Brooke Smith
11/18/2011, Calabash Creek - Anchored

Some friends we had dinner with. Chuck and Judy Young. Suz worked with Judy 16 years teaching. They recently moved to Oak Island, SC and we had a great meal at Dead End Saloon at the South Harbour Village Marina.

General

Comments [0] | | More

Brooke Smith
11/18/2011, Calabash Creek - Anchored

We are in South Carolina.
We had a false start this AM. I changed the starting battery yesterday and did not connect the negative cable to the ground buss. So the vebel fetcher hyper-stenis, hysteresis was out of phase with the resisi-pance and negative hole theory.. In other words I screwed up. So, we had to go back to our transient marina to figure it out. I connected the unconnected cable and Liquid Therapy's electrical system was once again happy.
So, we got a late start to Myrtle. Bucking current made it impossible before darkness. So, we pulled in Calabash Creek and what a nice anchorage. And of course sunset.. We are comfy and tucked in for the night.
AND FROM SUSAN

We are fine and finally just into SC. This is a picture of where we are anchoring for the night. Mother Nature is just gorgeous in this anchorage, porpoises all around and lots of pelicans in the sunset. It seems as if this is a sacred spot until the casino cruise ship came close by just over a little barrier island of marsh grass! Couldn't quite make Myrtle Beach today. We will be there tomorrow and may see Uncle Eddie on Sunday.
Love to all,
Suz n BrookE

General

Comments [2] | | More

Brooke Smith
11/17/2011, SOUTH HARBOUR VILLAGE MARINA

VERY TIRED - We had a pretty tiring trip yesterday from Wrightsville to Oak Island area. The Cape Fear got foggier and foggier. About 1/4 mile and the wind and tide were working against Liquid Therapy. 1800 RPMs usually gives us bout 8.5MPH and it was only about 6.5MPH. So not only was it foggy in a commercial shipping area. I really used my iPhone app a lot for the AIS function that tells you what large ships are around you and their course and speed and bearing and distance from you. Also paramount in our safe passage was the autopilot which did what I commanded it to do steering the boat down the side of the shipping channel as I picked out the markers for the autopilot to steer to. Picking the markers and peering into the fog until they appeared was very mentally intense. But we were safe. I had done fog before with a lot less help from gadgets. Then all of a sudden it cleared up and it was time to leave Cape Fear River for Soputhport and two miles to our marina stop ( South Harbour Village Marina ). The wind continued to pick up after we got docked and the forecast was not good the next day either. So, we opted for two days here and get some more projects done. Today I changed the starting battery; changed the oil in the injector pump on the engine and got the new bilge pump switch installed and got a few other things done too. Tomorrow we head for Myrtle Beach. Another sunset..

General

Comments [2] | | More

11/16/2011, Wrightsville Bridge Tender Marina

8:45 Departed Hammock Bay for Wilmington after speaking with the sailboat named MUSIC from LOS ANGELES. It was not Stephen Stills. He was a guitarist. He said the song Souther Cross with the lyric "and music was her name" was an influence in naming his boat. Music got stuck coming into Hammock Bay and was a long time getting unstuck. I was planning on pulling him off in the morning. So after waking to finding him in the anchorage we weighed anchor and motored over to the boat to chat.
We arrived at Wrightsville and docked at Bridge Tender Marina. Now that was not as easy as it sounds. The current was running very hard toward the closed Wrightsville bridge. It opened for another vessel and Liquid Therapy was a little late to the bridge. We did have enough clearance according to charts and the bridge tender. But just as I started to go through the bride it started closing. Now this was more than a little intimidating. Sirens and bells and it was closing. Even knowing it was safe. I stopped the boat to let the thing close. The current was going to sweep us through anyhow as the boat started turning sideways with the rapid current. So I put it in gear and went on through. The bridge tender and I had a little discussing after I got through the bridge safely. The bridge tender had a strong eastern european accent that was difficult to understand. But I guess she was correct in her assessment I was going to make it through with the bridge coming back down. Just didn't look right.
So, we had visitors at the boat in Wrightsville. Whitney and Iris Smith live in Wrightsville and is the grown child and Iris, the grandchild, of our good friend Lisa White. We had much fun with Iris who is 3 years old and had never been on a boat before. They got the tour and we had a little snacks before they went home

OK the picture for today is not spectacular. It is the FIGURE EIGHT ISLAND BRIDGE. I was here, in May, at the Figure Eight Yacht Club with the Band Flashback. We did a wedding reception and I told everyone I'd be back by boat. So, there is the bridge I drove over in May that I just cruised under in November

General

Comments [0] | | More

Brooke Smith
11/15/2011, Anchored in Hammock Bay

We had quite an exciting day yesterday with our passage from Beaufort, NC to our anchorage off the ICW in basically Camp Lejeune. The Hammock bay was dredged by the government for the military to use. When they don't use it it's a great anchorage.
We started out leaving the Beaufort Dock and taking in the Beaufort sites. Strong current pushing us sideways in the slip made an interesting QUICK departure maneuver. Suz held the boat with the spring until I could quickly reverse. We looked like we knew what we were doing. We encountered strong currently slowing then speeding the boat up.
We encountered lots of Military action and I'll post some pictures in s few minutes.

General

Comments [1] | | More

Brooke Smith
11/13/2011, Beaufort NC

Just had to add this picture in Beaufort, NC

General

Comments [3] | | More