Dewees Creek

27 Sep 2019

Making our way down from Georgetown we encountered some of the skinniest water we've seen. Like floating docks floating on mud skinny. 

Like ships that were completely aground skinny (where is the keel?).

A dredge was working part of the area. We ever so slowly crept around the dredge and barges, reading nothing on the depth gage more than once. We were probably technically aground, but just oozed our way through.

We spent the night anchored in the same spot just north of Charleston.

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Lockwood's Folly, N Myrtle Beach, Georgetown

25 - 26 Sep 2019

So we made our way south from Southport, arriving at the other end of Oak Island at the aptly named Lockwood's Folley. We encountered a situation where the channel markers on the chart were different from what was actually before us. When we have encountered this before we try to follow the actual channel markers unless the chart and/or our eyes are strongly recommending another path. Okay so far, but it is almost low tide, and appears that Dorian and such have perhaps done some recent remodeling not accounted for by some or most of our guides. At which point we run aground in the sand. We had slowed down a lot by then, so really just a couple bumps, but we clearly weren't going anywhere until we had some more water.

Now we had more time to discuss our options! We were at most barely off the line indicated by the green channel marker. The chart showed that one of the least objectionable paths lay just to the right of the marker, so when passing boats threw us a wake I tried to use them to bump our way in our intended direction, which worked maybe half the time. It felt weird wanting boats to wake us as they passed. At least we had a nice view.

After maybe an hour we had plowed maybe a dozen yards to the correct side of the marker, but we were still aground. There may have not been any good options at low tide. It took another half hour of the tide rising to finally get us going. This would prove to be an important experience over the next few days. This was the longest we had been aground since the disastrous Sarasota episode a couple years ago.

Once free of the sand we continued down to Myrtle Beach. We planned on going across the ditch to some highly rated restaurant, but when we got to the top of the stairs we just stopped at the marina restaurant, which turned out to have good food and drinks. Mine came in a little bucket advertising some sort of rum.

The next morning we continued down to Georgetown, which we had skipped on the way up. It was a cute little town that was obviously trying real hard. As we were leaving the boat we saw this just off the dock. We're still not certain, but it appeared to be an alligator that had gotten tangled up in a trash bag. It was gone when we got back.

At dinner Heather finally cracked the code on what vegetable means in the south. It means not meat.

It looked like a paper plant was off in the distance, giving Georgetown yet another similarity with Brunswick.

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Surf City, Southport

23 - 24 Sep 2019

South from Beaufort the sound is wide, but the channel deep enough for us is pretty narrow. We quickly were confronted with this guy. Note the red channel marker in the background for reference. He had both nets out and was blocking most of the channel.

We made it past the fishermen and then were confronted with something more unusual. I don't specifically remember these on the way up. People had them as decorations in their yards along the waterway. At least I can tell that the second one is a giraffe. I'm not quite sure what the hell the first one is. Maybe the witch from The Little Mermaid?

Since we had learned to call and reserve a slip before the day we needed it they had room for us this time in Surf City, so we didn't have to anchor off of Camp Lejeune again. Surf City was an awesomely walkable little beach town, with many restaurants, a liquor store, and even a small grocery all within a short stroll. The light on the water in the picture below almost makes it look like a sandy beach.

The next day we made our way down to Southport. We have tried to get much more specific on the radio and phone on what we will be dealing with when we dock, and now we have a fairly detailed list of questions. What we hadn't accounted for was young folks who had never docked an expensive boat between even more expensive boats answering the questions, perhaps without even realizing they were making assumptions that made little sense. Here Heather earned here docking t-shirt. I'm sure she didn't expand the young dockhand's vocabulary, but it was entertaining, at least afterwards. Now our list is even more specific. The learning continues.

We had dinner at another Provisioning Company, this one strictly a restaurant on the other side of the marsh, a short, pleasant walk away. It is one of those seafood shack type places that is friendly enough but expends most of their effort on the food rather than the service or decor, which is just fine by us. For once I had fish, which was very good, while Heather continued with her shrimp streak. I think she may finally be reaching the limits of her seafood desires. The sunset while we ate was particularly colorful.

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Oriental, Beaufort

20 - 22 Sep 2019

The weather had broken by the time we left Belhaven and we had a very pleasant day making our way down to the sleepy little town of Oriental. We docked in the very same place. This being our second time we did a much better job with those aft spring lines. After settling in I headed back over to the Provision Company where I had found the used shower hoses earlier in the year. They had really scrubbed and organized their used parts inventory. I found a $5 used pulley to help with the dinghy handling and a nice swiveling attachment for the galley faucet that allowed us to to squirt the entire base of both sinks. What luxury!

They also had a t-shirt which Heather seemed to think was for me. A few days later she admitted she might need one, too. If they have t-shirts for it , then it can't just be us.

