East Coast Travels

10/30 to 11/15 2007

We're working our way south,  currently in the Carolina's. A couple of cold fronts have made believers out of us... time to hustle south.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 01/28/2011

10/30/07 - The Dismal Canal closes at 3pm today due to lack of water. It's 35 degrees out - thought we were south! Speaking of frozen places... how about them Packers? 19-16 in overtime, whew. We headed out at 8am, down the river to the Albemarle Sound and on to the Alligator River. The trio was trucking and we got all the way to the Alligator-Pungo Canal entrance where we anchored for the night. Ruth had bought 3 pumpkins earlier in the week so we had the other 2 crews join us on AA for pumpkin carving. The creations are to the right. 10/31/07 - Dawn revealed a fog bank nestled in the canal. Several early boats entered and quickly turned and exited. We entered about 8:15 using radar. The fog quickly burned off and we were able to run at speed. Miles and Laureen had a couple of bridge tests today. One they cleared by about 6 inches. Bigger is sometimes scarier... but hey, its Halloween. We traveled until 4pm, anchoring in a small cove next to the ICW just north of Bay River. By dusk there were 9 vessels in our little harbor. Ruth put together a little gift of beach glass for each boat, lit our pumpkin and talked me into taking her boat to boat trick or treating. It was a lot of fun and created a lot of laughter. The Dutch boat didn't know Halloween but thought it was good fun. The French Canadians knew the holiday and took photos, asking us to board for a little wine. Alas, we had no time, Ariel was showing horror movies and we had to get back to her. 11/1/07 - Another 8am departure. You have to love the names of these waters. We're at Whittaker Creek just off the Neuse River. The past few days we've traveled on the Pasquotank River, Albemarle Sound, the Alligator River, the Pungo River, the Pamlico River, Goose Creek, Upper Spring Creek, Gale Creek, Bay River and the Neuse River. We were lucky to find slips for tonight and tomorrow as a high and low are forecast to collide over us tonight with winds 40-50 knots. Everyone was on the radio looking for slips... Ruth got on the phone and found Whittaker Creek Yacht Haven who said they'd make room for us - and they did. They told us to tie and fender for a potential 5' wind driven rise in the water. Sounds like fun. We're trying to remember when we were last in a slip with power and water... maybe Tangier Island on the Chesapeake? Anyway we're washing the boat, filling all our tanks and pumping out. Ruth has a laundry going. It's a get things done day as tomorrow is supposed to be wet and windy. Laureen scored some nice sized shrimp in town, inviting everyone over for shrimp on the barbie. We met Bill and John from a neighboring boat and swapped tales over drinks. Bill was telling of a time he lost his boom in heavy winds and I related the afternoon I'd helped another boater salvage his mast and boom in Oriental last year. Bill looked over and said "That's why you look familiar - it was me you helped! I still owe you a beer." Small world! Ruthie found a fire pit and started a campfire. Bob, Paula and I joined her for a couple of hours of fireside chatting. Great way to close an evening. 11/2/07 - So far the weather has not materialized per the earlier forecasts. Hurricane Noel is running up the coast, should pass us around 2am. The current forecast is that we probably won't see winds above 35 knots. The water in the marina has already risen 18" - most locals say that's about all we'll see from this storm. One boat departed, heading for Beaufort, NC on the coast... let's see... hurricane approaching offshore... lets head out and see it. Dumb. Course then again... if you've never seen one... why not? By noon it was pretty gray out. They shut down the power to Ariel's dock due to rising water. Our dock is higher so we still have electricity. We walked into town and bought 3 pounds of shrimp and a pound of scallops. MMMUMM! Seafood for a couple of weeks. We wanted to go to the Tiki bar but there was a foot of water in the street. Walking back to the boat we got sand blasted several times by dirt stirred up by strong gusts. Ruth made the scallops for supper along with kernel corn and rice. EXCELLENT! I don't think I've ever had more flavorful tender scallops. Noel is blowing by tonight, well off shore but still close enough to keep us rocking. The water