May 30, 2021

N31° 15′

The whole reason for the “Heading North” trip, especially the timing, was to meet the insurance requirements to be “North of Cape Hatteras by June 1.” Cape Hatteras is approximately at latitude North 31°, 15 minutes and I passed that mark at 1:12 p.m. today. My insurance coverage is less expensive because of that clause so they don’t have to cover hurricanes losses. The wind was howling again but was on my nose so things were much easier. It was cold (50’s) and had a misty rain coming down. I had planned to anchor on the South side of the Pamlico River but it offered no protection from the North wind. I proceeded across and up the Pungo River and entered the Belhaven harbor. What a relief. It has a nice harbor wall protecting it from the Pungo River and offered some protection from the North winds.

May 29, 2021

Winded

The cruising gods were with me in the morning. The Wrightsville Beach bridge only opens on the hour but, if I had read it carefully, was on demand before 7:00 a.m. Fortunately, I hit the bridge at 6:30 and went right through. I arrived at the next bridge a couple of minutes before it opened and didn’t even have to stop to go through. I found out another bridge that required an opening had been replace with a spanky new high bridge. How great is that. I knew my luck couldn’t last. The reason for going inside were the high winds and big waves. Well, I didn’t have the big waves but as soon as I hit Bogue Sound the wind was howling. OK, by Falcon standards it was a calm day with only 40kn gusts (46 mph). Terrapin is very tall and those winds pushed me all over. It was extra challenging with the wind predominately on the beam so I got the full effect. The last two hours were exhausting with constantly steering the boat and keeping it in deep water so I don’t run aground. I was extremely relieved to get into the somewhat protected area at Morehead City. I did take a little time to go up the channel to look at Beaufort and an anchorage I spotted. Being Memorial Day weekend, the little anchorage I looked at had boats anchored four deep all the way into the marked channel. What a zoo. The Beaufort waterfront looked pretty cool and definitely want to come back and spend time – not on a holiday weekend.

I did talk on the radio to one of the previous owners of Terrapin, Mason Williams. He and his wife probably had Terrapin the longest and were the ones that painted her hull green. He had seen me in the harbor and hailed me. Luckily, I was far enough away so he couldn’t see her bruises from the journey. I really wish I had been able to get into a marina here so we could meet and talk in person. We will try to do that at a later time and am looking forward to it.

May 28, 2021

I Eat Fear For Breakfast

I awoke with a little trepidation. I was going up to Cape Fear to go into Cape Fear River entrance. Hmm, maybe the ICW is not such a bad place. I Left the anchorage early because the seas would be building later in the day and would be right on the starboard beam. Riding in the ditch, between waves not ICW, is not a comfortable way to travel. Even a novice like me knows that. I did have some waves big enough to throw some things around but those were when I was still near the Little River inlet. Big waves, wind picking up, and Cape Fear approaching. I don’t know why I would be nervous. Guess what, the Cape Fear River entrance was a pussycat. One of the easier inlets I have been through. This time.

I traveled up the ICW and anchored in Wrightsville Beach ready to go out the Masonboro Inlet tomorrow. Change of plans. Tomorrow is to have 6 ft. seas and 20kn winds. That is a little “nautical” for me. I am going to hit the ICW instead. Slow and safer. It is still the ICW on Memorial Day weekend.

May 27, 2021

Swimming Logs

Left the awesome anchorage on the ICW and headed for the Little River Inlet to overnight before heading out into the 0cean. This part of the ICW was more like a ditch. Very few bays or wide areas with trees and vegetation lining each side. I was on the lookout for trees and other floating debris and noticed a small log in the middle. After I watched it a minute I noticed it was moving across the channel, definitely not with the current. Yep, another alligator sighting. I knew the anchorage I chose was small and would be a little tight on depth. When I checked it out it was the beach rendezvous site with lots of boats and someone anchored right where I wanted to be. Luckily I had spotted another anchorage a little further up and ended up there for the night. One slightly annoying problem were all of the big tour and casino boats that were sending a big wake every 15 minutes. Have to complain about something.

May 26, 2021

Currents

Once I got out of Charleston Harbor it was a pretty easy day. I knew that was going to end as soon as I started into Winyah Bay and back into the ICW near Georgetown SC. When I did my research I knew I would be heading into a strong ebb tide current but couldn’t be avoided unless I wanted to anchor at dusk. I had had my fill of that so I chose to buck the current. Another rookie learning experience. A 3 knot current is pretty darn strong. My plan was to anchor in Winyah Bay but there was no way I felt confident anchoring in a 3kn current and a 20kn wind. So, I wisely kept going and found a nice little anchorage a few miles up the ICW. I was even greeted by an alligator inviting me for a swim.