On our walk to the M&M Cafe for  dinner we saw that some of the precautions for Dorian had not yet been been unwound. Oriental around the waterfront is at most inches higher than Elizabeth City.

In the morning I went across the street to the cute little coffee shop for some hi-test caffeine and fresh pastries. That and a bag of ice and we were ready to depart for Beaufort. When approaching Beaufort the waterways got very crowded. One boat was anchored directly under one of the bridges. Since Heather couldn't believe that anyone would be stupid enough to block the main channel so they could fish, she assumed that the adjacent span was correct. Fortunately there was enough water over there to avoid drama, but the buzzing of many boats continued all the way to the dock. On the other hand, I am always willing to believe that people could be that stupid.

After we had settled in at the Beaufort city marina I availed myself of the land based high flow toilets. After a few moments I felt I was being watched. Some movement caught my eye. Along the base of the shower was this little guy, maybe a couple inches across. Not the sort of thing you see in Arizona, although I guess the scorpions come close. Later we had a late lunch, early dinner (properly referred to as linner) at what is apparently the oldest continuous business in Beaufort. The Royal James Cafe is some sort of bar, pool hall, music venue with a tiny little grill and deep frier tucked away in the corner. It was a cheap, good meal, and it was fun watching the locals hang out. To all my friends!

Our first choice for dinner was very crowded with a long wait, so we took a flier a walked into the place next door, which had good food and drinks, and really great views. Below are some of the bigger boats docked down the way from us. Boats this big are typically coming in for the night for fuel then making their way outside on the ocean. We'll try and do more of that next time, especially on our way up when we're headed the same direction as the gulfstream.

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Alligator River, Belhaven

17 - 19 Sep 2019

After two nights in Elizabeth City we were ready to move on, but the weather hadn't quite. We went anyway and it was pretty bouncy in the sound, with occasional 4 footers. One of these soaked me with precision, leaving Heather right next to me dry and laughing. When we anchored at the base of the Alligator River we tried to hide from the wind and waves behind a small point but it didn't buy us much. It was a rough night on the Alligator, with only enough cell service for a few texts to randomly squeeze through. To be fair, the wind made the water rough but also kept the bugs away, which had been just apocalyptic on our way up.

This being our first night at an anchorage we kept the electronics on all night and ready to go in case the anchor slipped. This included the VHF radio, which I turned down, but in the middle of the night we could still hear clearly enough. It was an even rougher night for anyone out on the Atlantic side, with the strong north wind piling up big waves on the gulfstream.

Here's one of the things you don't want to hear the Coast Guard say on the radio - well, do you have another life raft? Apparently a boat was taking on so much water they inflated their life raft, but the wind caught it and snatched it away. After I fell asleep Heather continued to listen. Apparently the only local helicopter the Coast Guard could raise in the storm was not equipped for Search and Rescue (with a winch and such). She didn't hear how it ended. Never be in the gulfstream in a wind with any north in it. The picture below of the Alligator was the next morning when it had calmed down some.

It was better once we were in the canal at the base of the Alligator, which in retrospect we should have anchored closer to. Being so narrow it was calm and the wind was welcome until we got to the other side of the canal at the Pungo river, which was wide enough for the wind to make it rougher.

The waves calmed down a little inside the breakwater at Belhaven, then a lot once we approached the dock with the wind blocking by the trees. We had just anchored out here on our way up which was apparently a mistake. This was the friendliest, nicest place ever. Like, Twilight Zone friendly. They had golf carts for dock cars, which we took almost two miles all the way to the grocery store.

We had dinner at the highly recommended art place. Again, suspiciously friendly people all around, including the owner, who came out to talk to us at length, and apologized with a delicious cheesecake desert when something on Heather's order actually turned out to be fine, but not exactly as she had requested. This then prompted a visit from the head chef, an interesting discussion of his background, and how tonight's menu had been arrived at.

Having expended most of our emotional and financial reserves at the art place the night before, the next night we dined at Farm Boys across the street, on picnic tables outside, munching on fairly tasty deep fried bits of something. We managed to get in a couple of loads of laundry at the marina's very nice (and free) laundromat. We seem to be doing more and more laundry as we find ourselves needing fewer and fewer clothes. I've apparently been wearing the same three pairs of shorts since March. I worked a little bit on the taxes. The wifi was so strong that that evening we actually watched a movie on Netflix. Like I said, suspiciously friendly and accommodating. But we'll be back.

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Coinjock, Elizabeth City

12 - 14  Sep 2019

We left Top Rack Marina in the morning, again having been the only boat there for the night. It was a pretty uneventful day getting down to Coinjock, but more weather was on the way, so we planned on staying two nights. We finally had the famous prime rib at the restaurant at the Coinjock marina. This is like Flintstones food! We got three meals for the both of us (or as they say in the South - bofus) out of this one prime rib, using the leftovers in grilled cheeses and omelets.

