us during dinner. The rental car is slated to arrive at 8 tomorrow morning, so we probably won't write again until we return Sunday night or Monday. Until then....~~~_/)~~~M&D
Our goal, when leaving the Chesapeake, was to reach Oriental (River Dunes in this case) by Nov. 4th so we could leave the boat and drive north with the McElderrys. They have a wedding to attend and we have a delivery to make. Dan's mom, (Grandma, Peddie, Thelora) is going to drive back here to NC with us in our car and Dan's brother, Jay, will drive up from FL with Pegg and they will drive her and the two cars back to St. Augustine. The boat will stay here at River Dunes until next Tuesday when we will continue our progress south.
We have been pushing pretty hard to accomplish that goal, and exceeded our expectations and arrived here on the 2nd. River Dunes is an amazing place, with all sorts of amenities, so we hope the two boats not abandoning ship to go north will enjoy their respite. The trip from Belhaven was quick and only a little rocky. The Neuse River chose to be a nuisance and we had a roly-poly ride. We were glad that the turn into River Dunes cut the ride toward Oriental short by several miles. We arrived around two and were welcomed warmly by JC the dockmaster, Ed and Connie Dooley (CCYC and C-400 friends) and Dick and Jean (?) good friends of the McElderrys. They immediately all told us about the nightly dinner served at the Club House - how good it was and also how reasonable, so we decided to try it out. Still no AT&T service, but they do have wifi. We resorted to signing up (and paying) for a Skype phone number: 717-739-5845. It will ring on our computer whenever we have signal. Hopefully that will make reaching us easier when we can't use cell phones. It is a local Spring Grove, PA number. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so we'll probably just hang out and relax! ~~~_/)~~~M&D
Dan prefers sunrises!
Saw our first shrimp/fishing boat working the river as we left Belhaven.
Catalina owners took over the Club House at River Dunes for dinner. DeFever 44 owners, Bob and Sue Hodes, who are traveling with Ed and Connie Dooley (C-400 Surprise) took the picture. We also met C-470, Onward's owner and crew (also pictured.) The McElderry's were dining with friends elsewhere.
There were fewer miles planned for today, so we didn't head out until 8:30 am. Actually got to have a relaxed breakfast before leaving. Dan was up before dawn anyway and got a neat shot of a tug pushing a barge loaded with sand that slipped past our anchorage just as the sun broke the horizon. The ride down the canal was mostly uneventful, we did wander a little close to the shore at one point and ran aground. Luckily it was a "soft grounding" and we backed right off and were back in the "parade" heading south. The one excitement was the anticipation we and several other boats in radio range felt as we approached the Wilkerson Bridge. It is one of the two fixed bridges on the ICW that doesn't meet the Army Corps of Engineers standards of 65'. It is listed at 64'. The VHF radio traffic was hot and heavy with everyone waiting for a report from someone who could tell us all just what the height of the bridge was today. Luckily it read 65' on the tidal boards at the base of the bridge and Andiamo made it through! We rolled out the jib for the ride down the Pungo River and were debating whether to anchor in Pungo Creek or Pantego Creek. The wind is predicted to be NE 10-20 tomorrow. We decided that Pantego would provide more protection, so headed in there. Three of us anchored, but Pekabu III needed fuel and Belhaven's three marinas were dry, so they headed to Pungo Creek for fuel. They were back "in the fold" by 3:30. We put the dinghy down, picked up Maureen and headed into town. We wandered a bit and found a few things we needed at the Ace Hardware store---some flashlight light bulbs and wi-fi. I was able to retrieve several emails on my iPhone, but didn't have time to send many. We also found an ice cream store and indulged. On our way back to the boat, we stopped at Andiamo and enjoyed a glass a wine while we borrowed John's Verizon phone that DID have signal to return some imortant missed calls. Tomorrow we head for River Dunes, just outside Oriental. We expect we'll have signal tomorrow. ~~~_/)~~~M&D
Early morning scene at the bend in the Alligator River where we spent the night. The sand barge was slow moving, but had enough of a head start that it had traversed the AR/PR Canal before we caught up with it.
Scenes from the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal. Not much shore activity, just lots of snowbirds heading south. We are seeing more this trip (a week later than 2 years ago) than last time... and we thought we were leaving late.
Another early start, 7:30. We knew we might have a rough time crossing the Albemarle Sound with the predicted 10-20 (gusts to 30) kts winds, but we had "miles to go before (we) sleep." Andiamo took the lead inspite of the first thing we faced was a fixed bridge (vertical clearance 65'). Andiamo's mast, plus antenna is 64'! She hung back yesterday at each bridge and crawled through at idle, but felt a bit more confident today. As we entered Albemarle Sound, our suspicions were well founded. The winds were strong and the chop was sloppy, luckily the West wind allowed us to roll out the jib and that helped steady the ride. We were across and zig zagged through the channel leading to the Alligator River Bridge by early afternoon. The wind abated a bit and gave us a pleasant reach down the river. We arrived at the turn in the river that leads to the Alligator River/Pungo River canal around 3:30 pm and chose to go around the bend before anchoring because the wind is predicted to strengthen and come out of the North by morning. Dan and I spent quite a while working on setting our new riding sail. I think we have it worked out. We'll get a picture of it next time we set it. We were treated to another gorgeous sunset. Tomorrow should be an easier ride. I've been meaning to explain that some pictures are cut off by the format used to post them, if you click on the picture, the full image will appear.* ~~~_/)~~~M&D
*ed. note: Minor layout glitch that should be fixed now. My apologies to the photo editor (M) for truncating her work.
Andiamo takes the lead as we leave Midway Marina and Motel at Coinjock, NC. John and Betty are more confident about making it under the 65' vertical clearance fixed bridges that are all along the ICW.
Crossing Albemarle Sound was a little rough for the first half, but it quieted down and we were across in a little over an hour.
We were thankful to "Skipper Bob" for accurately describing the circuitous route we needed to take to enter the Alligator River on the other side of the AR Bridge, we watched one boat (probably reading an old chart) run hard aground. Once through the bridge we had a nice sail down the river.
Evening at the bend of the Alligator River. We were joined by other boats in our tiny anchorage for what turned out to be a quiet night.
Kathy Bruzik caught this amazing picture of us as we were watching the sunset and waiting to see the green flash. Both Dan and I are pretty sure there was one that night!
I need to make a correction. Katherine pointed out that she noticed snouts on many of the porpoises pictured in yesterday's blog and questioned whether they were tursiops truncatus (better known as bottle nosed dolphins) our not. Most of what we saw were bottle nosed dolphins (a mammal) not porpoises (also a mammal, but with a much stubbier snout and thicker body. I was wrongly under the impression that the only true dolphins were the fish dolphin and people calling Flipper types dolphins were incorrect. Not so, if you want to learn more, here is the link Katherine sent.
