aturay SUnday 29-30

Saturday Nov 29/ Sunday Nov 30

Today was a very lazy day...well not lazy because we walked for 45 minutes to the grocery store, and then 45 minutes back! It was quite a hike! But I digress... The Carolina Beach State Park marina is great. We had power, water, showers, fuel and snacks! Unfortunately it was so cold this morning that there was frost on the dock...a little bit slippery! But it warmed up enough that by the time we were ready to go shopping , we were in t-shirts!

 Carla, the Park Ranger was a great information source and very pleasant to deal with.   When we walked out to the main road we passed a visitors center with lots of cool information about the area. Did you know...

They have all the species of meat-eating plants in one area: the pitcher plant, sundew, Venus flytrap, and butterwort. They all need acidic soil, the occasional fire and moisture to grow but the pitcher plant and the Venus flytrap are becoming endangered.

The park is a national wildlife refuge so you can’t take ANYTHING out unless you bought it in.

The whole Carolina coast is made up of a conglomerate rock called someting that sounds like quinoa, containing shells, sand and limestone and when it erodes it crates humungous sinkholes,

I talked to Carla last night about the fallen pine needles. I forget what they are but there are two trees with long needles like a Norfolk pine. In Oriental, in the Art gallery there were woven baskets made of these needles, so me being me thought when I saw them here....but I asked Carla first and she said to walk out to the end of the park and collect them. They have to stay in the park to make the soil acidic enough for the plants.  

I did up the laundry and we went to bed fairly early, so we could get a good start on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning dawned another bright sunny WARM morning. NO rost on the dock

Carla brought me two big bags of pine needles this morning that she gathered on her way to work, just outside the park boundary!!! See? Awesome people! I will have fun with them for a while.

We are about 5 miles from the South Carolina border We are going to try to get there to an anchorage tonight.

The houses are still getting bigger. There is one that I want!  It is a 10-room granny suite attached to a 45 room house with a second floor walkway. Let’s see what we can do, Liz!

The ocean is calm today. We have passed several inlets and it’s tempting to go out there because of the complete morons driving power boats up and down here. And I know they’re not doing it because we’re Canadian; because C-Soul behind us is having the same problem. I am referring to the sport fishers who have 3 -100 horse engines on a 15 foot boat and slalom around us. And wave as they watch us pitch back and forth!

The temperature is supposed to go down to 50F tonight ...that’s about 12C. No socks, no heavy blankets, no sleeping in sweater! If tomorrow is as predicted it will be 70F...not bad for December 1.

I am stating to realize that I am not going to see anyone I care about this Christmas [besides Rick]. I hope this trip will be worth the sacrifice.

So we are anchored in Little River Inlet South Carolina...only just! We went over to the bank and got completely muddy in the water and shells. Not much to see and it was getting dark. We can go back tomorrow. As we pulled in and dropped anchor with C-Soul, the BIG M Casino Cruise ship came up the inlet and turned towards Little River... glad we didn’t have to try to pass him! Although he probably isn’t as stupid as the rest of the power boaters!!

We will see what happens tomorrow. The forecast is for 60+ rest of the week on our route so we want to start slowing down and LOOK at stuff now that its’ getting pleasant.

So talk to you tomorrow!  ANd the cruise ship left in the dark to go up the river...all lit up but too dark to photo.

More military installations

More bigger boats

Resting

Aha! Decorations starting to appear

10 Room granny suite to 45 room main house. Seriously !?!?!

BIgger...

Wouldn't want to be the top boat in a hurricane!

Pirate ship

Giant shrimp boats

Ooops!

Mini shrimper

Trailer campsite ...more my speed

Is he lost??

Friday Nov 28 continued

Friday Nov 28 cont’d

We had a pretty good day traveling down from Mile 265 to Mile 297. We had two bridges to get through and timed it [?] perfectly so we only had to wait for about 20 minutes.

It was cold this morning and the temperature didn’t get much above 50 but the sun is great. As we got ready to leave, watched some people out along the shore oystering? Clamming? Crabbing?They were walking, pulling their boats behind them.

We left the anchorage with the tide but it changed early on n the morning. When the tide is with us we can run at 6 knots but when it turns we slow down to 2.5 in some areas. We are running about 3-5 miles away from the ocean and every so often we catch sight of it over the sand dunes.  

Between Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, there were flat areas where the ocean was very visible and we could see “the elephants dancing”. But the shore is very shallow so it makes the ocean look rougher than it is. On the flats there were fisherman fishing in the shallows and at the same time duck hunters were standing on the dunes firing shotguns. We couldn’t see what they were hunting... the only birds around were seagulls...yuck!  

The houses along the river are still getting bigger. Once in a while there is a small “cottage” that looks manageable..only 10-12 rooms and single level.

Dolphins still fish in the channel and pelicans are getting more plentiful. The egrets stalk along the edge of the grass picking up food and where the banks aren’t sand, they are dunes of shells. If it wasn’t so friggin’ cold, we’d stop, launch the dinghy and explore these islands...hopefully in Georgia and Florida we can do that.

