Mer Sea

We left Charleston well-provisioned and ready for anchoring out for a few days. The weather was breezy, but not really bad, and we were in extremely protected waters. Our first anchorage was a place we’d found through “Skipper Bob.” This is a guy who has traveled the Great Loop and Intracoastal Waterway extensively, and has written several books covering these areas, describing anchorages, marinas, navigational hazards, and giving lots of other useful information. People who cruise these areas can send him the most current information about places in his books, and he updates the books yearly. He also maintains a website that has the MOST up to date navigational information about the ICW. What a great service he performs!

 

At any rate, this particular anchorage is a bit tricky to get into, and there are precise instructions in the book, which we attempted to follow. With only moderate success. We traveled way up the creek looking for the perfect spot, then backtracked and finally settled on a spot. What makes the perfect spot? Well, wind protection, for one, and not all anchorages have it, or have it from all directions. No trees, no protection. And this was still “low country”, so mostly marsh, so wind protection wasn’t going to be very good – but we knew that going in. Okay, so what else? Well, “swing room.” When you’re at anchor, you’re floating freely, attached by one spot to the bottom. If there’s no wind or current shift, you should stay pretty much where you start, but if the wind or current shifts, you’re going to move in a circle around your point of attachment. So you have to decide if the water’s deep enough all the way around for you to swing and not end up on the bottom! In this part of South Carolina, there’s lots of tide and lots of tidal current. The current changes direction when the tide changes direction. And that brings us to the next big consideration: tides and depth. Where is the tide now, as you’re entering the anchorage? Will the water be getting deeper (tide coming in) or shallower (tide going out), and by how much? How much anchor chain do you need to put out to compensate for the changing depth? This brings us back to “swing room” as well – of course it’s all interrelated! So there are a lot of things to consider.

 

Our job was made easier because we were the first ones into the anchorage, so we could pick our spot, which we did. We were later joined by 4 or 5 more boats, and they had a more difficult time of it, since their choices were limited by us and OUR swing radius.

 

Although there wasn’t lots of wind protection, the anchorage turned out to be just fine. We had a nice night and got underway early the next morning, entering one of my favorite parts of the ICW, the Waccamaw River. This river is broad, deep, and densely wooded on both sides. Spring is just springing, so everything is that lovely brilliant new green, and some of the trees are in bloom. There are wild flowers and birds of all description, and it is an absolutely lush and beautiful part of the trip!

 

Our next anchorage was just a little bight called the “oxbow” right on the river – there’s a small island separating the bight from the rest of the river, and it gives some protection from passing wakes and any winds. We were nosing around in the bight looking for “our spot” when the other boat in there called us on the radio and gave us some tips on the best spots and where we’d find the best holding. Typical boater: looking out for each other! We had one false start, when the anchor didn’t set properly (we put the boat in reverse and pull on the anchor to see how it does before we say “Okay, we’re set!”), but the second time she dug in, and we were there!

 

We lowered our dinghy to take a dinghy ride on the river – just for the fun of taking it out, but also to give it some exercise! We had a fun ride (we really love our new dinghy and motor!), and refined the way we get the motor from Mer Sea onto the dink (part of our “weight reduction” program for Mer Sea’s transom was to transport the dinghy motor inboard in the cockpit, and put it on the dinghy when we want to use it), and when we got back to Mer Sea we took the motor off the dinghy and I took the dink out for a row! I have always loved rowing: it’s quiet, peaceful, and good exercise to boot! I rowed over to the shoreline of the anchorage, and just floated peacefully, only occasionally dipping an oar into the water to direct my floating, and just listened. As I have mentioned, spring is in full spring, and the birds know it! Here is a list of the birds I heard in the woods: cardinal, chickadee, tufted titmouse, great crested flycatcher, pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, blue gray gnatcatcher, and those were only the ones I recognized! I inspected the little flowers that were blooming along the shoreline, and I examined the small waterlillies that were also in bloom. It was a nature-lover’s paradise!!

 

The next day we left the Waccamaw, and headed for Southport, NC. I expected to be losing both phone and internet service, as I had in the past upon entering North Carolina, but Verizon must be making inroads, because we’ve had service in almost all of the state. Our plans called for a small, very protected anchorage (again, from Skipper Bob – he says the locals use it as a “hurricane hole”), which was a good thing, because the weather indicated that there was some “bad stuff” coming. We followed the directions and found the anchorage, but it was pretty crowded, and we weren’t finding the kind of depths that we could be comfortable in, so we left and secured a berth in a marina. It turned out to be a nasty storm, with very high winds and lots of thunder and lightning, so we ended up being happy to be secure and protected in a marina, with lots of lines attaching us to the dock!

 

The next day was calm and beautiful, and we set out to conquer the shallow spots along the North Carolina coast portion of the ICW. We studied our tide tables and planned our departure time and speed to try to catch the worst spots at high or rising tides. We made it through with minimal angst, and pulled into a familiar anchorage at Wrightsville Beach. We took the dinghy ashore (I insisted on rowing – it was a lot harder with an additional body in the dink and wind to contend with, but I did it!) and wandered around Wrightsville Beach for a bit. We walked to the beach and looked out at the ocean, and admired the beautiful blue color and the calm. We said to each other that this would be a great day to be on the “outside.” This is much on our minds, as we will have several “outside” runs when we get to New Jersey. We’ve never been in the ocean – only very protected inland waters- and we have some healthy trepidation about what the ocean may be like. So when we get the chance to take a look, we do so, and speculate about what it would be like to be “out there” now, what it might be like when we have to make our runs, wouldn’t it be nice if it were like this, and so forth.

