Back on the waterway again...

After two weeks, we are leaving Southport at 11 am today.  Why 11 am and not some ungodly boater hour like 6 am?  Because. The Shallotte Inlet at mile marker 329 has to be passed at high tide, which is 2 pm.  Hereabouts, cruising is built around the tides, or you pay.  And we ain't making no more payments.

A big kudo to Zimmerman's Yacht Yard in Southport, NC.  Thanking the gods that we had all our troubles here, because this is one of the, if not THE, premier boat repair place on the ICW.  Balboita is ready for bear.

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What's its like to be boatless and dogless in anywhere?

Well, we had it pretty good.  Nice digs at Lois Jane's Riverside Inn, where Innkeeper Kelly heroically moved us from room to room to fit us into a mostly-full B&B.  Yay Kelly.

Kelly and Sebastian at Riverside Inn

We had a beautifully strange view from one of our rooms.

This is at the intersection of the Cape Fear River and the ICW...where cargo ships, freighters and barges mix it up with southbound snowbirds.  While we were here, one biggie went aground for all the world to see and even made it on the front page of the local paper and television.  Click on link and be amazed to see what current can do:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article183407551.html

Being dogless in Anywhere was probably hardest.  You reach over to pet the hairy little guy who's supposed to be cuddled beside you and there is....air.  And to beat all, everybody wanted to know how the dogs were doing.  The humans didn't count.

Can't complain about meals.  We had a classic B&B breakfast every morning: cheese omlet, sausage, bacon, fruit, orange juice, pancakes, banana muffins, bisquits with gravy....Not all at once, but a surprise each day.  

Then, there is the ever-favorite: lunch at waterfront places.  The pick of this day was The Yacht Basin.

Couple in different temperature zones

I scream

Halloween not over.  Or ready for next year

Gratuitous sunset photo op...

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The seminar.

Southport Marina has this incredible service.  It's a nightly seminar to educate boaters about ICW trouble spots from here to the Georgia border.  Whew.  If you are new to the topic, it seems there are more trouble spots than not.  Shallow here, shoaling there, marker missing, etc. etc.  There was a newbie in attendance and I could see the sweat pouring off of him, punctuated by a "oh my god" every now and then.

Money has been a problem for dredging the ICW.  The lack of it. NC has none.  Georgia just got some, but can't spend it because of some environmental issue which obviously doesn't include humans and their boats.  So, I get the feeling the ICW is in trouble and people are going to be less and less inclined to keep going aground to get to Florida or the Bahamas.  

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Destination today: Myrtle Beach Yacht Club.

This "yacht club" at MM 346 only costs $1.25 a foot with 25 cents off for Boat US members.  And take a look at what you get:  http://myrtlebeachyachtclub.com/

So, Vicki suited up.

Boots on the ground for 40 degrees

Bye bye to little pink tow boat at marina

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That's all folks

Boatless in Southport

Balboita is still in the hospital...

For those of you dying to know...the best-case scenario for splash-down is Friday.  Nice marine insurance inspector showed up yesterday -- in record time -- wrote a report, and the work is underway.  

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The accidental locals...

That's us.  Temporary Southport residents living in a B&B for the last week and counting.  I usually avoid B&Bs because they're full of chotskies (tchotchkes) that I'm afraid to turn around in the rooms.  

Chotskies

However, we have a little apartment with a kitchenette and no chotskies.  Just necessities like coffee maker and microwave.  

B&Bs are like funeral homes.  In both cases, the buildings don't depend on people to exist and live on even after the guests have left.  And then..... there are the flowers.  Everywhere.  (This is what happens to your thinking if you watch "Six Feet Under," a TV comedy series about running a funeral home.)

Living at a B&B makes you feel like a kid with a nice family taking care of you.  Big breakfast ready for you at 8:30, drop into the kitchen to get some orange juice or cream for coffee.  

Here are some pix of Riverside Inn.

As you can see, no people.

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Dinner is across the street.....

At Oliver's, which looks like this from the outside.

And like this on the inside.

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Guess who's coming to breakfast...

You'd think the guests would give you something to talk about behind their backs.  Not at all. They're all very normal.  So disappointing.  

At wine and cheese time last night, we got into a discussion with a couple from Bay Ridge in Annapolis, who love old sports cars.  Here is their Jaguar which they drove here to Riverside.

This got me thinking about my 1967 Volvo P1800 that I drove when I first got married.  

Soooooo, something finally got on my bucket list.  I wouldn't mind driving around Annapolis in this.  Probably would cost me about $25,000.  (Balboita, watch out)

Old sports cars are another world.  I learned there are three kinds:  barn cars, drivable cars and precious somethings that get carted around to shows. 

