Alligator River to Great Bridge, VA

     As Kermit would say, "moving right along".  We are making tracks, averaging 80-90 miles a day.  On Friday we left at 6:30 am and breezed down the Neuse River, motorsailing with the jib out, crossed Pamlico Sound, Goose Creek and Pamlico River easily, up the Pongo River and through the Pongo R./Alligator R. canal.  The SW breeze made it possible to have the sail up almost all day long.  We anchored at the southern end of the Alligator River at 7:30 pm.
     Up and off again at 6:30 am.  Still with a SW breeze, but much stronger, up to 24 kts at times, so we motorsailed out the Alligator and were glad we weren't any later crossing  Albemarle Sound as it was nasty enough at 9:30 am and we heard reports that it got nastier as the day wore on.  We carried the sail up the North River until it's snaky turns made it too difficult to control, especially as the wind did not die down when we got in the lee of the trees along the riverbank.  We had decided we would take the Coinjock, or VA cut route instead of the Dismal Swamp, just because we hadn't done it on the way down.  The distance is virtually the same, but you aren't constrained by the locks (or the 6' controlling depth) of the Dismal Swamp.  The Dismal way is prettier, but the VA cut was interesting and we were able to make good time, arriving at Great Bridge around 7:30 pm.  We tied up at the free docks right before the bridge that controls the locking of the one lock we will encounter tomorrow.  Our progress may slow for a while as the weather reports don't look good for the next two days.  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL!  ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file for 5/8
Google Earth track file for 5/9

Not a lot to see wending our way through NC on Friday, just a fawn wandering the banks.

Mom seems to have found a good place to stay cool and hidden.

After a long day Saturday, we tied up at Great Bridge, VA, just 12 miles from Norfolk, at sunset, but enjoyed the moon rise after a light dinner.

Anchors Away Boatyard to Adams Creek, S of the Nuese River

       What a crazy week.  We left Anchors Away in a rental car on Tuesday afternoon with our rudder post in tow.  We drove til we dropped (around Savannah) and then continued on early Wednesday to deliver the rudder post to the Catalina plant in Largo, FL.   We had learned from Warren Pandy at the FL plant that they had no rudder cores and wouldn't for at least another 10 days, but could build a new one around our original core with a little work on the bent stringers. 
      We delivered the post early afternoon, got a tour of the plant (we always wanted to see the plant anyway!) and then headed to St. Augustine to join the gathering festivities surrounding Pegg's dad's wedding.  We enjoyed all the partying and getting to know even more of our far flung and very extended family.  Dan was on the phone daily with Warren, checking on the status of the rudder.  It was ready for pick-up on Tuesday at noon, so Dan left early Tuesday morning to drive to NC to dig a hole for the rudder install and Amy and Martha took the van and drove across FL to pick up the rudder and head to NC.  The girls arrived at 11:30pm after a long day with books on tape.  
     The rudder was in place by 8:00am, painted by 10:00am and we were finally launched Wednesday afternoon.  We couldn't leave right away, too shallow, but we had a lot to do anyway, back stays back on, dinghy in the water, motor on the dinghy, etc.  We also got involved watching for a sick turtle that the local turtle rescue people were trying to capture to nurse it back to health.  Two women hung out in the water off the pier for almost half an hour waiting for it to surface.  When they captured it, they swam it to the beach, boxed it and took it away.
     We set off at 6:30 am on Thursday to continue the journey north.  The rudder (8" shorter) seems to work well, and we were able to back off quickly when we grounded (at least 5 times in the NC shallows!)   Around 10 am, with thunderstorms threatening close by, we anchored in a curve off the channel and waited out the storm while having a leisurely breakfast.  We put in a long day, motorsailing most of the way  and made it almost all the way to Oriental (just 5 miles short.)  We dropped the hook in VERY shallow water at 7:45 pm with more storms threatening.  There were a few more during the night, but today (Friday) dawned clear with a light SW breeze and we were on our way again by 6:45 am.   Signal is notoriously lousy for the next 130 miles or so, so we'll write when we can.  ~~~_/)~~~D&M

Rudder issues aside, our trip back to FL included Al (Pegg's dad) and Amparo's wedding in Daytona! It was great to see happiness blossom for them both.

