Blog of Events & Happenings

A small craft advisory is still posted for the Neuse River that we’ll have to pass through on the next leg of the journey.  Further, it appears we need to have a propeller repaired or replaced due to the grounding.  We’ll discuss schedules with the boatyard tomorrow morning and decide what we are going to do.  Part of the reason for this trip was to determine if this boat is the right one for our boating.  We have decided it is too small for what we enjoy doing on the water.  Carey can’t stand up to walk around the bed to make it up in the morning, not to mention the real problem… the absence of safely negotiable decking for her to reach the bow and handle lines.   She really doesn’t like that.  So the boat is history some time in the near future.  How soon, we’ll decide.  The ability to go faster does not make up for the room we are are used to having. And, the engine noise prevents reasonable conversation.  Another near term consideration is the pipeline ransomware attack that closed down the NE fuel pipeline.  The Governors of NC and VA have declared states of emergency due to dry pumps!  Steve, owner of Town Creek Marina, said he is getting one fuel fill-up tomorrow and his supplier says no more for a while.  He is worried about hoarding of fuel and deciding who will get the fuel he will have.  We are seeing long lines at the gas pumps here.  Hope it is not happening where you are.

We’ll decide how to proceed after talking to the boatyard tomorrow morning, then move ahead.

High Wind Blowing — over 25 knots today.  Glad we’re tied to a pier.  The Neuse River wouldn’t be the place to be with this blow!  So, it’s a weather day, for sure.  The boat yard doesn’t work Monday so with our weather day we also had a second Sunday.  Tomorrow morning we hope the yard can confirm all is ok with the boat and the wind decreases enough to make passage up the Neuse, that’s very wide and really rough in high winds.

We did make a good day of it.  Carey used the courtesy car to do some shopping and then cleaning.  I did a bit of work.  Then we relaxed as the rain started and the wind still howled.  In the evening, Carey cooked a great flank steak and with salad and bread — a great meal.

We always knew that in boating you could say we’ll meet you some place or on a certain date, but you never put a place and time together because that’s often leads to unsafe boating.  We’re coming to Virginia and Maryland.  We’ll get there and we’ll let you know when we do!   On this blog, we keep everyone informed.  So far we are still on for this coming weekend in Colonial Beach.  We’ll see if something changes the schedule tomorrow.  Luckily, our folks definitely understand and wish us a safe trip.  So looking forward to seeing everybody!

Here is Apolonia at the windy slip and a quick picture of the Town Creek Marina where we are moored.

Another good performance by the boat.  It was performing great as we approached mile 100 of the 110 miles to our today’s destination, Beaufort, NC.  Then Phil makes a mistake.  High winds and crowded conditions and I moved slightly left of channel on Bogue Sound at low tide.  Yes, you guessed it.  We ran aground.  Tow Boat was quickly on the scene and we are now safely at Town Center Marina, in Beaufort, which is also a boat yard.  So, we’ll have them check out the boat in the morning.  Wish us well.  I don’t think there’s any major damage, but we’ll have the professionals tell us so.  Then we’ll rework our schedule if needed.  Getting to be a habit on this trip!

Maddie and I planned a little Mother’s Day celebration for Carey this morning and I intended to take her out to dinner.  The grounding stopped that plan.  I’ll make it up soon.  In the meantime, wine, cheese, crackers and shrimp cocktail was tonight’s dinner fare.  Not so bad.

Hope all had a Happy Mother’s Day!  BTW, Beaufort, NC is a lovely small town….as is Beaufort, SC.  Both are always on our itineraries.

Left Georgetown at 7:30 AM and had an easy trip, including 3 of the worst shoaling areas on the ICW; Lockwood’s Folly, Shallotte Inlet, and Little River Inlet…all just north of Myrtle Beach.  The first two have been dredged, eliminating concerns for a while, and the third appears to be stable and when we went thru today at dead low tide we never saw less than 6 feet of water. Some definite improvements over the last decade and half in care of the waterways!

Stopped at Osprey Marine, south of Myrtle Beach, to fuel as they have the cheapest fuel on the waterway, then continued on to St. James Marina in Southport, NC about 3 PM, an 88 mile trip.  Had time to top off the tanks again, relax, drink a little wine, and firm up plans for the rest of the trip to Virginia and Maryland.  We’re now 400 miles from Colonial Beach and friends and to family and grandkids in Annapolis.  Looking forward to seeing some baseball, T-ball, and soccer games in Annapolis.

Still planning a Friday 14 May arrival in Colonial Beach, with stops at Beaufort, NC, Belhaven, NC, Coinjock, NC, Deltaville, VA, and Olverson’s Marina in Lottsburg, VA. along the way.  We’ve checked the weather, prayed to the boat mechanical gods, and are optimistic.  Let’s see what happens!   We’ll be moving on to Annapolis on the 17th, ready for a big birthday celebration for daughter Lauren on the 21st.

Another day of great performance by the boat.  Think it’s just not been used over the years and needed this day after day trip to work out the kinks. Not that unusual for seldom run boats.  Still questionable this is the boat for us to cruise on, but we’re giving it a good test.

There appear to be few COVID concerns on the ICW.  Places are busy… people out and about.  Few wearing masks.  Restaurants where servers wear masks are rare.   Let’s hope folks are getting vaccinated.   We wouldn’t have embarked on the trip without our vaccine shots.  We follow science, as well as charts!

Here are a few pictures from today.

Underway this morning with the help of several of the transient boaters at 7:30 AM.  One boater was jealous.  He recently bought a new Regal 40+ foot cabin cruiser and is on his 5th engine replacement.  Apparently Regal, trying to save money and weight, reduced the strength of the hull and the engines are not being properly supported.  They just vibrate themselves to death.  He wants to go boating but just now has a condo.

Winds were above 15 knots but we were in fairly protected waters so moved fairly rapidly.  We stopped at St John’s Marina, near Charleston, and fueled then continued on to Georgetown, probably our favorite stop.  We lucked out with fairly clear waterways and pulled into Harbor Walk Marina in Georgetown at 5 PM.  A 135 mile trip completed in 9.5 hours.  A good day.  The boat performed flawlessly, finally.

Carey took me to River Room Restaurant for dinner, our favorite on the ICW.  We’re now back on  board and ready for our trip to South Port tomorrow.  We’re hoping the winds die down somewhat.  And, we’ll have a tough day making South Port as we have a lot of no-wake zones to travel through.  We’ll see how it ends up.