Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 4

4/21/15 - We departed the Carolina Beach anchorage at 0900 and entered Snow's Cut which brought us out to the Cape Fear River.  Nothing to fear here.  We crossed the river and headed downstream.  About half way down we had to wait while two tugs brought out a tanker and turned it to begin it's journey out to the ocean.  As the tanker got under way the narrow river got crowded with the departure of the tugs and the arrival of a Coast Guard cutter.  We held our ground (so to speak) and waited for things to clear out before proceeding onto Southport where we continued south on the ICW.  This day we passed through or under six bridges, a signature of traveling on the ICW.  We came through a small fishing village where shrimp boats were tied up and saw the remains of what appeared to be hurricane damage from last season.  We crossed into South Carolina (mile 340.9) where a large cruise ship entered behind us from the ocean, apparently returning from a gambling cruise off shore.  We had hoped to anchor for the night at the Calabash River but found it already crowded when we arrived so we continued on with the cruise ship slowly gaining on us.  We called ahead to a marina and made arrangements to stay there.  As we approached the marina the cruise ship turned off behind us and docked, ending our worries about providing room enough for him to pass.  We had tried contacting him several times on VHF to allow him to pass us but he never responded, apparently knowing his stop was coming up soon.  We tied up at the fuel dock  at Cricket Cove Marina (mile 345.1) which is right on the ICW.  This is a nice marina with complete service facilities and a decent restaurant where we ended up for dinner, each having Grouper.  Mmmmm, mmm, good!

4/22/15 - We headed out around 0900 (apparently the best we can do) and entered Pine Island Cut, a 28 mile land cut.  When this was built in the 1930's by the Army Corp of Engineers they encountered a stretch of hard rock 2.4 miles in length which took them two years to blast through.  Because of the difficulty they had this stretch is much narrower than the rest of the muddy bottomed cut and has become known as "The Rock Pile".  It's only wide enough for one boat at a time and you're supposed to announce your intentions on the VHF before entering.  Since we were running early in the cruisers season we didn't encounter a lot of traffic through this part.  This is the Myrtle Beach area and we passed through and under a total of twelve bridges this day.  Once through the cut we entered a beautiful cyprus swamp where we saw numerous Bald Eagles and their nests.  We anchored on Bull Creek (mile 381.0) in 15' depth, way back off the ICW and about 50 yards from an Eagle's nest.  This was one of the nicest anchorages we had on the entire trip with total seclusion from any sign of man, completely surrounded by the beauty of nature.  At night the only light was from the stars above and once my eyes adjusted to it I found that was enough to make out the trees on the shoreline.

 4/23/15 -

We had been in touch with friends Pete and Sharon (m/v Emerald Lady) who were heading north on the ICW after spending the winter in the Bahamas.  The plan was to meet up with them in Georgetown, just 21 miles to the south of us.  If it wasn't for that we would have stayed longer at Bull Creek.  We got underway at 0930 and meandered through the cyprus swamp before passing under Lafayette Bridge and entering Georgetown Harbor in the early afternoon.  We had reservations at Harborwalk Marina, just walking distance from the historic downtown part of the city.  Pete and Sharon met us on the dock and we got together on their boat for drinks before heading into town for dinner.  We ended up at "700" on the advice of a local and weren't disappointed.  The food was excellent and we had a good time catching up with old friends.

Emerald Lady departed the next day but we stayed on to take in the sights.  We walked down Front Street and checked out all the shops before heading over to get groceries at the Piggly Wiggly, a mile and a half away.  We walked back through the old residential part of town in the shade of the old oak trees lining the streets.  Georgetown has a lot of history going back to 1526 when the Spanish attempted a colony here.  In the Revolutionary War two signers of the Declaration of Independence came from Georgetown as did the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, originator of guerrilla warfare.  By 1840 Georgetown was the largest rice-exporting port in the world and there was considerable wealth in the area with many of the fine homes remaining to this day.  Throughout the next hundred years Georgetown hosted the largest lumber mill on the East Coast and the largest paper mill in the world.  The town suffered major damage in 1989 from Hurricane Hugo but on our walk through the neighborhoods it appeared to be completely restored.  Visiting Georgetown was one of the highlights of our trip down the ICW.