We travelled as far as Carolina Beach and are docked in the State park. Great docks... $30.00/ night. That’s less than $1.00/ft which is CHEAP. We are going to walk to the Food Lion tomorrow to do some groceries and then get some laundry done. There is so much condensation in the boat, our stuff gets wet and musty. And boiling the kettle for dishes and tea doesn’t help. We will probably stay here for 2 nights just so we can get some exercise.

Fishing on the beach...looks like Sauble

Pay to park while you wait for the bridge???

Egrets fishing

That's some dock decoration! Keeps out intruders...Ursula?

Wrightsville Beach. Wall-to-wall boats and condos

We didn't pay to park...we timed it right!

Wrightsville Beach...check out cross traffic!

C-Soul passing us AGAIN!

Side road to the ocean... see the water change direction

elephants dancing

Military fishing exercise???

Black Friday Nov 28

Black Friday Nov.28

Anyone know why it's called that? me neither, except on GMA they said it's because the Chicago police started calling it that for the chaos it cause every last Friday of Nov (about 30 days til Christmas)

Anyway for those reading this blog, I have changed the settings and I think that you can now leave comments, so give it a try and see if I did it right!

This morning is cold and we think that we were hit with shotgun pellets this morning from duck hunters. It sound like someone knocking on the hull and the only boat close enough to do that still had their dinghy tied to the back deck! We aren't sinking so no damage.

THis will be a slow morning. We spent Thanksgiving with Gail and Mark. On the way back to our boat we grounded the dinghy...can you believe it? Rick had to WALK us back to our boat. The water was cold...only 12 degrees. Unfortunately their boat was grounded too ... damned sandbars... so we waited for high tide at midnight to see if they needed help getting off.  Gail texted me at 2 am to say they were off and had moved. This morning they are in front of us in deep [4.5 ft] water and we will retrieve our anchors  before taking off. Unfortunately there's nowhere to go today. Wrightsville Beach is only 20 miles... three hours, and the next stop is 50 miles away. Its cold today and warming up by Sunday to not freezing but the winds are still strong and we aren't sure why but they are constantly on the nose!
So later today we will let you know where we are  and post more exciting pictures!

Thanksgiving #2 Thursday Nov 27

Morning sky

Ominous clouds south of us

Strange finials on the posts

Not sure what the sign was for

Taking off

No anchoring? No kidding !!!

GO faster!

How big do they need to be?

Live fire targets

Passing wind in the wrong direction!

Setting the second anchor

Thanksgiving #2 Thursday Nov 27

So what kind of a day was this? Well, first thing this morning we woke up to bright sun on the north side and ominous clouds on the south side, but we figured if we went fast enough we could duck under the clouds and come out the other side, and we were right! It was a bright sunny day with lots of wind...on the nose!

We decide to go 35 miles today to an anchorage because there were no marinas between Mile 229 and 285 so we didn’t have a lot of choice. We weren’t going to be able to run for more than 7 hours and no-one likes traveling in the dark at this time of year.

The other problem is the bridges that only open on the hour or half hour. If you miss one, you wait for another hour, and we had two to get through today. Luckily we hit them just right so we didn’t have to wait, but the faster boats. C-Soul and Cynthia Gale, a monohull that was anchored in the same area last night, had to wait for them. As we approached the first bridge the bridge master asked if we had heard the securité about the car that was floating in the river. Apparently a car had driven off the road sometime in the previous 12 hours and along with the barricade it dragged in, was floating somewhere in the channel, so we should be careful. He had no idea what colour it was, which wasn't helpful at all. The people had been rescued but the car was still MIA along with the barricade.  We didn’t see it or hit it!

The trip today was just as fascinating as it is every day...bigger houses, now on stilts so when storms come in the basements don’t flood. The houses are all different...not rows of boxes. And all colours.

There were lots of dolphins again today and pelican. They are not the brightest bids either. A few of them skimmed the water beside the boat then dropped in front of us!

The winds came up even more today, and I grounded us again! I was sailing into the sun and couldn’t see the markers, and was slaloming between the crab pots! I didn’t realize the wind had pushed me off the channel but I managed to stop before I went hard aground. We backed off and got back into the channel. Later on when we caught up to C-Soul and Cynthia Gale under the bridge, there was a tug pushing.

Cynthia Gale called him and said” Captain do you see those sailboats in front of you?” 

C-Soul had moved off the channel out of his way.

“Yeah, Cap’n I see ya’. Ya’ might want t’get outta the way.”

So we moved over out of the channel into 2 feet of water!

We are anchored in Topsail Basin and having Thanksgiving dinner with Gail and Mark.  She has made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and corn muffins. We are taking sweet potatoes and oatmeal cookies and homemade bread. Dinner was awesome and there is a clear sky tonight with lots of stars. The winds have died down and we are sitting still with two anchors out. And I am very thankful to have Gail and Mark as new friends. They have made this trip even more fun!