After close to 2000 miles on a rental car and several more on our van (Amy brought it from PA to help transport the completed rudder --- and to go to the wedding) the rudder is back in place. Dan did all the work, with a little lifting help from Amy and positioning help from Martha.

Hurry up and wait. We were finally launched Wednesday around 3:30 pm, but sat on the bottom in the travel lift slip until 6:30pm, so we waited for morning to set sail.

Our wait in the slip wasn't boring though as we watched the people from the Sea Turtle Hospital rescue a sick turtle.

Poor Emily, as she/he was named by one of the rescuers, was covered with barnacles, leeches, grass and whatever.

It must be spring, all the porpoises we saw were in pairs.

Anchors Away Marina, Hampstead, NC

We finally made it to the dock last night about 7:50 PM, over 4 hours after we turned into the 200 yard channel into the boatyard.   We spent a quiet night tied alongside the cement pier.  We spent the morning picking up a rental car, getting the boat ready to be hauled, backstays removed, motor off the dinghy, dinghy on the bow, etc.  Then we waited.  We were finally hauled and blocked about 4:15 PM.  While we were moving the boat into the Travelift slip we heard one of the boats we had hung out with in Key Largo calling a marina about 8 miles away.  We were too busy to hail them at the time, and when we tried later we weren't successful reaching them.  After having cocktails in the cockpit up in the air, we decided to take a drive and ventured over to the marina in Surf City where we thought we might find Freedom's Turn.  Sure enough there they were!  Linda and Charlie Thomas are from Michigan and are doing the big loop.  They were in Key Largo for a month when we were there and were part of "the crowd".  It was fun to catch up with them and we took advantage of their access to their marina's showers as there are no facilities here at Anchors Away Boatyard!  So we are back aboard, all clean and ready for bed.
___ _/) ___(Brunelle on the hard) D&M

Brunelle's new home for the time being.

HMMM, is this where the rudder should be?

NOT a pretty picture!

Indigo Plantation to Anchors Away Marina

NOT the best day of this adventure!  We left early to catch the ingoing tide on the Cape Fear River and rode it easily up to the cut across to the Intracoastal along the barrier islands.  We waited at the Wrightsville Beach bridge for the 11 o'clock opening along with several boats. Once through the bridge we slid over to the side of the channel to let a few powerboats go by and ran aground.  No big deal we thought, we were barely off the channel, Dan tried to work us off to no avail so we called TowboatUS.  They had heard us alerting the boats behind us that we were aground (so they wouldn't run up our tail) and had been calling us every few minutes anyway.   TowboatUS arrived in about 10 minutes and it took a lot of pulling to get us off, but he did.  He told us to idle on up the river while he prepared the paperwork.  We were trying to head on up the channel (against the outgoing tide) without much success when we heard a shout from astern.  Martha turned and noticed a large blue "thing" floating back there and quickly realized it was our rudder! - - -no wonder we were unable to turn up stream!  The runabout that had shouted retrieved the rudder - not an easy task and delivered it to TowboatUS while we scrambled to drop the hook to keep us from drifting back toward the bridge!  TowboatUS came alongside and we raised the anchor and at first attempted to be towed by him. BIG MISTAKE!  We "sailed" back and forth across the channel like a madman.  We settled on getting a "hip" tow for the 12 miles up the ditch toward Anchors Away Marina which has a Travelift.  We arrived at the entrance to AA's channel around 3:30, just a few minutes before low tide and promptly ran aground in the middle of their channel!  It is now 7:15 and the tide still isn't high enough to get us off.  We're getting to know Tom from TowboatUS pretty well!
~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

What a day! #1 We start thru the Wrightsville Beach Bridge with two Chesapeake boats, one from Wittman and one from Solomons. #2 We are followed by several other boats including Alan Jackson's Neon Rainbow. Background: a sandbar waiting to be born (near the scene of the "Crime".) #3 We moved over to let Neon Rainbow by and ran aground. #4 Our RUDDER sitting aboard TowboatUS. #5 Here we are aground again! (for three plus hours waiting for the tide to rise enough to let us in the channel to Anchors Away Marina.

