Morehead City to Oriental, NC

     I looked up and a wall of water was crashing over the windshield.  I could hardly stay on the helm seat as the bow of the boat crashed up and down over the the six foot waves. They really looked like ten footers to me.  The windshield wipers clacked back and forth at full speed and the boat was rolling from side to side.  Somewhat surprisingly, there was no rain or thunderstorm. In fact, the sun was out and the sky was blue with just a few fluffy clouds that I could see when the nose of the boat was pointed skywards.  I wanted to jump down off the seat and go pee, but I didn't think I could walk to the back of the boat without falling and I was feeling a little sick.
     The day started out fine.  Everyone was up early as usual. I heard the camera click repeatedly as I stopped to leave my mark on the few fire hydrants interspersed  by a  trees lining  the sidewalks .We walked around Morehead city admiring the fishing village's quaint art shops and the posters advertising the Marlin fishing tournament in progress this week. There were lots of large sports fishing boats with lots of people drinking, talking loudly and patting each other on the back. Everyone seemed happy as I heard them joke about escapades on the boats, but they really weren't paying attention and I was quick to jump to avoid them stepping on me.


                                        . 
                                       
                     Docs Holiday at the Morehead City Yacht Basin.......Marlin Tourney in process

                                                                            

                                                   
                                             Serious Business.....they come from all over!

                                                                                                                           
                                                          Getting ready to pull out.

                                         Floyds Seafood Restaurant.......Yummy fresh Grouper!!
                                                                                 

     I thought as I found a nice fresh piece of grass to pee on, even Mommy and Daddy seemed to be getting along now.  We went back to the boat and they prepared the boat for departure. Docs Holiday was pinned to the dock with a breeze, but with a roar of the motors and billowing black smoke we got out without hitting any of the big expensive sport fishing boats.  As we headed out to the ICW the breeze abated and we had a slow relaxing river ride.  Passing several smaller marinas and many small farms on the way up the river, I heard them talk about going all the way to Palmico Sound, since it was such a nice day.

                                                  Our tax $'s at work keeping us safe.
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                  

                                                  
             Bird Houses on a pole????? Canadian Geese feeding....Better here than up       North???                     
                                     

     Everything changed though when we pulled out into the Neuse River.  The wind increased to 20 knots with gusts to 25 knots out of the northwest. This caused the water to build up into steep waves at this end of the river.  I heard Daddy curse saying something like,"This is Bull Pucky! We can't go 15 miles in this, we are going to go into Oriental. It's only 2 miles away."  With that Daddy turned the wheel and headed with the waves towards the other shore.  The movement of the boat was much calmer as the rolling and pitching subsided and I could finally jump down to go to my cage and pee!

                                                                               
                                            Mother Nature getting ready to stir the pot!                                                

     I watched as Mommy told Daddy where the crab pots were as we entered under the bridge into the harbour and they found a nice place to "drop the anchor".   Wow, the sun was out and the boat was almost motionless.  I found a nice warm sunny spot on the back deck and as my eyes got sleepy I drifted off  listening to the  birds chirping and the occasional splash made by those things swimming under the water.


 love Spencer

                                                            It has been a long day!!                                           
                                                                                     

                                                                                 
                                           Our anchorage off Oriental City Marina, N.C.

                        UFO spying on us while we were having cocktails on the back deck.

                                                            
                                                                  Oriental Sunset                                                           
                                                                              

                                                                            
                                                                         

Morehead City, N.C.

    The winds overnight were 15 to 20 knots but we remained well secured at the Wrightsville Beach anchorage.  Even though the boat swung on the anchor 180 deg with the tide change, our 65 lb Delta anchor held firm and there was not a squeak out of our anchor alarm.  We have 2 anchor alarms now. One on our old Garmin chartplotter and I recently downloaded "Drag Queen" to my iphone. This was recommended by Active Captain, so we will try it.
     Plagued less by vacationers pulling kids on floats we were able to make a little time, the main slow down being waiting for the bridges that open only on the hour.  Since we had the bridges timed, we could slow down to 1000 rpm which, depending on how we hit the channels with incoming tide, either pushed or pulled the boat between 5.5 and 7.5 knots.  The time was made up with being able to cruise the long distance up Bogue Sound at our customary 8 to 9 knots.
 

