Crew Log for April 21st – 24th, 2023
Trip Summary:
• Bird Island (Sunset Beach) – Carolina Beach – Mile Hammock - Beaufort
• Trip Distance of 130.1 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 4,094.8 NM
Excuse us while we take a moment to pat ourselves on the back for surpassing 4,000 nautical miles on this trip since August 2022.
As we noted in our last Crew Log, we love the anchorage at Bird Island, which is right on the border between South and North Carolina. Despite being right on the coast, it is peaceful and the beach that extends up from Sunset Beach, is spectacular.
It was cooler overnight, but the light winds and sun warmed things up quickly. We left the anchorage early given we had close to 50 NM to reach Carolina Beach where we had booked a mooring ball for a couple of days, while we waited out some bad weather.
When you travel down the ICW, there are spots that seem to be sparsely populated. However, our marine charts and Google maps tell a different story. As we made our way back up to the ICW and started heading by Sunset Beach, North Carolina, a plaid network of waterways appeared on the chart. Zooming in closer reveals a constructed development of canal-side condos which seemed to stretch on for miles.
On this section of the waterway, wide wetland areas buffer the ICW from the surrounding residential development. To traverse over the wetlands, waterfront property owners build insanely long docks from their homes to the waterway, so they have boat access. In new builds, we often noted the docks were built before the house was even started, indicating what the real value of waterside property was.
Over the past few days we have also noted that the steady parade of south bound sailboats that we saw in the fall, has been replaced with a herd of north bound trawlers, proudly flying the Great American Loop flag. “Loopers” as they affectionately refer to themselves, travel down from the Great Lakes, along the Mississippi, around Florida, up the ICW, into the Hudson River and completing the loop in the Great Lakes. A total distance of 6,000 nautical miles.
While they generally are more courteous than the giant sport fishers, they tend to travel in herds. At times, it feels like a convoy of semi trucks going by you.
As we transited from the narrow section of the ICW to the Cape Fear inlet, we reached a spot where the tide current collided, which felt like we had hit something as our boat speed changed dramatically. We made the turn up the Cape Fear River on the ebb tide and at one point we struggled to maintain 2.9 knots. It seemed to take forever to get to Carolina Beach and I was pushing the engine harder than I really wanted to.
The moorings at Carolina Beach were being repaired when we were here in the fall, so our only option was to anchor. While there is a pretty good sized anchor field, there are many tales of poor holding particularly in bad weather. We were really grateful that the balls had been repaired and we had a mooring to wait out the bad weather tomorrow.
Wanting to take advantage of the nice weather, we quickly lowered the dinghy and headed off to the beach. There were lots of people on the beach, which was dotted with fluttering Shibumis, unique kite-like shelters that use the wind to provide shelters. Judy took a quick dip in the ocean, which was in sharp contrast to her choice of toque and winter coat the last time we were here.
As we attempted to take a selfie, a lady offered to take our picture. She complained that the screen kept disappearing as she turned the phone to take the picture. Those damn polarized sunglasses! We were more and more amused at her struggle to take the shot, which actually made for a great picture, since we were all laughing.
The next day we decided to head to the grocery store before it started to rain. We technically left "before" it started. I booked an Uber just after we reached the dinghy dock and then the skies opened up. It was pouring so hard, I couldn’t cancel the booking. We had no choice but to retreat back to the boat to wait out a massive thunder and lightening storm. We were both absolutely soaked by the time we got back to the boat.
Things eventually cleared up in the afternoon, but before heading out again, I checked the radar maps for any weather surprises. Seeing none, we headed off to the grocery store again, and this time dinghied down to the far end of the harbor and walked the rest of the way.
As uncomfortable as the conditions were for us, our friends from Halifax on sv Beyond had a challenging trip up the ICW to Carolina Beach. We’ve tried to get together with Rob and BettyAnn, but they understandably weren’t up for socializing that evening, so we’d have to wait a little longer. We did get to video chat with our family in Truro which lifted the spirits on Elizabeth M, before prepping the boat for our early morning departure to Mile Hammock Bay in the morning.
Mile Hammock is a popular anchorage located roughly halfway between Carolina Beach and Beaufort, North Carolina at the US Marine base, Camp Lejeune.
There were a couple of bridge openings on this section of the ICW, one at Wrightsville Beach and another a short distance to the north. Neither opened on demand and so we had to time our arrival carefully. Unfortunately, we have been struggling a bit to maintain speed, which we suspect is the result of dirty fuel filters. I was putting off changing them until we were someplace we planned to tie up for a few days and was close to marine supply shops, in case we had an issue.