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway - Part 3

4/17/15 - After several enjoyable days at River Dunes Marina (mile 173.9) we decided it was time to move on.  We had a long day ahead of us so we opted for an early start (early for us) and were on our way by 0830.  We were headed out to the coastline and would be passing through five bridges.  We motored out Broad Creek and brought out the main and Genoa for a nice sail across the Neuse River into Adams Creek where we motor sailed up to the canal connecting to Core Creek.  I spotted my first dolphin in Core Creek but the crew wouldn't believe it since we still seemed to be so far inland.

Core Creek empties into Newport Marsh and this brought us to Morehead City and the town of Beaufort.  These two towns face each other across the ICW and have distinctly different personalities.  Both are popular stopping off points for cruisers but power boats tend to go to Morehead City and sailors seem to favor Beaufort.  We favored neither and passed them both.  Once we got past the highway and railroad bridges connecting the two towns we continued on for a while before realizing we had missed our turn and were headed out to the Atlantic Ocean.  Oops!  The chart at left shows our track as we turned around and headed back to Morehead City.  This part of the coast has barrier islands and the ICW runs behind them staying well protected from the ocean.  It's still influenced by the ocean tides though and the current is constantly an issue here, either with you or against you.  Running with it we made as much as 8.5 knots but against it we slowed to sometimes less than 4.  Because of this and the nice sea breeze we brought out the sails again and motor sailed to keep our speed up above 6 knots the entire way. Being able to sail through here kept the day interesting because the view doesn't change all that much throughout this region.  As wide as this waterway is through here it's mostly shallow water and the ICW has sand bars on either side of it.  At low tide the water drops 4' to 5' and I quickly learned to drive with the depth gauge as my primary instrument.  I found I could slowly work my way over to the side until I saw the depth go from 8' to 7' to 6'.  We draw 5' so I'd then veer back towards the deeper water to stay in the channel.  This method made it easy to pass oncoming boats as this was a busier part of the ICW.  Up until today we had for the most part been the only boat on the water.  We marked our progress by the bridges that connected the mainland to the beaches.  This was also where we saw our first problems with shoaling where the rushing tidewaters filled the channel with sand in many places.

Around 1630 we tried anchoring between two large dunes in about 9' of water.  Seemed like a perfect location with dolphins all around and a nice view of the barrier island but as the tide changed we found ourselves in the middle of a ripping current.  We quickly pulled up the anchor and moved on.  Several miles further on we came to the town of Swansboro (mile 228.0) where we anchored just off the town dock with two other boats.  The pictures at left show our first anchorage between the dunes and our second choice in the creek off Swansboro.  This was a nice location and the tidal changes kept us swinging in tight circles all night.  I woke up at 0300, shortly after the tide had changed, and went up on deck to check things out.  While I sat there for 20 minutes I watched the current pick up and slowly bring the boat through a 180 degree turn.  The only real drawback about Swansboro was the bar at the end of the bridge that had a live band cranking out tunes until early morning hours.  It's fine when you're in there with a cold beer in your hand and your lovely wife on the bar stool beside you but not when you're at anchor trying to get some sleep.  Party on Garth.

4/18/15 - We departed Swansboro anchorage and continued south under power  with overcast skies and light rain.  We have a full enclosure on our cockpit which keeps us out of the wind and rain but the Eisenglass windows at the front don't have windshield wipers and it makes it difficult to see where you're going.  Every now and then I'd ask Cheri to wipe them down.  We kept this day's run short and stopped at Mile Hammock Bay (mile 244.4), a large basin at Camp Lejeune Marine Corp base.  When we arrived there was just one other boat at anchor but towards 1700 it quickly filled with northbound cruisers.  The next morning it just as quickly cleared out but because of the continuing rain we decided to stay another day.  We spent our time working on our 3D puzzle of St. Basils Cathedral, playing Carcasonne ( a great game we had picked up for this voyage) and relaxing with Bloody Marys and cigars.  Also took the time to service the genset, changed the oil and filter.  It was nice to just sit back and do pretty much nothing for a day.

