Swan Point to Southport, NC

Day #418; Loop Miles to Date = 4,710

We arose before dawn on Monday, which has its upsides and downsides...the downside is that it is EARLY...the upside is you get to see the sun rise!

We needed to leave on the hour (which in this case was 7am) in order to time a bridge opening at 9am. This particular bridge only opens on the hour, so missing it by a couple of minutes would mean waiting for an hour for the next opening. We arrived about 10 minutes early, so it all worked just fine. We had a rather long travel day...64 miles...which had a couple of bridges, some current, some shoals to deal with, and temporary channel markers in new places due to Hurricane Matthew. Basically, it meant that we had to pay attention, and not blindly follow the chart plotter. In the end, it was a rather uneventful day and we arrived in Southport around 2:30pm.

The Theresa Marie...one of many fishing trawlers we see in this stretch of the ICW.

So, today is Wednesday, and tonight will be our 3rd night here in Southport. It's a nice little town and a great marina. There is also a great boatyard here (Zimmerman's Marine) that we needed to take advantage of. About 3 weeks ago, we discovered a small leak in our exhaust system between the engine and the muffler. In simple terms, this meant that we had a small amount of cooling water and exhaust gases leaking from a joint where it wasn't supposed to be leaking. We put a temporary patch in place, which served us well for the last couple of weeks, but knew that we wanted to discover the root cause of the leak, and get it repaired. Which is precisely what we have been able to accomplish while here in Southport. As we pen this entry, the mechanic is down in the engine room putting pieces back together, and in a few minutes we will sea trial it to ensure that everything is back to being perfect.

Tomorrow morning we will be off again further south...our destination being Osprey Marina in the Myrtle Beach area. We haven't been able to make fixed longer term plans, because we frankly didn't know how long we would be held up with this repair. But, now that we are on the move tomorrow, we can start to put the next couple of weeks itinerary together and know better where we will land for Christmas.

All for now...thanks for reading.

New Bern to Beaufort, NC to Sneads Ferry, NC (Swan Point Marina)

Day #415; Loop Miles to Date = 4,648

We really enjoyed our time in New Bern, and would definitely recommend this side trip to all. There were many good restaurants, lots of nice shops, a great marina, easy dog walking, etc. And it snowed! Well...sort of...we managed to be there when they had a downtown Christmas parade, tree lighting, and Santa visit. They had a couple of snow machines running in the square where the Christmas Village was located, and there were scads of families and tons of kids. It was a bunch of fun!

This pharmacy in New Bern is the birthplace of Pepsi...we stopped in just to have a token Diet Pepsi...although we really don't care for it...we're Coke lovers actually.

The Christmas Village during the day...

A minion in the parade...can't remember if this is Doug or Bob??

The village at night...packed with families!

 

As much as we enjoyed New Bern, it was time to keep heading south. Our travel day wasn't very pretty...early fog turned into drizzle, and it stayed wet and gray for the whole day. But it was uneventful, and we arrived in Beaufort, NC (pronounced BO-fort) in time to see the town for the afternoon. It was a touristy small downtown area, and frankly, we were glad that we hadn't planned to spend more than just one night here...there just wasn't that much to hold our interest. But a nice stop none the less.

 

Our friends on Corkscrew on this gray, drizzly day.

 

Our next real stop is Southport, NC, but it was too far to go in one day, so we are camped out in a small marina just off the ICW in Sneads Ferry, NC. It isn't much of a marina (kind of a dump actually) but a safe, secure spot for the night. We'll be off early in the morning, with a rather long travel day tomorrow, but we should arrive in Southport by mid-afternoon.

 

This doesn't look too great for the owner of this boat...we're guessing that this is leftover damage from Hurricane Matthew.

Our friends on Corkscrew again...obviously a much nicer travel day!

 All for now...further south we go...

 



River Dunes to New Bern, NC

Day #409; Loop Miles to Date = 4,557

On Saturday, we left River Dunes and headed for New Bern Grand Marina in New Bern, NC. River Dunes was very nice, if you like a resort type of marina atmosphere. It was quiet there, but there were plenty of resident boats, and we expect that it is busy when the weather is warmer. It reminded us some of the Herrington Harbor Marinas that we stayed at this summer, and we're glad we stopped, But, there wasn't a town right there, and it would take some work to get provisions, etc.

