October 30-September 3, 2010
The good thing is, no engine troubles. The not so good is traveling conditions.
In the morning we headed off for Charleston, leaving at 4:30 a.m. We sailed along nicely for several hours, and then the wind died. We had to turn the motors on and drive, or we would never get there. Fine Lion did another weather check and found the wind was going to clock around and pipe up and be right on our nose. None of us were too comfortable with 6-8 foot seas on our nose, so- change of plans. We went in the Masonboro Inlet and anchored at Wrightsville Beach. The new plan was to go down the Cape Fear River and out of Cape Fear.
That was a good plan, except there was too much wind and the seas were still too high in the ocean. So we made the turn onto the ICW and planned to go out Little River Inlet. That was a good plan, except we got to the Little River Swing bridge too late and had to wait for an opening. By then it was getting dark and we were not comfortable going out this inlet in the dark. We stopped at Cricket Coe Marina and spent the night.
There were still tales of boats getting beat up on the ocean, so we continued down the ICW. Savage Son blew an oil hose and had to stop at a marina to fix it. We continued on down the scenic Waccamaw River to Thoroughfare Creek to anchor and wait for them to catch up. This was a lovely, protected anchorage. We put the dinghy down and rowed over to visit Fine Lion. When Savage Son arrived, they did the same. We spent a pleasant time visiting, rowed back, put the dinghy up and made dinner.
We left Thoroughfare Creek at high tide and had a favorable current carrying us most of the day at an average of over 8 knots! We saw several eagles on our trip today. We could not quite make Charleston because the Ben Sawyer swing bridge closes from 4 - 6 p.m., so we pulled in to Dewees Creek for the night. This anchorage is a wide stream in the middle of a saw grass marsh. Not much protection and there was a strong current. Nevertheless, we spent a peaceful night.
We left in the morning to make the two + hour trip into Charleston. Savage Son decided to continue on to Beaufort, SC, traveling with Veranda. We and Fine Lion took slips at the City Marina here. We got cleaned up, and in late afternoon we took the courtesy van downtown and walked around for a while. Then we went to Pearlz for oysters, mussels, shrimp, and good times. Pearlz is probably our favorite restaurant here, but they have lots of good ones. We will be here until we have a good weather window to go outside to Florida, where we hope it will be warmer!
October 25-29, 2010 Oriental, NC
We stayed in Oriental waiting for a good weather window to travel on the outside from Cape Lookout to Charleston. We thought we had a good one and left Oriental with Fine Lion, Savage Son, and Veranda. When we reached the ocean, Veranda opted to keep going, as conditions seemed fairly benign on the ocean. The rest of us went into Cape Lookout and threw down the anchors. We had a peaceful evening.