Barn cars look like this and can be gotten for $3,000 to $8,000, and may never be drivable. 

(I exaggerate, of course)

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Channeling classic 1964 Coast Guard fashion...

A little over 34 miles off the coast of Southport is a kind of B&B called Frying Pan Tower.  There you can rent rooms and get an experience to talk about during happy hour.  The tower originally served as a light house on the Frying Pan Shoals off the coast.  

All eight rooms are water view and have such amenities as lights and running water.  Cost is $598 for two nights, three days, giving you enough time to kill off any of your fellow guests.  (Note: you have to arrange for transportation by boat or helicopter.)  

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 For those who have been to Southport...

Some oldies....

Riverside Motel (where did the water go?)

Das beach

Das waterfront

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 That's all folks...

Still, the notion of U-boat crews routinely landing and moving undetected among the civilian population seems highly implausible at this point.
The stories, however, do point to the emotions felt by many Americans during the first six months of World War II, during what author James T. Cheatham called “the Atlantic Turkey Shoot.”
From January to July 1942, some 347 civilian vessels were sunk or severely damaged by German submarine attacks off the U.S. Atlantic Coast. The threat was severe, since oil pipelines generally did not extend east of the Mississippi before the war — meaning that most of the Eastern Seaboard’s supply of gasoline and petroleum products was shipped by vulnerable oil tankers.
The Germans’ offensive was made easier because U.S. officials were slow to enforce blackouts along the East Coast. (U-boats were reputed to use the brightly lit Lumina pavilion at Wrightsville Beach as a
For a brief period, the U-boats seemed invincible. No wonder people thought the German crew members could come ashore and wander around with impunity — even take in a movie.
U-boat losses fell sharply after July 1942, when blackouts were finally imposed and “dim-outs” were ordered for cars and small boats in coastal areas. In July 1942, U.S. 74 and 76 were temporarily closed near the coast, out of concern that submarines were “assisted by lights from motor vehicles,” according to the Associated Press. Such restrictions were not relaxed until well into 1943.

The end of no-drma

On the hard again...

Balboita takes a hit...

Balboita is residing at Zimmerman's Yacht Yard in Southport, NC, getting significant repairs.  (I had to use an old photo of an earlier repair since I don't have a current one.)

What happened?  Well, we were waiting for the Surf City, NC, swing bridge to open along with about 10 other boats when, whoosh, the current from hell pushed us hard aground.  We got off, but later we would learn the price. 

Ten miles down the ICW at sunset, the steering went out.  Have you ever had the steering go out on anything?  It's like hitting ice in your car and then just sliding down a hill, the prisoner of a pissed-off god.

We bow-thrusted (new word) to the side of the ICW, dropped the anchor, lit up the boat like a cruise ship and attempted to sleep because there was nothing else we could do.  Barry, the master mechanic fixed the steering in the morning (something about tightening a clamp).  But reverse drive made clunking sounds like a pile driver.  We were not out of the woods.

Limping into Southport Marina and then limping over to Zimmermans Yacht Yard for a haul out.  Results are not good.   Prop, rudder, steering and other connections at the stern are badly damaged by the grounding.  The prop going to Wilmington for hoped-for repair, because new ones are expensive.  All this will take at least a week.  

So, we had to find a place for us and the Sheltie bros to stay, which turned out to have to be separate.  Doggies are at a nearby pet camp and we are at the perfect place called Lois Jane's Riverside Inn in Southport.  The gods apparently felt sorry for us because both places can't be beat.

Riverside Inn

Surf City Swing Bridge has a reputation...

Somehow we never experienced this awful current in the eight times we're been up and down the ICW.

Surf City swing bridge having a good day.

Looks pretty innocent.  Well, waiting underneath is a current with a bad attitude.  Turns out more than one boater has gotten caught in the swirl and even hit the bridge.  Somehow, we've been out of the loop.

The best news I've heard all day is that this bridge is about to be replaced with a 65-foot high-rise one, so no more openings and dealing with the current.  The bad news is it's not until September 2019.

That's all folks.

Five days and counting

Morehead City, NC, a mixed message...

For a resort town, it's not very exotic looking.  The view down the road from our marina.....

Route 70/Arendell St. (find the palm tree)

But.  It's got lots of stores and really good restaurants.  Took the courtesy car to West Marine and Best Buy, which amused us for a couple of hours.  Then, to make us feel really at home, we ordered a vacuum cleaner and a printer from Amazon Prime to be delivered tomorrow.  Our vacuum cleaner died from dog hair and our printer died from falling on the floor during a fishing boat wake. 

