Belhaven

After a long day yesterday we don't get up until 7:30AM. All the other boats in the anchorage are gone. Beautiful, sunny day and two well rested sailors. Not much wind early on we are motor sailing with just the jib out and the wind on our stern. We are quickly on the wide Neuse River under rather calm conditions.

In the afternoon the wind picks up out of the northwest, on the nose on some points of sail as we cross the Pamlico River and then head north up the Pungo River. By the time we get to Behaven it is getting rather windy. We anchor close the the west shore to lessen the fetch and a rather calm evening even with all the wind.

We get a text from our son Dana that his wife Lori has had a seizure and was in the emergency room.  We call back later, but no test results, yet.  Lori seems fine now, but has no history of seizures.

Adams Creek

to Adams Creek Video

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We are up a 4:00 AM and pull the anchor at 5:00. Full Moon makes it easy getting out of the harbor. Even so I turn on the radar incase some dark hulled boat does not have their anchor light on. 

 

Wrightville Beach anchorage looking south at the Full Moon

 

More Moon

 

Who needs the sun with this moon ?

Linda

Sunrise

Belladventure

 

 As we approach Beaufort, NC "Privateer", who we meet on our last trip, passes us.  I have been watching them on AIS, gaining on us all afternoon and have been texting them during the day.

Privateer

Extremely flat sea, just gent swells. Linda was concerned about how rough it would be and took meclizine and made her rather sleepy. The latter 1/3 of the trip the winds picked up on the nose and I had to put up some vinyl to stay dry from the waves. We go all the way to Adams Creek and anchor around 7:00PM between the crab pots.

 

 

 

Wrightsville Beach

to Wrightsville Beach Video

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Leaving St. James Planation

 

 

We leave at 7:00 am to try to catch the last of the flood current up the Cape Fear River. Nice day, but still a little cool. Currents were mostly in our favor and we arrive at noontime. We have made a date for dinner at Tower 7 a favorite Mexican restaurant with Roger and Chrisy since we all planned to be here today.

 

Cape Fear Ferry

 

Container ship heading to Wilmington, NC

 

When we pull into the anchorage we see Belladventure anchored. They had just done an overnight from Fernandina and just anchored about an hour before us. I don’t bother them since I assume they are sleeping. I put the dinghy in the water and wash a very dirty water line. We met Roger and Chrisy for dinner around 5:00. We were a little worried it would be too crowded not realizing before hand this is Cinco De Mayo, but no problem we get seats.

 

 

Bellaventure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger and Chrisy's boat (dark hull)

 

Back at the boat with pack up for an very early start tomorrow. We have good weather for going off shore to Beaufort, NC which will save us 2-3 days in the ICW. Will not have wind for sailing, but motoring will be good. Belladventure and another boat they traveled with for a couples days will be making the same run.

St. James Plantation

Cool morning on the ICW

We leave at 7:00am for a long run to St. James Plantation. We have another cool and windy day in the ICW. We get into the Marina at 4:00PM and first fuel up and pumpout, before heading to our slip. Filled the water tanks and plugged into dock power, we are going to need heat tonight.

We have dinner at “315” the new restaurant at the Marina. We have another good dinner. The old restaurant “Tommy Thompson” was a little better, but Covid did them in. 

Sockateese Bridge

Barefoot Landing Bridge

Sailing Trumpster

St. James Plantation

 

Osprey Marina, Charla

I work on fixing problems I have been having with my iPads. Reload Aquamaps on the New iPad Air 5 and do a factory reset of my old iPad Air2 and just install Aquamaps. Both are working much better in the following days.

Linda does laundry and then after lunch we get our propane can topped off.

Linda does laundry We met Charla at Texas Road House. Since her son and girl friend who both live with her are Vegans, she has a craving for a steak. We tell her to get a big one since we are buying dinner and she has lots of left overs. We have a good visit. 

 

Nile, Charla & Linda

 After we return the car to Enterprise and Uber back to the Marina. We clean up the boat to prepare to leave in the morning. 

Evening at Osprey

 

Osprey Marina

  Prince Creek to Osprey Video

(On PC full screen "lower right zoom")
(On phone/tablet full screen "pinch-zoom")

We have a relaxing morning since we only have a short distance to go to Osprey Marina. Cool morning so I make muffins to heat up the boat a little. We only have 9 miles or so to go and are at Osprey be 10:30. We get and easy docking this time on one side of the fuel dock. We take showers and have lunch on the boat. 

Leaving Prince Creek

Osprey always gives a guest goodie bag, which I am amazed they still do since they are the least expensive marina on the ICW. They goodie bag has less in it each time we stop, but we still get a jar of Pepper Jam, which we always rave about. I buy an Osprey medium shirt, had to take it off the wall display since all folded shirts are XXL. The manager comes out the door after I walked out and she tells me they over charged me $1.00 and hands me another jar of Pepper Jam to compensate me.

We take an Uber to Enterprise to rent a car at 1:00PM. Enterprise no longer “picks you up” unless you live next door. We go to Costco (first time this year) and Best Buy to get a better charger for my iPad Air 5.

Back at the boat we put everything away. We do not hear back from Charla until later and she says tomorrow night would be better for her for dinner. So we head out to Red Robin for a quick dinner. We have never been to a Red Robin, don’t need to go out of my way to do that again. Another stop at Walmart and Food Lion and then back to the boat.