4/20/15 - We woke up to a beautiful, clear day.  Got underway late, around 1100, because our next anchorage was only 39 miles away and we figured we could be there by 1700.  This next stretch of the ICW was through a more populated area with McMansions built along the edge of the waterway.  Since this area is a beach resort we also saw some interesting vacation homes with lotsa pinks and blues and turquoises.  We also experienced 6' tidal changes and some serious shoaling.  In some parts the channel was shifted over considerably to one side with only room for one boat to get through at a time.  Temporary channel markers were in place to help show the way.  When we arrived at our anchorage (Motts Channel, mile 283.4, chart at left) we found it to be in the middle of a village.  Restaurants were built right along the ICW and we felt like we were on display as we cruised through.  Of course it was in front of all these observers that I missed my turn for the anchorage.  I doubled back and eased into the cut that would take us back behind the barrier island.  The guide book and the charts all showed this entire area to have 15' depths so I proceeded without fear.  We immediately ran hard aground in the middle of the channel.  Everyone watched as we tried to get free.  A tow service came out thinking they had some easy money but it was just then that we broke free and backed our way out to the ICW.  OK, plan B.  The next anchorage was another 12 miles further south, at least two more hours, which would get us there after dark.  We pushed on regardless.  As the sun got lower in the sky the wind began to pick up and by the time we got to Carolina Beach it was blowing 20 knots.  Carolina Beach (mile 295.1) has several anchorages in deep water (30') right in the center of town.  We chose an area between two islands and a mooring field.  The tide was running strong and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction.  The boat wanted to lay at 90 degrees to both and we had a hard time setting the anchor.  Because I felt uncomfortable with it I went up on deck throughout the night and tried to verify our location using the lights from buildings on shore.  Seemed OK.  When we got up in the morning we found the anchor had dragged about 100 yards.  Yikes!  Luckily there were no other boats around and we were still in deep water.  We also found a duck sleeping on the bowsprit, apparently exhausted from standing the anchor watch all night.

So this had been an "Oops" day.  Better charts might have made a difference at Motts Channel but with all the shoaling we saw along the way I doubt we would have had any better luck.  Our anchoring at Carolina Beach was another matter, something to learn from.  We have a new anchor, a Rocna 33, that has a world-wide reputation for holding under any condition.  I had become comfortable with this notion and paid the price here.  From this point on we made absolutely sure the anchor was set by backing down hard in any condition until we really felt the anchor bite in.  In fact at one anchorage in a South Carolina salt marsh it bit in so well the boat came to a screeching halt as though we had slammed on the brakes in a car.  Almost threw me overboard.  Didn't have to worry about dragging the anchor that night!

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) - Part 2

4/13/15 - The pictures to the left show the sunrise from this morning and the totally unpopulated shoreline where we anchored.  We departed Southshore Landing (mile 81.9) anchorage on the Little Alligator River and continued South under power.  The channel taking us back out to the Alligator River is about 7' deep, narrow and surrounded by knee deep water.  It winds around for about 4 miles, doubling back on itself so you pass within a hundred feet of where you were twenty minutes ago.  By this time I had realized that my electronic charts were really meant for bigger water and the coverage on the ICW was often offset to one side (sometimes showing us on dry land!) and depth information was mostly non-existant.  I had gotten pretty good at glancing at the chart, reading the surface of the water and paying close attention to the depth gauge.  It's a wonder that by the end of this trip we had only run aground three times.

Once we got back out to the big river we passed through the Alligator River swing bridge.  This was the first bridge we encountered that didn't have any kind of schedule for opening.  The two bridges on the Dismal Swamp Canal had a relaxed schedule but they were on small roads and were a simple operation.  This was on a major road, maybe the only road in the area, and it's a large bridge.  We hailed the bridge tender and he let us know that by the time we got close enough he'd have it open for us.  They man this bridge 24/7 and open on demand.  This was a real indication of how far out in the sticks we were.  As it turned out, many of the bridges for the rest of our trip were either a fixed span (65') or opened on a schedule every hour or half hour except during morning and evening rush hours.