New Bern is a bit off of the ICW...20 or so miles actually. But it is a great marina and cruisers stop. The downtown area is very nice, and right here at the marina. The marina is big, and has a higher than average population of folks who live on their boats. Within a few hours of being here, we had already met some folks who we had crossed paths with before, met some friends of friends, and recognized another handful of boats from elsewhere in our travels. And there are dogs everywhere...the boat next door has 4 dogs on board, and not small ones...and we thought we had our hands full with 2! Additionally, this is the location for the AGLCA Rendezvous next Spring that we plan to attend. So, we're getting the lay of the land, and it will all be very familiar to us when we return next April. The other bonus is that we are back in fresh water here, so our engine and generator certainly appreciate the break from the salt.

We're glad that we beat the weather here as we planned to. On Saturday night a front blew through providing us with some 30 mph wind gusts - and temperatures fell from the 70's to the 30's in 2 days. It's warming back up a tad, but we still plan to keep heading south shortly. We'll be here for at least a week though...and we are happy that our friends on Corkscrew are with us. We have reservations to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together at one of the local eateries, and look forward to a major turkey pig-out!

If we don't happen to post again in the next few days...please accept our wishes for a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for each day that we are on this wonderful journey...it is nice to pause and reflect once in a while on just how lucky we are!

All for now...stay tuned...

Ocracoke to Oriental, NC (River Dunes)

Day # 406; Loop Miles to Date = 4,520

We had a great time on Ocracoke Island. It is part of the southern portion of the Outer Banks, and only accessible by boat or ferry. Ferries come in at all hours from 3 different directions, transporting folks to and from the mainland for work, etc. We obviously were here in non-peak season, and it was delightfully quiet. It is easy to imagine that it gets quite popular during the summer. The island survived Hurricane Matthew with little major damage, although there were definitely signs that a lot of storm debris was still in the process of being cleaned up.

This trip to Ocracoke (and Manteo as well) are not typically on the itinerary for folks on the Loop. But…for those of you out there who might be planning to loop…take a hard look at finding a way to make this side trip if weather allows. Both of these stops were fun, relaxing, beautiful, and well worth the effort.

Today (Friday) we are making our way back across Pamlico Sound to Oriental, NC. The weather has cooperated again, and we are enjoying another beautiful day on the water. Once close to Oriental, we will once again re-join the ICW, which we will then continue to follow south as we continue our trek.

One of the highlights for the past few days was the afternoon that we spent on the gorgeous, isolated beach on Ocracoke. It was a tad breezy and chilly, but it was glorious to walk this awesome piece of creation for a couple of hours. The only downside was that the marina courtesy car stopped dead as we were headed back to the marina…leaving us with visions of hiking 3 miles back to our boat on a dark 2-lane road in cool windy conditions! Not to fear though…Bill, the terrific dockmaster at Anchorage Marina came out and picked us up in his truck, determined to not let this spoil our day.

So we leave you with a few pics from our afternoon on the beach…

Manteo to Ocracoke, NC (Anchorage Marina)

Day #404; Loop Miles to Date = 4,480 

We had a great day in Manteo yesterday, renting a car and touring around this section of the Outer Banks with our friends on Corkscrew. Just north of the marina in Manteo is a National Park Service run facility that focuses on the Lost Colony. This is the group of early settlers (1580 time frame) who came over from England as one of the colonization efforts that was sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh. The short version of the story is that after settling here, and being left behind by their leader and captain (who returned to England with plans to return with supplies and provisions) this group of 117 souls completely vanished. The leader of the colony (James White) took 3 years to return due to political difficulties, and when he finally returned to the settlement it had virtually disappeared. There is no factual explanation for what happened to this poor group of settlers, but theories center around them assimilating into local Indian culture, or simply dying off while trying to relocate the settlement, or somehow succumbing to disease. Regardless, there is still no real factual account that historians can pinpoint, and it made for a very interesting educational experience. 

Then we headed to Kitty Hawk (Kill Devil Hills more specifically) to tour the Wright Brothers National Park area. This was also a great learning experience, and it dovetailed nicely with the experience that we had in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian when we saw the Wright Brothers display there. It was a beautiful day to be out walking around, and we’re glad that we took the time to see the actual site of man’s first powered flight.  

 

This marker denotes the spot where the Wright Brothers first flight commenced. The first attempt went as far as the first white marker, the second and third went just past this to the next 2 markers, and the fourth flight went to the marker off in the distance. To give a sense of perspective the first marker is only about 120 feet, or about as far as a baseball catcher throws to second base...and it took 12 seconds! The fourth marker is 852 feet, a little less then 3 football fields, and it took 59 seconds.