                    Palm Tree and Parking Meter just outside of Wrightsville Beach Anchorage

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                            

     The winds increased to 15 with gusts to 25 knots but with the size and weight of Docs Holiday we easily glided through the short choppy waves.  Salt spray occasionally came over the bow necessitating the use of the windshield wipers but it was a comfortable ride, though not a day for driving from our open fly bridge. A low pressure had settled in, dropping the overnight temperatures down to the 60's, which meant not having to use the air conditioner (hence no generator noise) overnight.
     Even though it was a relatively less stressful day both of us were tired and short tempered.  We argued about everything. Beth felt that I was ordering her around and that I was unappreciative of all that she did. If I didn't like what she was doing I could just do it all myself. 
I thought I was just making suggestions about what pictures she should take and just "quit hollering at me!" It peaked with my suggestion that she could just get a taxi at our next stop and take a plane home.  I would damn well take the boat the rest of the way by myself!
      Sometimes its better to just not talk when everyone is irritable, so we didn't. ( Besides Spencer, the dog doesn't like it when we argue and told me he thinks we're nuts!)

                                                   
                                                  Camp Lejeune Live Firing Area 

                                                
                                                    U..S Air Force keeping an eye on us.
                                                 

                         
We lucked out...apparently ICW can be closed for a couple of hours when practicing their exercises.                                                      

                                                                             
                                                    Atlantic Beach Bridge  MM 206.5  

      Hmmmm! --maybe it was time for a little break.. it wouldn't be impossible to complete this trip by myself but who wants to be a lonely little sailor? We have been pushing it a little. Even when we stop, we are so anxious to see the sights and "get the flavour" of the place we are visiting that we are exhausted by the time we get back to the boat. Add the fact that I only require a few hours sleep with quick short naps, (thanks to the years of interrupted sleep being on call!) and Beth needs at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and its easy to see that we need to change our routine if we are going to complete this adventure. So instead of anchoring out we will get a slip at Morehead City and try and relax for a couple of days.

Wrightsville Beach, NC

     A mere 46 miles and we were exhausted!  Remember back in Louisiana and Texas, we were easily doing 80 to 90 miles a day.  But the ICW is different on the east coast.  Instead of long straight stretches passing slow moving barges, we now were constantly going around a curve in an unforgiving comparatively narrower ICW, with definitely many more shallow spots.  Add in "School's Out!" and now we are dealing with boaters who just don't realize that they shouldn't turn their boat in front of a large motor yacht, especially towing their kids on a floaty tube, because WE JUST CAN'T STOP WHEN THEY FALL OFF!!   So we slowed down.

                                                     Shallotte Inlet Sandbar, NC
                                                                          

                                                                                        
                                                            Dragging for Shrimp                          

                                                                             

     One idiot who shot out of a side channel pulled in front of us, turned and before I could slow down headed for our 4 foot wake to give his passengers a wild ride.  They got it!  The look on their faces as they were headed for our wake was one of shear terror!   They hit the wake causing the entire tube to flip up into the air somersaulting the kids into the water.  The father had to turn quickly and rush to get them out of the way as the lumbering barge behind us could not slow down!

                                                                       
                                                            Carolina Beach Inlet      

                                                                               
                                                    Dredging Carolina Beach Inlet

     The best part of the trip was coming up the Cape Fear River. The river was wide and with the wind, there were white caps over the shallow areas near the east shore. We set the auto pilot, eased back into the helm seat and enjoyed the ride. Docs Holiday easily slid through the choppy waves with almost no rolling. I can only hope we get more of this kind of travelling.

                                     
                                                  Fort Fisher Ferry in Cape Fear River                                       

     We idled into the anchorage at Wrightsvile Beach, set the anchor and had to take a nap.  It was only 4:30 but we were exhausted.  We didn't even cook supper.  Making a peanut butter sandwich took all the energy we had left.

                                                                                 
                                               Our anchorage at Wrightsville Beach, NC
                                                                                                                                                             
  

North Carolina

     It stormed most of the night and was raining hard at 5 in the morning.  The computer weather system showed  an area of rain and a big black cloud that was circling over our boat (think of the cartoon image of a sad character slouched forward with a black cloud pouring over just where he is standing!...that's how Beth and I felt!)  Just as we thought the weather was going to clear....here it came again, with just enough thunder to make the dog start nervously shaking, but thankfully no dangerous lightning. Oh well, its a boat and they are made for getting wet, so we took off around 10 am.  The sky started to lighten and before we were 10 miles away the sun came out making for an upper deck sunshiney easy cruise up the Waccama River.

                                       Blue Sky... maybe clearing????Tired of Rain!!

