Carolina Beach to Myrtle Beach, NC

Today:    51 miles, 9 hours, ICW St. M 348.2

Total:     539.2 miles, 79.75 hours

Up again at first light for an early departure.  We were underway by 7:15 again and watched the full moon set.

Daybreak over Carolina Beach

Moon rise emerging out of Snow's Cut

The 9+mph current

 We anticipated, based on our research, that we would have the 2.3 mph current against us heading down the Cape Fear River.  As it turns out, we had the current heading west through Snow’s Cut.  We hit 9.2 under the bridge.  Though there was shoaling on the western end of the Cut, we still had about 10 feet at high tide.  Once on the river, we managed a decent 6.7 mph even with the flood tide.  Pete noticed two tugs heading to the ship docked at Reaves Point, a military installation.  We kept our eyes on the ship to see when she powered up.   We were about 1.5-2 miles south of the ship when the Sheriff's boat came alongside, requesting us to keep to the green side of the channel and wait until the ship and the Coast Guard boats pass before continuing our journey.  As the ship approached, the USCG small boat parallel us at about 100 feet as the ship passed.  The machine gun was manned, and eyes were on all directions from the boat. A larger 50-foot USCG boat was bringing up the rear.  That machine gun was also manned.   As the ship was a little over a mile south of us, a small, 10-foot fishing boat was heading full speed towards the ship’s aft.  The Coast Guard cut him off and stopped his forward progress.  He sat there the better part of 10 minutes before resuming his course.

The Black Eagle with an escort

One of the USCG escorts

Pelican Perch

PEGASUS with Tow Boat US

Unfortunately, we heard one of the bridges us calling towboat for a sail boat hard aground at the New River Inlet. We also heard PEGASUS call out. They dropped anchor in the channel in Southport.  They have fuel in the bilge and are waiting for towboat. This has not been a good trip for them.

Sunrise yoga in Southport

Fishermen at the Inlet

Once again, strong currents
at the inlet

We passed through Fowley’s Inlet just past high tide.  Depths were good (17 foot +) and the current strong. Pete had to slow down as we were doing 10+mph approaching the inlet.  Of course, once south of the Inlet, we had the current against, but the ride is beautiful.

The winds continued to slowly increase out of the north for most of the day.  Unfortunately, the ICW is very difficult to sail with all the curves and angles.  However, on such a beautiful day neither one of us will complain.

Tired fishing boats

Unique deck in Holden Beach

Horse and riders along the banks

Unusable marina!

Homes come in all colors!

We seemed to catch extreme low tide most of the way down from Shallot’s Inlet. Combine normal low with full moon and things get interesting.  We finally began to fight against the current just north of Little River Bridge and managed 5.3 mph for the last 2 ½ hours of our trip.  That low tide was very dramatic once we entered the Rock Pile.  Some of the rocks were about 3 feet above the water. As we were navigating through one of the narrowest parts, a north bound, 50-foot, fast boat charged up the ICW and within 5 feet of us doing 30+and rocked our boat!

THE ROCK PILE ~

He was only 15 feet from our boat in the center of the channel!

We finally arrived at 4:45 and secured to C Dock on the southern end of the marina.  Once secure, I had some minor chores below and Pete sat up above finally having time to enjoy a good book.  He suddenly called down to me and said that I had to see what’s heading north.  As it turns out it was not one, but two 1000-foot plus dredging “trains.”  The first was a tug, pulling the barge with the dredging machine, another barge with a three-story housing probably for the power, 2 other barges with extra pipes and equipment.  Two smaller work tugs were positioned to keep the “train” in the center of the channel.  The second “train” consisted of the main tug, a barge with equipment and over 600 feet of pipes and floats, once again also being assisted by 2 work tugs. Had our arrival at The Barefoot Marina been delayed another hour or so, I cannot imagine what we would have done once we met them in the Rock Pile. The thing neither one of us can understand is why they did not call out a security periodically to alert south bounder boats of their presence and give the boats a chance to decide how and where to proceed.  We hope that traffic was held north at the Little River Bridge, where there are places to pull off of the channel safely.

THE DREDGING TRAIN ~

We will be staying here at The Barefoot Marina for the next week. Pete flying out to California for business next week.  Bailey and I will stay here to get in some good walks and explore some of the shops across the way.  Probably a bike ride to the grocery store for some minor provisioning.

Well, time to cook dinner so I’ll say good-night.

~~~/) ~~  K & P