Bronze full sized replica of their plane.

 

Our next stop is Ocracoke, NC still on the Outer Banks, but down on the southern end of them. We’re actually penning this entry while in transit…it is a rather long 67 mile day today. The really good news is that we have a glorious day to cross the often treacherous Pamlico Sound. This is a big open body of water, and if the wind is up, it can be nasty. However, today the winds are calm, and it is as flat as a pancake out here…of the 67 miles, about 50 of it is simply open water. As we speak, we can see Corkscrew a couple of miles away, but not another vessel or any sign of land in any direction. A really good day to make sure we have calm conditions!

 

Replica of the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse at Manteo...representative of the screwpile lighthouses, circa 1830.

At sunrise before our departure to Ocracoke.

All for now…we’ll let you know what we thought of Ocracoke…we plan to be there for a couple of days, and then grab another weather window to make our way back to the ICW.

 

Coinjock to Manteo, NC

Day #402; Loop Miles to Date = 4,413

Just a quick update...no pics...

Yesterday we ventured another 43 miles south to Manteo, NC. This trip is one of those times when you have to grab a weather window that you like, because the Albemarle Sound can turn into a nasty body of water quickly, and it requires about a 20 mile crossing over open water. We had been watching the winds for a few days, and the forecasts held for us to have a decent day to sneak across here. It was off and on rainy most of the way, but the winds were below 15 mph, and actually below 10 for most of the day. So, the seas were very manageable, and while gray and wet, it was a nice travel day.

This trip off of the ICW allows us access to the Outer Banks, so today (Tuesday) we'll rent a car and do some driving around...hopefully we'll remember to take some pictures so we have something to share next post. While travelling yesterday we were glad that we had chosen this side trip, as there was a traffic jam of sorts on the ICW near the entrance to the Alligator River...our other option to head south. There is some pretty significant shoaling in this area, and evidently a sailboat had run hard aground. We listened to the whole mess unfold over the VHF. There were 2 boats who stopped to try to assist the sailboat, and by the time they got the sailboat free, one of THEM had managed to run hard aground! It must have been a real mess down there. Both Boat US and the Coast Guard were involved by radio, but in the end, everyone got untangled without any major damage or issue. The whole ordeal took 2 hours or more - we were just glad that we weren't snarled up in it!

Manteo looks to be a great little town...it is obvious that there is a strong summer tourist presence, as it just has that '"look and feel". But the marina is great, there are some cute shops, a handful of restaurants, and most importantly at least 3 different places to buy ice cream...surely one of these will be open later when we have the thirst!

So off to do some exploring...hope you all have a great day!

Hampton to Top Rack (Chesapeake, VA) to Coinjock, NC

Day #401; Loop Miles to Date = 4,370

Well...we finally left Hampton! After about a month there, it was definitely time for us to move on. The weather is getting colder, the leaves starting to change, and we need a dose of warm!

We departed Hampton on Saturday, with only about 25 miles to go to get to Top Rack. On the way down, we passed by the Navy shipyards again, and as well, Waterside Marina...our home for where we weathered Hurricane Matthew.

This particular set of cranes is larger than you can imagine...it reminded us of something that came out of a Star Wars movie.

A shot of Waterside Marina from the waterway...we didn't stop to say hello this time...

It was a gorgeous day on the water...no wind, bright skies, and enough commercial traffic to keep us entertained...tugs and container ships and barges, and more. The highlight of our short time at Top Rack was a delightful meal at the restaurant there, joined by our friends Bill and Ardis, along with our buddies on Corkscrew. This morning we had a bit of a surprise when we got up...something that we hadn't seen in ages...frost!

Frost on the dock lines!

So...southward we go...and today we covered another 40 or so miles to get to Coinjock, NC. Again it was a beautiful day...it really couldn't have been much prettier. A lock and a few bridges to contend with, but very little traffic overall. For now we are tucked in tight here, with plans to head for Manteo, NC tomorrow morning. We hope that the wind will cooperate, as we have the Albemarle Sound to deal with, and we are hoping that conditions will let us get to Manteo so we can spend a few days on the Outer Banks.

All for now...and now that we are moving again, the blog will hopefully get a bit more attention...'til next time...