At the southernmost end of the river we entered the Alligator River / Pungo River Canal.  This is a 21 mile long cut between the two rivers and it's wide, deep and straight as an arrow.  About the first 2/3 of it is all Cyprus swamp.  We saw only two other boats the whole time we were on the canal.  Around 1530 we came to the Pungo River.  I had chosen an anchorage that was just off to the right but when we turned into it we found it poorly protected from the strong SE wind that was blowing across the river.  We decided instead to try another anchorage a little further south on Scranton Creek (mile 129.5).  This was indeed just a creek with a narrow channel that wound it's way back into a salt marsh (?) with tall trees on the higher ground providing good protection.  At first we were a little concerned because there was just enough room to make a tight turn in the creek but the depth was 15' with good holding for the anchor.  We settled in for the night with the wind howling above the mast but having no effect on us down at the surface.  Beautiful anchorage.

4/14/15 - It's now been nine days since we started on our trip.  It was time to restock on groceries, top off the fuel tank and pump out our holding tank.  It was time for a visit to a marina.  Our guide book mentioned several in the area and we opted for one right across the river from Scranton Creek, Dowry Creek Marina.  It took us about 45 minuted to get there and get tied up.  It looked like a nice place but we quickly found out it was owned by a couple and they'd apparently grown tired of it and were anxious to sell.  There was no pump-out service available although it was advertised.  They claimed they were concerned about their lines freezing and wouldn't get it operational until May 1st.  What?  Our marina back in Maryland had their systems up and running by the end of March.  I suspect the owner was just too lazy to get it running until he had a little more business to make it worth his while.  They also advertised a loaner car to use for running into town, just a few miles down the road.  The car was a beat up Dodge Durango with power windows that wouldn't roll down, no A/C, no fan and it was only running on five cylinders.  We had to drive into town with the passenger door held open to get some fresh air.  It was a joke but it got us where we needed to go and we restocked our groceries.  When we got back to the marina early that afternoon I had a question for the owners but they were not to be found.  This is a very laid back operation, a little too laid back for us.  When we finally found the owners we settled up our bill and planned to leave early the next day.

4/15/15 - We left early and motor sailed down the Pungo River with 15 knot winds out of the NW.  We crossed the Pamlico River into Goose creek where we furled the sails and entered another canal which brought us out onto Bay River.  Here we found the wind had picked up to 20 knots NE and it continued to build as we entered Pamlico Sound and the Neuse river.  Seas were pretty rough with short period waves at about 4' but the wind was blowing with us after we turned into the Neuse.  We ran down a short way and turned into Broad Creek.  Here we found good protection from the wind and we meandered our way back to River Dunes Marina.  This place is pretty amazing.  The entire peninsula had previously been owned by Weyerhaeuser Corporation where they harvested the trees.  The new owners dug out a 23 acre, 15' deep marina and opened it out to Broad Creek.  They also began building a town and selling lots for high-end homes, all built with a late 1800's theme.  The marina is top-drawer but their rates are competitive with everyone else, even Dowry Creek.  We stayed two nights and spent time riding bicycles around looking at the homes and dreaming up ways to buy some land.  We used the loaner car, a brand new van with everything working properly, and drove about 8 miles into the nearest town, Oriental.  This town is a major stop-off for cruisers on the ICW and has many nice shops and good places to eat.  We enjoyed a great dinner at the Toucan Grill down on Raccoon Creek.  We had a great time at River Dunes and Oriental.  The top two pictures here show one of the cool-man homes and the marina.  The building with the red roof is the marina office.  How cool is that?

Heading South on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) - Part 1

Easter Sunday April 5, 2015 - We departed Herrington Harbour North on the Chesapeake Bay at 1430 and motored over to HH South for fuel. Finally headed out into the Bay at 1530. We deliberately chose this late day start because we had a long overnight run down to Hampton, Virginia and wanted to arrive in morning light to make maneuvering and anchoring easier. The entire trip down, the wind stayed out of the south at 15 to 20 knots, right on our nose, so we motored the entire way. Averaged 6 to 7 knots. After 19 hours we decided to pull into Mobjack Bay and get some sleep. Motored into Ware River and anchored behind Windmill point. Quiet, peaceful spot. We liked it so much we stayed an extra day. Mobjack Bay is really quite beautiful with blue salt water from the ocean and sandy beaches. There are some houses along the shore but they're spread out and you get a more secluded feeling than what we're used to further up the Chesapeake.

