It’s Time To Stop and Smell The Roses.
13 April 2019
Allan Gray
We spent a very peaceful night at anchorage in Duck creek and arose early Friday morning with high expectations for the next leg of the journey. Luckily we rode the tide down the river and through the Winyah Bay cut out into the ocean and set course for Beaufort NC. The forecast called for the 10-15 SE winds to shift south which would be perfect for the first leg to Frying Pan Shoal. Once we cleared the breakwater and set the sails it became apparent that the shift hadn’t occurred and it would be a long upwind slog to our first waypoint. Dagny handled the conditions well but we were below the lay-line and weren't looking forward to have to tack around the shoal at midnight. We soldiered on for a few hours but then a new forecast called for 20-30 knots winds during the night and still from the SE. After much debate we decided to bail out and head to the Little River Inlet which, is just north of Myrtle Beach SC. We arrived off the entrance at 5 p.m. after having sailed 60 miles in 4-6 foot seas and 15-20 knots of wind.
The Little River Inlet is by no means a class one entrance, it is narrow and shallow and the following seas will break across the entrance in poor conditions. The seas had abated a bit as we crossed over the shallow bar at the cut entrance but they were still 3-5 feet and of course the tide was near full ebb. To say it got our attention would be an understatement, however, with all hands on deck watching for shoals and displaced channel marks we safely navigated through. Once anchored chef Mark made omelettes for a very tired crew before calling it a day.
As I had mentioned early our goal for this leg of our journey was to get to Norfolk with Mark and Megan so we could visit their new boat. We knew the timeline was tight but hoped if the weather turned a bit we could make it. However, once we diverted to Little River it became apparent that we would not get to Norfolk in time. This morning after reviewing all our options we decided to head to Wilmington NC where Mark and Megan can rent a car to continue on. It's been a hard push to get this far so Bev and I will stop and put out feet up for a few days and give Dagny a break. We're moored right downtown along the historic water front and look forward to a couple of days exploring before resuming our voyage.
Today's picture is a of juggler plying his trade right across the boardwalk from our boat.