 

Manana on the gas dock, an easy in and out

 

Prince Creek

Isle of  Palms to Prince Creek Video

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(On phone/tablet full screen "pinch-zoom")

We are off the dock by 7:00am. Sunny but cool morning morning. Very windy, but out of the southeast. Currents and wind was mostly in our favor today. When we get on the lower Wacamaw River the current is against us, but with a partial head sail out we are traveling north more than one knot over our normal cruising speed of 6 knots. This is with nearly one knot of current against us. One gust hits us pretty hard and slide knocks my laptop to the floor which I thought was somewhat secure.

Flying up the Wacamaw

We detour off the ICW to Prince Creek an anchorage we have never stopped at before, very remote and quiet. Mark and Karen continue on a couple miles more to an easier, less remote anchorage. We drop anchor at 5:30 after doing 75 miles today.

School Bus on the Wacamaw

Prince Creek all to our selves

 

Isle of Palms

ICW

We decide to stay another day because of the forecast high winds, gusts to 40 knots. We work on the boat, blog, vacuuming. Linda bakes some banana bread which I quickly reduce in size. We take another walk to the beach and watch the impressive waves breaking. Dinner again at the “Islander”. Today with the high winds and cool cloudy weather the restaurant is not very busy. No pleasure boating today in this wind. I fill the water tanks and prepare the boat for leaving tomorrow for a long day. We get our last game of cards with Mark and Karen for this trip. We will be stopping at Osprey to visit Linda’s niece, Karen. Mark and Karen will be sprinting for home in New Bern, NC, over the next couple days.

Ocean

 

 

 

 

Isle of Palms

 

 

 

Passing the Charleston Mega-dock, American Cruise line ship

 

Short day so we don’t leave until 9:00AM, but we have two bridges to time. Wappoo Creek bridge just west of Charleston opens just once and hour. On the other side of Charleston by Island of Palms I screw up and somehow though the Ben Sawyer bridge opened on demand on weekends. When I discover my error that they only open on the hour, I speed up a few miles before. We get lucky and just make the opening with a little curiosity of the bridge operator slightly delaying the opening. A few operators can be real Dicks and will not open unless you are sitting in front of the bridge waiting. 

 

Ben Sawyer Bridge

 

Interesting boat at the dock, Life boat from a tanker

 

We arrive Isle of Palms marina. We first fuel up and pump out before heading to the face dock for the evening. 

 

Islander restaurant busy Saturday afternoon

We go to dinner at “Islander” restaurant for dinner, being a nice Sunday the place has a good crowd. After an early dinner we go for a walk over to the ocean side of the island. Back on the boat I make Mango Daiquiris and bring them to Sea Vu Play for Linda and Karen as we play cards. Started rain in the evening.

 

Church Creek

  Ladies Island to Church Creek Video

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(On phone/tablet full screen "pinch-zoom")

 

In the morning the forecast changes again and thunderstorms are no longer in the forecast. So Mark feels we should leave today. We leave at 9:00AM to another overcast day. Since we had planned on staying two days we were put on an inside dock instead of the facedock. We arrived near slack tide, but leaving now we have some current to deal with. We leave without any incidents. Ladies Island will not reimburse us for the second day we paid for.

 

 

 

Nice temperature today. We have a couple shallow creeks and cuts to navigate, Ashepoo Coosaw cutoff and Watts Cut. Watts Cut we get to do at high tide, but unfortunately a Dredge is waiting west of Watts wait for high tide and a favorable current as we approach. They slowly head into Watt Cut just ahead of us. We do squeeze by them on the far end of the cut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We anchor in Church Creek, beautiful spot. Linda makes chicken alfredo with mushrooms for dinner, very good.

 

Church Creek anchorage

 

Lady’s Island

  Thunderbolt to Ladies Island Video

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(On phone/tablet full screen "pinch-zoom")

Up at 6:00 AM. I take the boat to the fuel dock just before 7:00AM for a pumpout and to refill the diesel rail cans. Another windy, overcast, dreary day. We get to Lady’s Island around 3:00PM Aaron the dockmaster who we met last Fall has improved the docking information by texting a Google Earth view with our slip marked. He also texts the currents and tides at the time of our arrival. I wish other marinas were this smart. Aaron also makes a reservation at the Dockhouse restaurant next to the Marina for us. Karen had made a reservations for two days before we arrive, we did that too. The forecast had called out Thunderstorms over the next two days. We had originally planned to anchor out in Factory Creek near the marina. 

 

American Cruise Line - American Star docked at Beautfort, SC

 

Lady's Island bridge

Lady's Island Marina

Manana

 

 

 

Savannah

This morning after breakfast Linda, Mark and Karen take the curiosity car to CVS and Krogers. I stay on work on the iPad. At 11:00 am we get ready to head to Savannah for the day. I call and Uber and we are on our way.

We chat with the drive on recommendations for lunch and he recommend at place called the “Treylor Park”. Sounds life “Trailer Park” and my kind of place. We have him drop us off at one of the many “Squares” in Savannah and we walk to the “Treylor Park”, which is towards the River. Interesting place which ordered the chicken nachos which we split and still could not finish. Not something I would order again if we return. We walk around Savannah for the rest of the afternoon and went to the Sea Museum. We took another Uber back to the Marina just ahead of a thunderstorm and showers. We got a little wet walking down the dock to the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda and Karen did laundry while we all play dominoes in the adjacent screen porch. After we finished dominoes our friends Michele and Kathy texted us from the St. Johns club back in Burlington, VT. I immediately Face-time them and have a fun “conference” call. We learn that the St’ Johns club finally has a cook after not having one since the start of Covid. Kathy and Keith may take Kathy’s power boat south to the Hudson in the beginning of June to so hopefully we may join up with them on our return north.

 

 

Linda and I take the curiosity car to Krogers for a couple items Linda forgot in the morning, ice cream and protein bars.