4/8/15 - In heavy haze weighed anchor and motored out into Mobjack Bay. Haze turned into heavy fog with 100' visibility. Ran with radar and AIS. As we got out into the Chesapeake visibility reduced to 50' to 75'. This was my first experience with sailing in fog and it had my nerves on edge the entire time. If we didn't have the radar I would have gone back and anchored for another day. We ran under power for 32 miles like this but as we came into Hampton Roads the fog lifted.

This is a heavily industrialized area with large ships and constant tug and barge traffic. There's plenty of room and deep water but having good visibility really adds to the feeing of security.

We turned into the Elizabeth River and anchored at Hospital Point, a wide spot in the river with the Navy hospital on the near shore and downtown Norfolk across the water. At night the lights from downtown Norfolk lit up the sky. Not a very pretty skyline but it had plenty of color. In the chart to the left you can see where we anchored (blue arrow) just off the main shipping channel. Not an ideal anchorage but it's a good "in between" location with about a days run to our next stop.  Hospital Point is considered mile 0.0 on the ICW.

4/9/15 - Departed Hospital Point anchorage, overcast with temperatures in the mid 60's. Today we had a gauntlet of bridges to run, something like six in just a few miles. The first was a railroad lift bridge for the "Old Virginia" RR and our guide book had it listed as being usually open. As we came around a bend in the river we found it closed for maintenance. We had about a twenty minute wait so we pulled over to the side to stay out of the way of the tugs that were circling around, waiting to go through too. When the bridge finally opened the tugs all rushed through. I hit the throttle and discovered a strong vibration at the helm. We could hear something whacking the hull and our top speed was about 2.5 knots. We crept through the bridge and stopped just beyond. I was pretty sure we had wrapped some rope around the prop and pictured myself jumping into 48 degree water (filthy 48 degree water) to clear it. I tried revving the engine in forward and reverse and it seemed to make things a little better. After doing that three more times the prop cleared and we were on our way. We were really fortunate there.

After we passed through the final bridge we continued on for a while before realizing we had missed our turn into the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. Bummer. A quick turn and retracing our path brought us back to the final bridge. The turn-off was just beyond the bridge and we missed it because Bella had freaked out from the traffic noise going under the bridge.

The canal is narrow and overgrown on both sides with vine-entangled trees and overhanging branches. The water is the color of root-beer, caused by the tannin in the Cyprus trees. This dark brown water eventually created a brown "mustache" stain at the bow of our boat. Speed is restricted to 5 knots to keep the wakes to a minimum and prevent erosion. This canal was originally started as a way to bring harvested trees in from the Dismal Swamp. A company was formed in the 1700's by George Washington and a short stretch of the canal was begun. It was added onto over the years. What's truly amazing is that this canal was all dug by hand using slave labor 200 years ago and it's still in use today.

At mile 10.6 we came to the first lock (of two), Deep Creek Lock. This provides about an 8' rise up to the Dismal Swamp. It also provided us with our first experience in a lock. It was pretty laid back. The lock tender opens the doors to the lock and you slowly bring your boat in. We tied up along our starboard side. The doors close behind you and the water slowly rises inside the lock. You have to keep adjusting the lines and keep the boat from scraping up against the sides. Once the water level is up the doors at the other end open and you continue on your way. Each lock in the Dismal Swamp has a bridge after it which is also manned by the lock operator. By the time we got to the bridge he was stopping traffic and opening the bridge.

Cruising down the Dismal Swamp Canal is pretty mellow with its slow pace and peaceful surroundings. Highway 17 runs along one side in some areas but it's not very distracting. Our goal was the Welcome Center at mile 27.8.

About a mile before we got there we came across a barge used by the Army Corp of Engineers. The barge dwarfed the canal and took up about half its width. With our 15' beam we had to get over close to shore. As we came closer to the barge we caught a tree branch in our lower spreader on the port side. The branch was fairly rotten and it exploded all over the boat. We were covered in mistletoe, leaves and pieces of the branch. We looked like we were camouflaged for jungle warfare. Worse yet, there was still about 15' of branch still hanging on at the first spreader, about 20' off the deck. As we drifted past the barge we collided with another branch from another tree and added to the debris. A quick visual inspection showed everything was still intact (except the branch) so we continued on.