Question of the day: Why would any waterfront town allow itself to be called Morehead City?  Is it named after some indigenous peoples named the Moreheads? 

No, it was pretty much invented by Gov. John Motley Morehead, North Carolina governor, 1841 - 1845.  He saw economic potential in this central ICW location, so he and some friends bought a lot of property and developed it.  Thus, it does not have much of a fishing village feel like Oriental or Beaufort.

And, it's got Floyd's 1921...

Floyd's has incredible food and is a short walk over a field next to our marina.  Being a curious person, I looked up how it got its name.  Turns out, Floyd's 1921 was invented in 2005.  I give up.

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Speaking of fishing boats...

This guy next to us went out yesterday and came back with this...

Wahoo up the gazoo.  Some of which ended up with us...

Two pounds of ready-to-eat Wahoo (I know, we don't deserve it).

In the interest of more useless information, the name Wahoo is derived from the name Oahu due to the abundance of these fish near to the Hawaiian island.

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Back to more boatie looking stuff...

Our dock

And nasty boatie-looking stuff...

Over our heads as of 10:30 am.  Good old tropical something-or-other Philippe.  We're the little, whimpy-looking, defenseless blue dot.

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Well, that's all folks.

From River Dunes in Oriental to Morehead City, NC

Wing and wing...

This is a shrimp boat on the Neuse River, NC.  Many on the river, all looking like giant white wasps. 

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The Marines have landed with "Operation Bold Alligator"...

Snowbirds coming down the ICW  have run into the unexpected closing of Camp Lejeune in NC.  The Camp occupies a 6 mile stretch along the waterway and regularly does military exercises, but boaters can usually go through at certain hours. 

However, this is a big one involving NATO, which has closed traffic for most of the week.  The lack of publicity about the extent of the closure caught boaters off guard, forcing them to find last-minute anchorages or slips to wait it out.   Barry and I will have been at Morehead City Yacht Basin, NC, for five days if weather lets us leave on Monday.

(It may surprise non-boaters to know that military exercises using live ammunition happen right on the ICW.  However, it's not like the Marines can move their camp somewhere else.)

"Operation Bold Alligator" (is there a non-bold alligator?) is a an amphibious operation that simulates a real wartime scenario.

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The weather and Halloween anyway...
 

Looking west this morning from Morehead City.  Tonight, more big blow.

Despite the weather, no tricks, just treats.

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The Bros report...

Latest official portrait of hairiest boat dogs in the marina

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Pain in the neck...

Skipper demonstrates (sorta) how an iPad Tablift Stand
can reduce strain on neck while reading.  (Bought originally for Vicki's pain in the neck.)

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Cruising Compass' photo of the week...

Look familiar?  This pix of Anchorage made it as Cruising Compass' pix of the week.  No prize money, just bragging rights.  :)

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That's all folks...

Here we are....

ALLIGATOR APOCALYPSE...

But, I exaggerate.  This picture is a little unfair, although it's a real sunset two nights ago when we anchored in the Alligator River. 

I hate the Alligator River and this picture represents my inner-most feelings. Three years ago, we anchored in the Alligator on the way down the Intracoastal Waterway.   Around 2 am, we hear a thump, a very quiet thump.  Shining a flashlight, we see a tree stump up against the side of Balboita, like she's a lollipop on a stick.  We have dragged anchor into what the locals call the Log Camp, a graveyard of dead trees at the side of the river.  We are stuck.

We call the Coast Guard.  No answer for a long time. We feel very alone and afraid.  I visualize the stick working its way through the lollipop.  

The answer comes from Axom Smith, tow boat owner 20 miles away in Belhaven, NC.  Axom was asleep when he took the call to come rescue us.  He says we have to wait until dawn.  In boating, dawn can be a long time coming.  And when it did, our anchorage looked like this.

  Log Camp, Alligator River, NC

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Fast forward: this year our anchorage looked like this.

Monet's version of the Alligator.

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Photo ops along the first 173 miles of the ICW.

Das barge from cockpit.

Strange-looking houses on ICW

Find the pelicans on the channel marker.

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Finally, ta da.

We arrive at the best place along the ICW.  River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC.

River Dunes club house

River Dunes drops my blood pressure by 10 points.  We are staying  here for two days, maybe three.  A nasty front is coming through tonight.  It has a class A restaurant.  I like being a fair weather sailor.

Club house view

Balboita, no longer alone 

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And this is the sailor I am:  one part complaint and one part shear happiness.  

Vicki and the bros on the ICW.