has quit rising and it looks like our dock will stay dry. We are lucky that we are in the lee of the gas dock so the wind is pushing us off the dock. Neat. 11/3/07 - We headed out a little after 10am - Ariel needed a diver to change out a zinc on the propeller. We left before them as they could easily catch up. It was a short hop to Beaufort, NC (bow-fort), about 24 miles. Enroute we met a towboat in Core Creek. As the down-bound vessel protocol dictated I make contact and did... suggesting a "one whistle" meeting (passing port side to port side). We also encountered two dredges. One was idle and out of the channel. Workboat activity around the second suggested it was active. A quick call on channel 13 confirmed that a one whistle pass was the only safe route. It is sure great to see the ICW being maintained. By 3pm we were anchored off downtown Beaufort under cool sunny skies. The bottom here is a little soft so we're giving the anchor a while to set before we visit town. 11/4/07 - We departed at 8am, electing to run the ICW even though Beaufort is a good place to go offshore. Turned out to be a good decision as the sea had large swells and little wind. I wanted to give our traveling buddies more ICW experience so they'd be comfortable with it when they needed it. Fourth Watch tested the width of the channel and grounded. We sent back for them unnecessarily as a fisherman stopped and pulled them off the mud bar. We ran a little over 40 miles, passing through the Camp Lejuene artillery range. We stopped about 3pm at the safety zone anchorage south of the camp. Our next anchorage was too far to run in the remaining daylight. Every half hour a new batch of boats came through the Lejuene bridge. By dusk we had over 40 boats in the anchorage. A large Packer flag attracted us to Slow Dancing so we stopped by to say hi. It was a Baltimore boat - Packer flag? Sue assured us she was a legit Packer fan as was her father and her grandfather. She gave us a play by play of the end of the game... way to go Pack! 11/5/07 - A 6:30am departure had us in good position to follow a tug and barge south. This is ideal if you can run fast enough to follow the tug as commercial traffic gets and automatic bridge opening whereas recreational boats face hourly or half hour intervals. Thirty some other boats had the same idea. Fourth Watch burned an alternator belt before we even got into the channel. We took them in tow and told Ariel to catch the tug, we'd meet in the Wrightsville Beach, our next planned stop. Surprisingly AA was able to pull Fourth Watch at about the same speed they normally run so we made the bridge schedule as if they had been running too. While we were towing them with Paula steering Bob was trying to mount the spare belt (too short) or tighten the old belt (too shot). In the end we towed them the 40 miles to the anchorage. Ariel was waiting, they had caught the tug and didn't have to wait for any bridges. Miles and Laureen took us out to"22 North" for a belated birthday treat for Ruth. We had a excellent meal and a fun evening. I know we had fun because it took 3 aspirins to settle my brain this morning. 11/6/07 - Brisk 15-20 knot SW winds had the anchorage riled up this morning. It's time to plan (a 4 letter word) a schedule (a deadly word) as Miles and Laureen plan to leave Ariel somewhere for a period of time and head back to WI (snow withdrawal). That means they have to be somewhere by some time.. or not. Miles is getting that cruiser look in his eyes. Ruth and I went to the beach, watched surfers and did some glassing - it quickly became apparent that this is shell country, so Ruth adapted and went shelling. Beth took the women shopping this afternoon. This is her home stomping grounds so she had transportation and knew her way around. When we picked them up at the dock you could tell they'd had a good time together. Ruth restocked our soda concentrate supply and our freezer - we're ready to roll. The Coast Guard had Fourth Watch move in the morning to open up a channel (unmarked and uncharted). The wind gusted at 8:30pm and our phone rang a few minutes later. It was Paula - they'd dragged into another boat's anchor chain and were ensnared in it. I, Miles and a couple of other boats took our dinghies over to help. In half an hour we had them untangled and re-anchored. They spent a restless night concerned that they might drag again. 