 

We left Wrightsville Beach and set out to cover the last really shallow and difficult spots on the trip, especially the New River Inlet. Again, we’d tried to coordinate tides, etc., so that we’d hit it when there was the most water. Boy, I can’t even imagine what it must be like at low water: we had as little as 5’ in some places! But we came through, and even stopped to fuel up at a place that has the cheapest price for diesel we’ve paid in a long time: $2.23/gal. New River Marina, for you boaters out there. It’s pretty much self-service as far as the docking goes, but the price is certainly right! Another marina operator told us that they pump tons of fuel for the many military vessels, etc., and that’s how they can get it and sell it for so little (well, by comparison…we’ve seen it as high as $3.13/gal). I would only recommend going there at high tide, however – it’s right before the inlet, and doesn’t have much water!

 

Our anchorage that night was one where we’d stayed before. It’s actually surrounded by Marine Corps property (camp Le Jeune is right there) and they do lots of practice flying of various helicopter and helicopter-like aircraft right overhead. It’s quite a show! A bit loud, but spectacular, nonetheless. Roy, especially, enjoyed watching them.

 

We arrived in Beaufort, NC on a lovely, sunny day. We’ve never been in that area before when the sun was shining, and it was great fun to walk around and enjoy the town. I immediately identified several restaurants that I’d like to try, and informed Roy that we’d be eating out several times while there. We were supposed to meet our friends, Paul and Michelle, but unfortunately that didn’t work out this time. In spite of that disappointment, we had a great time. The marina is right on the main promenade boardwalk of the town, and Mer Sea had many admirers! We enjoyed staying put for a couple of days, getting laundry done, borrowing the courtesy car to grocery shop, and snooping the many little shops in Beaufort. We also had one truly great meal! A restaurant that serves its food tapas-style, as in small dishes designed to share, even though the cuisine isn’t Spanish. The food was superb! And not overly expensive. We should have just gone back there a couple of times, and certainly will when next we’re in town!

 

We left Beaufort sooner than originally planned since we couldn’t hook up with Paul and Michelle. The navigator got a little cocky and didn’t check the cruising guide before leaving, which was a mistake, as there are several choices of route, and only one right one. Not the one you’d necessarily choose. Not the one she chose. We were steaming along at a leisurely pace, when, suddenly, we stopped. UGH! We’d run aground. We looked at the chart. We looked at our GPS. We looked at our depth finder. Yep, we were aground, alright! Roy slowly powered us off (fortunately, the ICW bottom is mostly sand, so it’s difficult to do much real damage – you just sand the paint off the bottom of the boat) slowly, and started to try to maneuver us around, and UGH, we were aground again! At this point we decided to use the “local knowledge” trick, and called TowBoat US and told them where we were and asked how we should proceed to get into navigable waters. Those guys are so helpful! He told us exactly what to do (exactly what was in the cruising guide…), which we did and had no more problems. Okay, lesson learned. Apparently the channel on the chart has been silted in by hurricanes and is no longer navigable.

 

Looking at the weather before we left Beaufort, we saw that there were a couple of fronts coming our way. We had three fairly large, open bodies of water to cross in the coming days, so decided to alter our plans so as to cross them before the really bad weather hit. It turns out to have been an excellent choice!

 

We stayed at a marina in Belhaven that had lots of marsh land around it, and I have never seen so many purple martins in my life! In Georgia I’d seen lots of purple martin houses, and even sold a few to customers, but I’d never actually seen the birds. Well, throughout this trip so far, I’ve seen quite a few martin houses along the waterway, many of them obviously occupied, but in Belhaven I got to observe up close and personal. WOW! The house was packed, with many hanging out on the “porch” as well, and ALL OVER the marina, and around the docks, the birds flew and darted and dove and swooped and even dipped in the water! It was an acrobatic display to amaze. And they were loud, too. Chittering and calling and extremely gregarious. Even before light (for all I know they kept it up all night!) when I got up in the morning, they were noisy. Not unpleasantly so, but it was just surprising.

 

We made a long run from Belhaven so as to cross the last of the “sounds” in calm weather. And calm it was. Almost eerily so – and the light was so strange, bright, but hazy in the distance, and we were the only boats going by our route, it was like we were the only ones in the world. It was beautiful and strange. We arrive in Elizabeth City, and the wind has picked up, and not just the wind, but the water is extremely rough. Extremely. I mean, we were bouncing all over the place! Backing into the slip was definitely going to be a challenge! I’m proud to say that Captain Roy did a great job! Good thing, too, because there was a group of about six other boaters standing in front of the marina office watching. Y’all know that docking is a spectator sport, right? Well, I don’t know if they were disappointed, but there was very little drama!

 

So we’ll enter the Dismal Swamp when we leave here. There are two choices to get from Albermarle Sound (the last one we crossed) to Portsmouth. One is called the “Virginia Cut”, which is just that: a man-made cut, with predictable depths and not much interest. That’s what we’ve done before. The other is called the Dismal Swamp, and it goes through said swamp, which can be shallow, and can have lots of flotsam and things under the water, and branches, etc. overhead, but is natural and full of wildlife, and much more interesting. So we’re going to try that this time. A chance for another adventure!