Mill Creek, to Mill Creek to Lippincott

     C'est tout!  OR  "TH-TH-THat's all folks" as Porky used to say.  We are home!  We pulled into our slip at 6:30 pm this evening after a long but very easy day coming up the bay from the Great Wicomico River, just south of the Potomac.   On Tuesday, we got up early and headed off in spite of the forecast calling for North winds.  The winds were actually mostly from the West so we made good time for the early part of the day.  As the wind moved around to the north we began to lose headway in the chop that was developing and decided to head in early.  We anchored in another Mill Creek, just off the Great Wicomico River around 3:45 pm.  The creek was peaceful and beautiful and we watched a pair of eagles perched and then flying around.  We took several pictures, but none turned out all that well (sorry kids, I know you really wanted to see another eagle picture from Dad.) 
     We hadn't made the prescribed half way mark on our trip up the bay, so we knew we'd have to make an early start to make it home in one day.  That meant a 5:30 am start.  Luckily it was calm and there was enough light to head off that early, and we enjoyed the sunrise as we wound our way out the creek.  The forecasted strong southerly winds did not materialize until mid afternoon, but we were able to make at least 6+ knots consistently all day.   We had the main up all day and it finally paid off when the wind finally strengthened.  
     It has been a wonderful trip and as ready as we are to get home,  we are sorry it is ending.  Hopefully we will be able to do it again in the near future.  We especially hope to get more of our family and friends to join us along the way next time. ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track files for 5/12
Google Earth track files for 5/13

Very little to see as we trekked northward on Tuesday, I thought this was one of the prettier tugs I've seen.

Predawn departure from Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico River on Wednesday.

The sun peeping through the trees as we left Mill Creek.

A MUCH quieter morning than yesterday.

I've always wondered how these fish weirs were used.

With all the times we've passed the LNG pier at Cove Point, this is the first time we've seen it in use.

Great Bridge to Mill Creek, Hampton, VA

     I knew I never should have quoted a frog!!  We got up Sunday and Dan asked if he could renege on his offer to take me out to lunch for Mother's Day (I'm not HIS mother) so that we could head off and just keep going until we got back to home base.  I've never been all that fond of the Mother's Day concept, so I was all for it.  We called the Great Bridge bridge to request an opening and were told that the RR bridge 5 miles down the canal was closed all day!  So much for "movin' right along"!  We walked "uptown" and visited the Fresh Grocer (where every second person left with a bunch of flowers for Mom.)  When we returned to the boat, we decided we would go across the canal to the Marina that offered diesel and then make the 12:00 opening of the bridge to try the other side of the bridge.  We tied up and listened to all the boats that we had passed as we put in long days catch up and stop on one side of the bridge or the other!  
     Monday dawned gray and dreary, but we were determined to press on.  We went into the Great Bridge lock at 8:00 am because any earlier would have necessitated waiting at the bridges further on.  We meandered through the maze that is Norfolk and were undecided whether the weather would permit us to keep going.  When we reached the bridge/tunnel that connects Norfolk with Hampton, the rain, wind, wind direction and temperature made the decision easy to pull in behind Fort Monroe and anchor just off Old Comfort Marina in Mill Creek.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better! ~~~_/)~~~D&M
Google Earth track file

Brunelle at the free dock just before the Great Bridge bridge, a RR and 65' footer back down the canal.

The view from the other side of the Great Bridge bridge - - - we moved all of 300 yards in 24 hours!

Our neighbors while we waited for the RR bridge to be repaired were a familiar sight...wonder how many are gracing Lake PaHaGaCo right about now.

Gray, windy, rainy, not the best way to start up the bay. We anchored before getting a chance to get a picture of a 55' sport fisherman that sank less than half a mile from here! The crew got off safely.

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!