11/7/07 - Cold clear morning, temperature in the low 30's with 5 knot winds. Today's high should be mid-50's... a taste of Wisconsin? We left at 9am to let it warm up a little and because we had only 25 miles to Southport, our destination. The blatant sex along the waterway is disgusting... we learned more about how pelicans mate than we wanted to know. Also saw a lot of migrating birds and several dolphins. By 2pm we were in St James Marina; a beautiful facility in the middle of a gated condo community. We caught up with the catamaran Great Catsby, saying hello to Rich and Carol. It was also a chance to refuel and take on water. Beth and George drove down from Wrightsville Beach with an excellent butterflyed shrimp and lemon pasta dinner for 10, complete with George's special salad. Somehow we found dining space for 10 folks and Buddy in AA's cabin. It was a lot of fun. 11/8/07 - Up before sunrise, the next 60 mile stretch has no anchorages so we have miles to make before we sleep unless we want to stop at another marina. Budget wise that's a killer. If we stayed in a marina every night we'd be spending over $20,000 in slip costs annually. It was cold - frost on the deck and ice on the dock. We had to leave the power cords on deck until noon when they warmed enough to coil up. Brisk all day today with a north wind. It is suppose to start warming into the 70's again this week. We ran over 60 miles today dropping Ariel in a marina at mm377 and continuing on to Bull Creek (381.5) where we anchored with Fourth Watch. Ariel's diesel heater isn't working well and can't keep the cabin temperature up in 30 degree weather (the unit may be undersized, if the model number is indicative it is half the BTU's of AA's. Enroute we had 3 adult deer and a fawn swim across the ICW just ahead of us. The fawn was cute prancing in the shallows and shaking off the water. We also saw a bald eagle. Today's travels brought us into South Carolina, 700 miles to go to Miami. 11/9/07 - When we departed at 7am wisps of steam were spinning off the surface of the water. Ariel, 4 miles upstream of us, was running in fog with her radar. Within a hour the fog was gone and we were running at 7 knots over the water, 6 knots over the bottom. The past couple of days we've hit the tidal currents wrong most of the day - feels like we are swimming upstream. I told miles the current flows North in the fall and South in the spring. Sometimes it sure feels that way. Our GPS croaked this morning, shutting down our chart plotting. Ariel led the pack, Ruth helmed AA and I troubleshot. By noon I'd isolated the problem -  water in the GPS base. I drained the base, modified it so it will normally drain, dried the GPS and got it back in service. Hopefully nothing fried and the unit will be okay. With the chart plotter running I was able to relieve Ruth at the helm. We motored 71 statute miles in cool beautiful weather. Enroute we saw dolphins and a variety of water birds - a number of cranes and herons. We anchored in creek off the ICW with 13 other boats - we've caught up with the pack again. 11/10/07 - Up at dark o'clock for the 19 mile run to Charleston. Another beautiful cool day. The trip went quickly; we were anchored in Charleston by 9:30am. We've spent over 9 days in the city on past trips so we'll likely lay low today and go into town tomorrow. Fourth Watch is anchored further up the channel, Ariel is in the Charleston Municipal Marina. I spent part of the day working on a new article, then read. Ruth read and washed her hair. Exciting day! The tidal current here is another adventure. We've experienced it three times before, so no surprise. Still, you're never comfortable anchored in it. We turn 180 degrees four times every 24 hours. Paula called and asked if we'd keep an eye on their boat while the had dinner ashore with relation. Smart move. 11/11/07 - Cold and sunny morning. We're hanging around Charleston a few days to allow our buddy boat crews a chance to explore the city. Ariel can't be south of Savannah before the 15th (insurance dictated). I'm writing and doing some little boat maintenance tasks while Ruth sorts her treasure from the sands of Wrightsville Beach. The wind and tidal currents were really freaky today. At one point we saw 3 boats anchored near us touch transoms. Each was pointed a different angle like points of a triangle. Fortunately the bumping was gentle and no damage was done. We plan to stay here another day while our buddies do the tourist bit. I have writing and canvas design work to do. Then we'll head south again. 