Back into North Carolina.
13 April 2009
• Calabash Creek, SC
by Mike
Well, that was decided by the weather.
And the winner is.....?
The ICW!
The wind was on the nose rather than on the beam as forecast and it was anywhere up to 30 knots offshore and as much as 20 in the waterway. Nope, we're very glad to have stayed inside again today, thank you very much. Not only that but we can now claim to have traveled all of the ICW from Palm Beach to Norfolk, some in both directions.
Within an hour of leaving Calabash Creek anchorage we were waiting for a pontoon bridge to open on its scheduled opening. That's right - a pontoon bridge! That was sure an experience to see a floating bridge pivot aside to let us through. While we were waiting we saw a herd of goats on the dike beside the ICW jousting in that way that goats do by rising up on their hind legs and then fall towards each other and butt heads - CLONK!
We were very lucky that all of the shallow spots had been dredged over the winter so we had no problems and again we were assisted along by the flood current for most of the day. I am getting more and more familiar and confident in old Paula. She will run all day at 1500 RMP and the temperature will stay around 80 degrees but if I goose it up to 1600 the temperature will remain in the operating range but will slide up to about 85 to 88 degrees. Still less than 94 - this was the upper end of the range, though. At 1500 she will do about 6.5 knots easily in calm conditions. Unfortunately in the weather and tides we have been having it will often only do 5 knots.
We got to the Cape Fear River and popped the jib to give the engine a rest and headed up to Snows Cut, which again luck and incredibly good planning was with us as we arrived there just in time to get a current assist through. Then it was hard a-starboard and down to Joey Gebbia's dock where he has been kind enough to allow not only us to stay for a couple of days but also found a spot for our friends Mary Lou and Jay to dock Screech.
Comments