                                                    

                                                 
                                      Very calm cruise up the Waccamaw River                        
                                                                             
     The Waccama River is beautiful; serene calm water, tall evergreen trees rising from within a few feet of the river interspersed with occasional 25 foot high sand hills,  wide at the start and narrowing to just two boats wide in some curves.  In parts of the river we were winding our way through a tunnel of large evergreen trees, their flagrant aroma wafting into and around the boat. Spencer stood up on the arm of the helm chair with his nose high in the air sniffing. He was enjoying the change in scenery as much as we were. 

                 
                                     Alligator crossing the Waccamaw River
                                                                               

                                                    Turtles sunning themselves
                                                                       
                                                                           

                                                        3 miles of rock piles!!!!!!
                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
     As we passed Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, expansive estates looked down upon us from the riverbank cliffs. I don't know where all this money comes from but I can't help but marvel at the result of some one's hard work or ingenuity that allowed them to create these monuments to their success.

                                                                               

                                                                                   

                                                                                 

                           Tour Boat and Gondola for golf course North Myrtle Beach                                  

     When my colleagues bemoaned that a sports figure just got a 20 million dollar contract or a business man just made a fortune selling his company while we were saving lives for a mere pittance my response was always the same.  The sports figure is much more entertaining than us. The business man probably worked as hard as us to build something that many people found useful.  We on the other hand poke, prod and puncture people in an effort to relieve pain, suffering and the ravages of a coddled overstuffed life style, usually on a one to one basis and we are well compensated for what we do.

                                                  Dock Holidays Marina MM 348.2
                                                                                                       
    The key to happiness and satisfaction is not to make more money, accumulate more stuff that chains you to working for more money, or trying to gain more power.  The key is a full rounded life style with the satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best at educating yourself, worked hard at your job or profession, been productive, kept yourself healthy with a lifestyle that includes moderate eating and drinking, exercise, entertainment, and most of all being satisfied with what you have.  If I had a motto I guess it would be, "WORK HARD, LIVE HARD!"

                                                 Lightkeepers Marina MM346                          
                                                                                  
     OK. OK. That's my rant for the day.  I know it probably doesn't belong in a travel blog but what the hell---its my blog and maybe more of our children will get the message! Back to the adventure.

                                                                    
       Held up for the "Big M" casino boat to do a 180 degree turn in the middle of the ICW

                                                                                               

     We passed multiple marinas but because we have stayed at a few recently we really wanted to anchor out.  The problem is there are not many good anchorages along this section of the ICW.  Beth finally found one that seemed acceptable in Calabash Creek.  We pulled a short distance into the creek and found a spot just to the north of the channel---too shallow and definitely not enough swing room for a 50 foot boat and now it was raining so hard we could hardly see the channel markers. After going further in to the town of Calabash and talking to a local shrimper we decided to travel further on north and tie up at a Ocean Isle Marina for the night.

                                                               
                                         Goats grazing across from Ocean Isle Marina           

     Because of the weather and fighting an outgoing tide we are out of sync with the distance most of the boats travel to anchor out.  Maybe we can correct that with travelling a shorter distance tomorrow.
    

                                                                      
                                                    Sun Set at Ocean Isle Marina      

Charleston to Georgetown, SC - Beth's Dolphin encounter

     We waited for low tide before leaving Charleston.  This would give us an incoming tide when we started back in to the ICW an hour away.  It once again paid off.  Some of the shallow areas were passable with 3 feet under the keel thanks to the extra depth provided by the incoming tide.

                                                    Reluctantly leaving Charleston.
                                                                                                                                                                         
     It was a lazy relaxed trip.  Beth driving the boat long enough for me to take a nap in the laz-y-boy chair. Ahhhh!... This is cruising......until....thump "What was that?" I said  as I rubbed my sleepy eyes. 
"I think I hit a dolphin.  There was a pod of 7 or 8 coming right at the boat and I couldn't turn or slow down fast enough!" exclaimed Beth.
      I quickly checked the boat for vibration and damage and found nothing. It was really just a mild thump, so the fun began.  "You ran over "Flipper!" I teased.
 "No maybe it was just a small log under water." pleaded Beth. 
"No. You ran over "Flipper!" I heard it.  I even heard a pathetic EEE! EEE! EEE!"  feigning my most pitiful dolphin cry.
 At this point Beth began laughing and shouting, "Stop it. Stop it. I didn't kill Flipper!"
 I had fun with this all day, not saying much, just occasionally letting out an almost imperceptible eee! eee!

                                                                          
                                                  Happy Face for a dreary day!!       