When the weather briefly broke we scooted down to Elizabeth City. It looked like the weather was going to keep us somewhere for a couple more days and there's not even a rental car place near Coinjock. It was a little bumpy once we were exposed to Albemarle Sound but then we scooted up the Pasquotank river, which became increasingly narrow so the water was calmer as we approached Elizabeth City.

The marina we were headed to in EC was really cheap. I assumed this was partially because the city maintains free docks for the folks passing through the Great Dismal Swamp, which is an alternate ditch route to Norfolk. Maybe that was partially true, but there were other things at work as well. 

We've been to some, shall we say, rustic marinas, but this was right up there. Not all the places we visit off the beaten path are going to be that impressive. This place was very cheap but for good reasons. The fixed wooden docks were ancient and decrepit, in keeping with most of the vessels tied up there. There was all sorts of wildlife on the dock, including some really big spiders, and this colorful little guy below, who's diet I'm hoping consists of said spiders.

The docks themselves were barely above the water line, but nonetheless the ramps to shore actually sloped down. When they talk about water levels rising 6 or 8 inches it doesn't seem like a lot, but it will eventually consume this place and a lot of others like it.

Some work had been done on the marina office and store, but the problem was it too was barely above the water level. We were told there was almost no tide here, and that appeared to be true, but a strong wind in the right direction blows water up the river, sometimes a foot or two, as it obviously had during Dorian. And this place was barely inches above the water in some spots. It was clearly going to eventually have to be torn down and completely redone, or just abandoned. We voted this marina to be most likely to be the actual site of a Scooby Doo mystery. It's only real competition was a marina we had been to on the west coast of Florida years ago. 

Not having a car again we walked to the place adjacent to the marina. A family at the next table said that the winds here during Dorian gusted to over 100 miles an hours, which explained some of the houses across the river without roofs. I'm glad we chickened out and stayed in Solomons for that.

I have discussed before about not swimming in marinas. To this marina's credit it actually had a sign. I'm hoping there is not a sad story behind it. I'm guessing old man Smithers put it up.

That weather did actually hit south of us, so we used the break to scoot up to Richmond to pick up the car. The most direct route had us going through one of the tunnels we had passed over in the boat. It was weird to approach the tunnel station at the end of the long causeway,  nothing but water to either side, and worse, ahead, then just drop down into the tunnel.

This gave us one more chance this year to go to Hot Chick for fried chicken, so we seized the day, or at least the chicken. We shuttled the car down to the Fayetteville airport, then trundled back to EC.

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Chesapeake Boat Basin, Cape Charles, then Norfolk

09 - 11 September 2019

After a solid week in Solomons avoiding Dorian and his friends we were finally ready to head south again. In the interim I had found a little marina for us to try called Chesapeake Boat Basin, up yet another Indian Creek, a couple of creeks down from our crab pot anchorage on the way up the bay. Heather had already had her fill of the local color on Tangier Island.

The marina manager recognized the area codes on our phones, and it turns out he used to live in the still tiny town of Paulden AZ, near Prescott where I grew up. We reminisced about our local US congressman Sam Steiger shooting the deadly mules he said had charged him after he entered their enclosure. Arizona still maintains its fine tradition of interesting political representation. When Paulden became too big (?!) he moved to St. George UT, then had ended up here, near where his wife was from. Small world.

We borrowed the dock car (van) and had dinner at a place in the little town up the road called NN Burger.  It's hard not to like a place that has Rum Runners on tap, and shakes that looked amazing, although I just didn't have the room to try one this time. The fries were this interesting cross between spiral cut potato chips but thicker, but then thinner than even Shake Shack shoestring fries, almost crispy but almost leathery (?) with some sort of sauce drizzled on top. Tastier than my description makes it seem (and franchises available!).

The next day we crossed the bay again to Cape Charles. We were told on the radio our slip number was on  the D dock, but that the docks were marked with semaphore flags. We had to quickly review at least the beginning of the alphabet.

We were tired, Cape Charles was small, and apparently a lot of it was closed on this day, so we had dinner at a little place just right off the docks. We'll explore more next time since this is a pretty convenient spot just north of Norfolk.

On the next day, south towards Norfolk we go, past the last of the lighthouses in the bay. Goodbye Chesapeake - see you next year!

As we were passing through Norfolk one of the ships in dry dock looked pretty impressive.

Railroad bridges were conspiring against us to keep us from getting to our marina before the deli closed. Most of the time this is what stress looks like on a boat (except for docking). Below are three railroad cars that were obviously urgently needed somewhere else.

The next RR bridge was paired with a highway bridge. You can see the containers on the RR cars just below the car bridge deck. Finally the train passed and both bridges opened. After pressing the engine and a hasty docking we got to the Top Rack marina deli just in time for a take out order. Crisis averted.

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