May 25, 2021

Playing With The Big Boys

After Hilton Head the next stop is Charleston. I had a pretty uneventful day going in the big water until I got to the Charleston Harbor inlet. I saw a large tug towing an ocean going barge and we were going about the same speed and headed to the same point. I slowed and was going to let him go by and then he hailed me on the radio. He asked if I was going to Charleston and how fast I was going. After I gave him the information he said there is plenty of room and just go in with him. Me being the rookie, of course that sounded just fine. It was all good, if not a little stressful until another tug pushing a barge crossed in front of us and started heading in my direction. I was turtle meat in a tug sandwich! Actually, there was plenty of room and there was nothing to be worried about. Of course I can say that now all calm, cool and collected. I will mention that on the way out the next day I was about run over by a large container ship. After I heard a large horn blowing and looked behind me I quickly moved to the side. If you haven’t seen the bow of a large ship up close, believe me it is a scary sight when it is coming right at you. Once again, no big deal. I was cool as a cucumber. Yah, right.

I did cruise by Fort Sumter and had a cool place to anchor where I could watch the commercial traffic. I look forward to coming back when I have more time.

May 24, 2021

No Stress

I left Brunswick GA and planned to head to Sapelo Sound GA. I made such good time I changed my plans and headed to Hilton Head instead. This is what it is all about. No stress cruising in the open ocean with big deep inlets and easy anchoring. Life is good. As a bonus I got to anchor in front of all of my fans. Ok, not my fans. A performer named Ken Kolbe was doing a Neil Diamond impersonation, pretty good actually, with his back to the water and I was behind him. I didn’t embarrass myself and looked like I knew what I was doing but I didn’t get an applause either.

May 23, 2021

First Solo Ocean Passage.

I left the “Free Jacksonville City Dock” and set out into the North Atlantic. Everything went smoothly except my stablizers aren’t working. The stabilizers are fins that hang down on each side of the hull about midship. A computer moves the fins to compensate for the rolling side-to-side of the boat. They work remarkably well.

I knew they weren’t working quite right but didn’t expect them to stop working. One more thing to add to the list. Fortunately, I had fairly calm seas so they weren’t really needed. I may not be as lucky tomorrow, we’ll see. I ended up anchored in the Brunswick Harbor Inlet. I chose this location so I could get right back out tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the horse flies here are horrible here so I’ll be running the air conditioning tonight. On the bright side, I saw a sister ship N55 “Orenda” coming in and had a little chat by radio. Nice folks and they will be cruising the East Coast as well. I hope to see them later this summer.

May 22, 2021

Ouch, that’ll leave a mark.

I got a little sleep and headed out with my alternate anchorages figured out, just to be sure. In St. Augustine I had to what for the Bridge of Lions to open for me. That area is notorious for a strong current. Unfortunately, I allowed the boat to get too close to the opening while waiting. Instead of going around and get a better angle I tried to make it through and kissed the fenders on the bridge. Ouch. Left some scuff marks and a little fiberglass repair on a scupper. All minor stuff. To make it even better I had to wait at the city marina to fill out an incident report. That only took four freaking hours. OK, it was only a couple of hours but it seemed like four. Once again, I was dreading another night passage. Not to worry, I made good time and go to Jacksonville and tied up at the “Free Jacksonville City Dock” before sunset even. Found it on Active Captain but it is not mentioned on anything official I could find. Nice concrete floating docks and got the last space remaining. Even though the day started lousy it turned out pretty nice with lots of nice things to see along the way.

May 21, 2021

Learning Opportunities

What a day. Starting with a darn near perfect anchorage and ending with a looong day and less than wonderful anchorage. The day started well and quickly degenerated to a stressful run through Mosquito Lagoon where I bumped bottom a couple of times. With my boat that is life on the ICW. After Mosquito Lagoon things got much easier. The plan was to anchor near a bridge in Daytona Beach FL. First problem, I forgot to make an anchoring route or write down a reminder as to which bridge that was. I cruised right on by without batting an eye since life was good at the time. Second problem, there are no places to anchor after the one I had picked out. But wait, another learning opportunity. I got to navigate the ICW at night. Never got to do that before and never trained to do that other than reading a little on the internet. It was a little stressful but managed to set up my radar and plotter so I could pick out day markers, yep not lit at night, go figure. I can also see other things on the water like, say, fisherman in boats with NO LIGHTS. I think I gave one guy quite a scare with my big boat coming at him and him in his little skiff. Luckily, I had seen him on radar and had slowed down ahead of time. I did a lot of slowing/stopping to look in the dark to find other things like buoys that don’t show up on radar. So, twilight turned into darkness which turned into midnight. Me multitasking with looking at Active Captain (crowd sourced site/app) anchorages and trying not to run into or over things when I remembered an anchorage before St. Augustine. Sure enough, there it was with deep water and room for me. I started my very tired happy dance and, of course, chose the wrong entrance and ran aground. I blame it on being tired. Now being an old pro at this I back off and went around to the correct entrance. Found a great spot and rolled out the anchor. But wait, something caught my eye in the dark and after I shined a light saw a sunken sailboat about 20 ft. away. Yikes! So, I rolled the anchor back up and quickly moved farther away and, once again, dropped the anchor. Finally crawled in the sack around 2:30 a.m.

My takeaways. Do better route planning for anchorages and actually stop. Don’t be afraid of night passaging, been there, done that. Don’t seek out night passages on the ICW. Incredibly stressful. Get a search/spot light for those nighttime situations. Was already on my wish list, but like so many other things, didn’t get done.