Myrtle Beach YC to Southport, NC

Another gorgeous day on the Waterway, but I gather it is just as nice all up and down the Eastern seaboard!   We left Myrtle Beach YC early after filling up with $1.99 diesel, somehow we were misinformed about the price yesterday.   We watched the knot meter vacillate between 7.9 and 4.1 as we passed one inlet after another.  They really don't like to post current information along this stretch because it changes so much.  As we approached the Cape Fear River (showing 7+ on the knot meter) around 2 PM, we realized that we would be facing 3.5 knots against us if we continued up the river.  We started searching around for somewhere to anchor  - no luck, so we took a berth at Indigo Plantation Marina, just south of Southport Harbor.  We walked around a bit and discovered that it really is just the land based terminal for the Bald Head Island Ferry.   Bald Head Island is a VERY EXCLUSIVE community - no cars allowed.   Only way to get there is the ferry from here.  We'll leave early tomorrow to catch the flood tide up the Cape Fear River. ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Brunelle berthed at Indigo Plantation Marina, the mainland base for the Bald Head Island ferry.

We watched "the other half" disembark and embark from/to Bald Head Island. Only one place in NC is more expensive according to a dock mate!

We noticed this venomous snake curled up on our neighbor's sail cover, panicked for about 1/2 a second and then realized it was to ward off birds and noticed that it wasn't working all that well!

Osprey Marina to Myrtle Beach YC

We think Osprey Marina is one of our favorite marinas.  Very clean, very friendly and only $1/foot, plus diesel was $1.91!- - -and we had just filled up the day before at $2.12.  We were considering spending another day because the CG had not opened the ICW in the morning and Dan checked the prop alignment (we'd had a little bit of vibration now and then.)  Finally a little after 10 the ICW was re-opened and we headed out.  It was a beautiful day on the waterway today in spite of the proximity of the wildfires.  There was very little wind, hopefully helping the firefighting efforts.  The news this evening reported that the fires are still burning.  We chose to stop at the Myrtle Beach YC, which is quite a big marina just a few miles from the SC/NC border.  As we walked up the dock to check in, we ended up chatting with a couple on our dock who hailed from Jamestown, RI.  While playing "do you know" we realized that we knew many people in common, including Martha's Dad.  As we continued on to the marina office, they offered us the use of their car!   We took them up on it and took a short trip to the grocery store.  Yummy fresh food for dinner!   We discovered that diesel is only $1.77 here, so we'll fill everything we can before leaving in the morning!  ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Osprey Marina is tucked back down a narrow tree lined channel right off the ICW. We finally got the OK to move north and headed out at 10:15 AM.

This is as close as we got to the wildfires.

Don't know where these cable cars take people, but they cross the Waccamaw River. (Editor's Note: they're golfers, heading to and from the Waterway Hills Golf Course - it's the only way to get there!)

Georgetown to Osprey Marina, south of Myrtle Beach, SC

Traveling from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach on the Waccamaw River was irenic and not unlike the scenery we see on Lake PaHaGaco. The river is wide and deep and if it weren't for all the spanish moss, we kinda felt at home...that is until we began to get reports from the Coast Guard and online that there were wildfires destroying homes and threatening both sides of the waterway! All afternoon we kept checking on the progress of the fires and realized we wouldn't be able to get through. We stopped at the Osprey Marina at mile 373 (8 miles south of the troubled area) around 3 pm and "snuggled" in. There isn't a lot of room here! We took a post prandial stroll after dinner out the half mile driveway and realized we were really out in the woods. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Traveling from Georgetown to Myrtle Beach on the Waccamaw River was irenic and not unlike the scenery we see on Lake PaHaGaco.

Here we are at the end of the Osprey Marina Drive.

Close quarters at the marina.