     As we were joking, we noticed some black clouds gathering along the western sky.  Looking at the computer weather system, it quickly became evident that we were in for a thunder storm.  This weather system is fantastic, even showing the lightning strikes.  It was closing in behind us as we wrestled with the decision to find a spot to anchor or just continue powering on through the storm.  The computer didn't indicate a lot of wind and there were few places to get out of the ICW, so we continued forward and decided to cut the day short and safe by heading to a marina in Georgetown, SC (only 56 miles from Charleston) .  Besides being safely tide up in case the storm worsened, we were able to pick up 400 gallons of the cheapest fuel we have seen since leaving Carrabelle, Fl. ($3.68/gal).
     A few other boats were also heading to port.  The VHF radio crackled to life with a request from a 38 foot sea ray rushing up behind us.
 "Docs Holiday.  Would you like a slow pass?" said the Captain.
 "No. Just keep it up on plane and come by my port side." I responded.  I have so many of these idiot sea ray owners slow to half speed and plow a huge wake, that I prefer they just let their testosterone flow and get away from me.  Besides, they make less wake if they are up on plane.  At least this captain was considerate enough to let me know he was passing, and that's doing a lot more than most of the sports fisher boats and most sea ray captains.
     Interestingly this boat was already tide up at the same marina we entered... waiting for Sea Tow!  They burnt out a transmission. The captain told me as he turned to approach the dock he had a great deal of difficulty pulling the transmission shifter out of gear.  When he checked the transmission it was red hot, melting some of the grounding wires!  Ouch! As much as I dislike sea rays, I couldn't help but feel bad for this owner.  It was going to cost him mucho bucks and lost time to get repaired.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

       We had our fill of dining out, so dinner was on the boat.  Beth made a kind of stir fried chicken with fresh sweet corn on the cob and potato salad.  Hmm! Hmm! Can't beat a good home cooked meal.
     We will stay put until this front blows through than continue north to at least Myrtle Beach or possibly Southport and the Cape Fear River if time permits tomorrow.

Charleston Tour

     Following Wendy and Dan's advice we walked to Market Street and walked the city "Slave" market, named because in the past slaves sold their plantation grown produce here.  Glitzy, and although filled with some Chinese junk, also had hand woven baskets and Charleston memorabilia. (interspersed with iron sculptures of dancing and singing frogs (ugh!).

                                                                                 

                             
                                                    Charleston Wine Glass ???????
                                                                             

                                                                               
                                                        Self Explanatory???
                                                                                  

     We opted for the horse drawn carriage tour which provided a meandering look at not only the unique homes of the south but also provided us with a running narrative of the history of the city, the civil war, the earthquake and the current state of affairs in Charleston.  (They are still not fussy on "Yankees" in general, but treated us Mainer's with friendly respect.)  After the tour we walked the streets winding our way around to Fleet Landing, a restaurant overlooking Charleston Harbour with views of Fort Sumter.  In an attempt to "extend oneself", I decided to try some of the food that Charleston is noted for....She Crab Soup with blue crab roe (eggs!)...and it was .....delicious!  Beth opted for a "Trigger Fish" sandwich and was still extolling the wonderful taste as we were leaving the restaurant.  Once again, thank you Wendy and Dan for the recommendations.

                                                                    
                                                  "Carson" our chauffeur.

                                    
                                                    Beautiful Homes and Gardens

                                                                                                                                                         

         Oldest home in Charleston, note fence...used to keep out the revolting slaves in the 1700's.                                                                                            

                 
                                           Popular Bed and Breakfast. Two Meeting Street.

       Beautiful Churches. This steeple can be seen coming into  Charleston Harbor.

                                                                  
Where the term SNOB comes from. If you lived slightly north of broad street you were the upper crust of society.                                         
                                                                                                                                            
     As we walked back to the marina, we had to stop at the corner candy store. At $14.95 a pound for pralines and fudge, we decided one-half pound would be more than enough and hopefully all our walking would take care of the extra calories!
      The afternoon was consumed with "fixing shit"... its just that nothing is easy or convenient to fix on a boat.  I walked to the local Ace Hardware to get the new shut off valves and hoses for the leaking faucets in the office restroom, got out every tool known to man (except a coat hanger-world's most useful tool!) and surprisingly, changed it all out without breaking anything...(probably a simple task in most guys repertoire, but I would find it a lot easier to put someone to sleep for surgery.) Than on to cleaning up the bilge, tightening up the still leaking head in the aft cabin, and doing the routine fluid checks in preparation for leaving tomorrow.
     Charleston is a place that deserves a much longer visit.  There is so much more to do and see but the weather is continuing to be unsettled, with front after front  rolling through, so we need to get moving and cover some distance when we can.