When we pulled over into the visitor center there were already two other sailboats tied up to the wharf with just enough room for us to pull in at the end. As soon as we tied up several folks came over offering help. One older guy suggested tying a crescent wrench to a string and heaving it over the brach still hanging from our rigging. We tried this once and decided it was too dangerous. Another gentleman suggested pulling a spare halyard back over the branch and using that to knock it loose. We tried that and it was effective in knocking one part of the branch down but we still had the larger part of it snugly wedged into the port side shrouds. In the end, a younger dude offered to go up in the bosons chair, tie the branch to a halyard and safely lower it down. This worked and once we cleared all the debris you'd never know we had been playing lumberjack.

The visitor center turned out to be a rest stop for Rte 17 in combination with a North Carolina state park with a museum, campgrounds, kayaks and canoes. We decided to stay for two nights so we could have a full day to hike some trails and check out the museum. The museum was interesting with a good explanation of the history of the canal. Plus it was air conditioned. One trail we walked on was a raised Boardwalk through part of the swamp. Very nice. The second trail we tried wandered along the canal for miles and included an example of a whiskey still, something that was common to the area. While we were contemplating how to add a still to our boat we discovered we were being taken over by ticks. I removed six in about two minutes and Cheri had at least three on her. That was pretty much the end of our hiking for that day. We hustled back to the museum bathrooms and stripped down searching for more ticks. Once we passed inspection we returned to the boat.

The next day (4/11) we cast off around 0930 and continued on our way. The next stop was the South Mills bridge and lock. We had to wait about a half hour for the bridge because several boats were headed north through the lock and things had to be coordinated with them.

Once we got to the lock it lowered us 8' and we found ourselves in Turners Cut and eventually the headwaters of the Pasquotank River. Here we found the route to be wider and the forest at the sides to be much cleaner with less undergrowth and it held our first examples of Cyprus trees. The Dismal Swamp Canal was interesting because of its history but it was straight and narrow and obviously man-made. Once we got out on the river our route meandered through natural forests and the experience was more of being out in un-molested Nature.

We had planned to anchor out behind Goat Island but when we got there we still had plenty of daylight so we decided to continue on to Elizabeth City, NC (mile 51.3). This is a popular stop-off on the ICW and has lots of small shops and good places to eat. Unfortunately for us, once we got through the Elizabeth City Bridge (twin bascule) we found a brisk 15 knot wind blowing straight up the river into the docks. We made several attempts to pull in but the wind and waves made it hazardous so we pulled out and continued down the river. We were now pressed for time and the only other anchorage in the area was a poor choice due to the wind. We decided to try across the river in an undeveloped cove with hopes the trees along the shore would give us some protection. As we got about half way there we were pulled over by a Coast Guard patrol boat for a safety inspection. They boarded us while we were still underway and gave us a complete inspection, including the bilges, sea cocks, paperwork, fire extinguishers and more. In the end we passed with flying colors and received a gold certificate to show we were 100% in compliance. After they departed we continued on to our anchorage behind Anson Point where we spent a somewhat rocky night but in complete safety and comfort. In the chart to the left our anchorage is shown by a blue arrow.

On 4/12 we got underway around 0900 and motored out the Pasquotank River where we saw a dirigible hangar at what turned out to be the only dirigible manufacturing facility in the USA.  Go figure.  We continued from there into the Albemarle Sound. This is a wide crossing that can be rough with a brisk wind but we lucked out with about 10 knots out of the NE. We brought out the main and Genoa and enjoyed a good three hour sail into the Alligator River. As we came into the mouth of the river we furled the sails and continued under power which would prove to be the norm for the rest of our voyage. Once past the narrow entrance into the river we turned W into the Little Alligator River and followed a circuitous channel into a nice, well protected anchorage at Southshore Landing. The chart to the left shows part of the Albemarle Sound at the top, the Alligator River in the lower right and the Little Alligator River and our anchorage (blue dot) in the lower left.  This was a nice undeveloped spot with the only sign of humans being an abandoned barge on the shore, apparently used as a hunting lodge or something.