The bridges were about 5 miles apart. We had a great push from the currents, which meant we were making excellent time, but it also meant we missed the second opening by 10 minutes. We basically drifted up the ICW for the last mile of so to the next scheduled opening for the Figure Eight Island Bridge.
It was Sunday and the weather was a lot better than the day before, so there was a lot of boat traffic up and down the ICW. Mostly small center consoles and pontoon boats. It was nice seeing people out enjoying the day and despite the number of boats, it wasn’t nearly as bad as sections of the ICW through Florida. The only real issue we had was when 12 jet skis decided to pass us on both sides, going under a bridge.
We enjoyed a nice tide push for most of the day, which lately, was unusual for us. As we approached Mile Hammock we seemed to pick up a escort power boat with a boat load of shirtless dudes, flying a giant Trump 2028 flag. They didn’t seem to notice our Canadian flag and take the hint that we aren’t voters. I resisted the urge to ask if they thought their candidate would be behind bars by then. Eyes forward, continue on.
There were a dozen or more boats in the Mile Hammock anchorage, mostly “loopers”. The challenge of anchoring next to a “looper” is that trawlers and sailboats don’t tend to swing the same way on anchor, particularly in lighter winds for some reason. If we are well spaced out, it isn’t a problem, but everyone seemed to want to cluster at one end of the anchorage. Luckily it was a quiet night and everyone stayed where they were supposed to be.
We were excited to get to Beaufort, North Carolina for a couple of reasons. First, from Beaufort, the waterway tends to open up more, which reduces the effect of the currents and allows us to sail more. However, the real reason we were looking forward to getting there, is Bruce and Kay from sv Willow were meeting us there for supper. We first met Bruce and Kay at Hoffmans Cay in the Berry Islands back in early January. We have connected a number of times since but haven’t seen them since they left Hope Town in early March.
I hope they’d say the same, but we connected easily with both of them and we always looked forward to seeing them. We were really grateful that they made the effort to accommodate our schedule and make the trip down to Beaufort to see us.
We had overcast conditions, light rain and 10-12 knot winds from the south for our trip from Mile Hammock to Beaufort. The day started racing for a bridge. We timed our departure for the 0800 opening, but given the currents, found ourselves close to making the 0730 opening. We radioed the bridge to ask if they would hold it open for us, which they thankfully did, otherwise we’d be circling in the narrow ICW waiting for the next one, 30 minutes later.
The rest of the trip was spent getting out of the way of the trawlers.
A side note. We don’t have AIS, and automated information system that provides details about the boats around you, including: their name, distance, direction of travel and whether you are at risk of colliding. We can see them using our VHF, but they can’t see us. And while our boat name is prominently displayed on the back of the boat it is hidden by the dinghy.
It is an annoyingly common practise for passing boats to radio the boat ahead, request a pass and occasionally exchange pleasantries. There was one particularly bulbous trawler named "Let’s Drift" from Toronto, who’s captain loved to radio everyone…”Seawind, Seawind, Seawind…this is Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift…blaa, blaa, blaa”.
Normally I won’t care, well maybe I would, but won’t waste the effort to write about it. However, in Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift case, he neglected to radio us the previous day when going past since we didn’t have AIS. We didn’t see him coming and his wake threw us into a rolling fit as he lumbered by. He reminded me of those drivers who intentionally roar through a puddle just to splash you.
We seemed to travel just a little bit further than Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift, Let’s Drift everyday, so every morning, like clockwork, we would have to listen to his incessant radio calls, and sure enough, he’d plow past us unannounced. Every time. While we are OK if a passing boat doesn’t radio us, it is doubling annoying, when they radio every other boat, and then ignore us. In contrast, sv Second Wind hailed us and announced, “here we come again!”.
We survived another day on the ICW with Let’s Drift and reached the docks in Beaufort safely and without incident. Bruce and Kay and their dog Greta arrived a short while later and they kindly agreed to take us on a provisioning run and treat us to supper at a local Mexican restaurant. We had a wonderful time reconnecting with some really good friends who we hope to see again.
Our time on the ICW was quickly coming to an end, but before it did, we had some very long days ahead of us.
But more about that, next time.
Additional Photos:
Wow!!! 4000 nautical miles (6400 km for us ‘young’ Canadians) :-). That is quite the accomplishment.
And that is a great photo of the captain and co-captain. Love it.