11/12/07 - Monday, another week starts, another has slipped by. Our web server and e-mail have been out of service since Friday - likely due to an equipment upgrade or the recent move to new expanded quarters by our son-in-laws family business. I can only imagine what they are going through with the extensive system of servers for the customer pages they provide. I took a tour of the aircraft carrier Yorktown, now a museum in Charleston. Its amazing that a crew of 3,500 people worked on the ship. That's as many people as there were in my hometown as I was growing up.  We also toured a WWII submarine that carried a crew of 70. Submariners were obviously a different breed. 11/13/07 - 8:30 departure for a planned short day run. Interesting morning, first Miles ran out of the channel and had a near miss with a dock, then Ruth turned down the wrong channel and nearly grounded on pilings - Miles saved her with a quick radio call. It's easy to get disoriented in the twisting channels we're in today. We ended the day with a bolt in Ariel's autopilot linkage breaking, creating a new part quest for Miles. Ruth had the 3 crews over for a potluck dinner. We knew it was time to return to their respective vessels when heads started nodding. We'd covered  more miles that we'd planned for the day and stress levels were high as we often ran in 7' water. 11/14/07 - We started at 8:30 again, having only 18 miles to Beaufort, SC. Our website went up again today thanks to the team at The DRG. When you think about what's involved with moving an electronic office from one building to the next it's amazing we are up. Been there, done that, didn't get a T-shirt. We arrived at Beaufort for the 11am bridge. Ariel is in a slip, Fourth Watch and AA are anchored just below the Downtown Marina. We went in and walked the town again... it's a little city we enjoy visiting. It is funny, we forget a city until we see it... then it all comes back and we know where things are. Ruth and I ran into Rich & Carol on the Great Catsby. Rich provided some good info on the next 150 miles of waterway. Thank you Rich! He also talked us into stopping at St Mary's for the town's Thanksgiving Dinner for cruisers. We'll catch up with them there. It sounds like a great chance to get together with a lot of cruisers. We are typically mixing in and out with 15-30 boats a day. 11/15/07 - Light drizzle started our day. It stopped almost as quickly as it had begun. By noon the sky was blue. The winds built all morning reaching the mid 20's with gusts into the 30's. We'd intended to run only 30 miles to just below Hilton Head. Miles had made reservations for Ariel at a marina on the lower tip of the island so they stopped there. Fourth Watch joined us on the search for an anchorage with shelter from the winds. We ended up crossing the Savannah River and passing through Thunderbolt (our destination for tomorrow night) before anchoring in a pocket off the ICW. No waves but not a lot of protection from the wind. We were lucky that most of the run from Hilton Head was made during high tide as we marked water that would have been too shallow to transit in low tide. The tide here is 7 foot! Rich's route information had been right on the money. Speaking of grounding - we had a towboat pushing a petroleum barge ground next to us tonight. They stirred up the bottom while blowing diesel smoke in the air for about half an hour before they got unstuck, turned slightly and got underway again. Even the pros have problems with the ICW's silting.

Blimp and hanger, Elizabeth City Bob pilots Fourth Watch on the ICW Jack-o-lantern masters at work Miles with a catty look Trick or treat? The flock headed south Fourth Watch tops 7 knots Party time on AA We packed the cabin Paula and Bob dined at the nav station Charleston mile long dock American Glory, ICW cruise ship Ariel at mile long dock Great Catsby Miles and Laureen on Yorktown deck Walter Middy scans the skies Looking aft on the Yorktown

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...

Boca Raton to Charleston, 4/1/07 - 4/15/07	Charleston to Elizabeth City, 4/16/07 - 4/30/07
Elizabeth City to Deltaville, 4/31/08 - 5/15/07	Deltaville to Barrington, RI, 6/12/07 - 6/30/07
Barrington RI (Ariel), 6/30 - 7/14/07	Barrington Boatyard Blues, 7/15 -7/29/07
Barrington to Salem, 7/30 - 8/14/07	Salem, MA to Rockland, ME, 8/15 - 8/30/07
Rockland to Salem, 9/1 - 9/14/07	Salem to Baltimore, 9/15 - 9/29/07
Baltimore to Solomon Landing, 9/30 - 10/13/07	Tangier Island to Elizabeth City, 10/14 - 10/29/07