October 19th-23 ... Coinjock NC to New River Inlet
Wow...it
is hard to believe that five days have gone by since I last
sat down to write! We have been pushing hard and are now at
mile 205 just inside of the New River Inlet about 40
miles north of Wrightsville Beach. Lets see now, where was
I.....
The Albermarle Sound crossing was a long day as we went
about 55 miles in total. Thankfully the weather was cold but
settled. ...we were snug in our cabin all night but the cold
temperatures have got to stop! We had frost on the ground as
we left Coinjock but with no wind the Albermarle was like a
lake... unlike several past encounters with this often nasty
stretch. (We used to call it Barf Sound...Remember Chris??)
Today the temperature rose to near 70 and the wind
moderated and we motored another 50 miles down the waterway
and down into the Alligator River (saw no gators). We pulled
up at mile 102 to anchor in a sheltered cove with about 10
other boats. The wind died entirely and we had a great
dinner off the barbeque and watched a beautiful sunset.
There's another Irwin at anchor here (a 38 by the name of
Kintyre flying a Scottish flag from the spreaders). I hailed
them in the dark and it turns out that the wife Carolyn is from
Aberdeen Scotland and Alan and she are from Buzzards Bay MA and have
sold their house & cars to go cruising too. Her father
played soccer for Aberdeen in the 30's so it is possible
that my dad and hers played ball against each other...how's
that for coincidences.
Not much else to report, we have a short 30 mile jaunt
tomorrow to Bellhaven NC where we'll do some provisioning.
The trip to Bellhaven had us into the docks by noon after
a beautiful warm trip with the temperature climbing into the
70's ...shorts & T-shirts again thankfully. Nice little
town and we used the marina's courtesy car to get some
groceries and we also scrubbed down the boat which was
getting rather crusty with salt!
Sunday we pushed on to Oriental which is a very small
town of about 700 people and a nice little harbor where we
anchored out. In town, there is an excellent marine &
hardware store where we bought a few necessities and
there's also a nice little coffee shop with ice cream, great
coffees and homemade muffins and pretty decent bagels...well
worth the stop. I took the dinghy in to the docks in the AM
for a second run at the coffee and bagels! The harbor is
full of large shrimp boats and it looks like a scene out of
Forest Gump!
Next stop along the way was the small city of Beaufort
NC, (Bow-Fort) which has a truly lovely renovated main
street full of shops and restaurants facing their public
docks. This town is supported by the sea as the Beaufort
inlet is a major port of entry for vessels either jumping
off into the Atlantic or coming in for a breather. We really
liked the town and will plan to spend a couple of days here
on the way back north. We grabbed the marina courtesy car
& went to a seafood store for some fresh shrimp...Jan
cooked up an excellent shrimp paella (sp?) which was a first
for me but hopefully nnot a last! The channel from the ICW
to the Town Creek Marina was a bit tricky so we were grateful
to have good direction from Ray & Betty who had
been there before.
After dinner we all got together on Camaraderie along
with another couple (on Early Out...another Calibre 40 like
Ray's) who we had met along the way. We had a nice chat
about the ICW ahead, fuel filters and lots of other
interesting guy stuff. Then is was off to bed ...zzzzz.
We woke up early today and had an early indication of the
way it was going to go when Jan stepped off the boat and a
lifeline fitting decided to unscrew itself and deposit
itself at the bottom of the bay. Now, normally a marina with
a marine store could accommodate such problems easily but
this ONE fitting had a REVERSE thread on it and nothing I
had in my nuts and bolts jar or they had in their service
department would fit. We ended up using a hose clamp to
temporarily hold things in place. With about 45 miles to go
to the New River Inlet....we started out about 8:15 on
another beautiful day and traveled inn back of the barrier
island sand dunes past Emerald Isle along the way.
The water has begun turning a
light teal green and the water temperature is up in the mid
70's ...about 12 degrees warmer than the Chesapeake! About
15 miles north of our destination the motor started wheezing
and finally conked out leaving us powerless in a fairly
narrow channel. I thought is was the fuel filter again but
this was no place to change one & was about to put down
and anchor and call for Sea-Tow (like AAA for boaters!).
Fortunately a power boat came by and offered us a tow into a
nearby Marina (Dudley's - very nice people!). We could
hardly believe our good fortune and were soon safely tied up
at the dock. We gave our good samaritans a couple of bottles
of wine which they tried to refuse...I hope they enjoyed it!
I will say no more bad words about power boater!!
<grin>
I changed the filter and got a couple more spares at
Dudley's and we were once again underway but I suspect that
my real problem is a failing fuel pump which I planned to
replace ASAP. The final 15 miles of the trip were uneventful
but nerve wracking as we hoped the fuel filter would hold
out and we were glad when we pulled into Swan Creek and saw
Ray & Betty ready to take our lines. I spent a few hours
taking out our old fuel pump and re-installing a new one
which puts out a LOT more fuel and I believe will cure our
problems. Ray suggests that additionally I might want to
re-plumb the system with two completely independent
tank/filter systems so I can simply switch systems when one
gets "grumpy". I will certainly get this done when
we get a few days in one place but I think we're good for
now.
Well after a long day...the good part was that we met up
with the folks on Kintyre (Irwin 38 - a beautiful boat in
great shape) and the ladies went down to the local shrimp
wholesaler and brought back 3 pounds of BIG fresh shrimp.
They boiled half plain and half in Old Bay plus put together
some fine fixins' for a real feast which the 6 of us
disposed of in fast order...absolutely delicious!! It's on
to Wrightsville beach tomorrow for a couple of days of
R&R ! //GB
10-20 Tonight we anchored in the Alligator River in a
quiet cove with 8 other boats. It was so still and dark that
we could only make them out by their anchor lights.-a
beautiful Fall evening. I walked out on the deck with an
orange sliver of a moon and saw a night sky crammed with
stars. You only see this number of stars when you are away
from shore lights-breathtaking! I had to thank the powers
that be for my life-I felt so lucky to be in this gorgeous
setting. I also had thoughts for some dear friends. This
past week I lost 2 special friends in a trgic, freak
accident. They were master divers on a trip in Belize-you
probably read about it in the newspapers-when a hurricane's
rogue wave hit their dive boat and they were gone. I am
heartbroken. Tonight helped. Just looking up made me feel
better. Our anchor light blended in and became part of all
the other starlights. I felt blended in as well and glad
that George and I have followed our dream. " Do not go
quietly into that good night."
10-21 Went through Goose Canal-these southern names are
right out of Mayberry! The ICW goes from extremely narrow
sections to wide open bodies of water. This canal is like a
Disney ride-cypress trees, a deer swimming across the water
and then an open section with a pod of dolphins following
our boat. We anchor in Oriental, North Carolina. There are
boats from New Zealand, Canada, Maine and yes, New York!
This town looks as if they filmed the shrimp boat scene from
Forest Gump at its docks! The shrimpers are everywhere and
the town is the size of its stop sign. eeehaw!-how southern
can you get-well bless yer heart and kiss my grits!
10-23 Today we are sailing down near Emerald Isle. The
water is becoming a beautiful light green and its
temperature is 78 degrees! More dolphins are following the
boat-never get tired of seeing them. They jump and twist in
mid-air. It's spectacular to see! Also saw a new kind of
jellyfish which I have named "hamburger jellies".
They look like big floating red hamburgers and I am told
that they re very nasty-related to the Portuguese man-o-war.
We have stopped in Swans Creek for the night . I bought
incredibly large fresh shrimp from a local fisherman-scrumptious!
Tomorrow we sail to Wrightsville Beach and finally stay put
for a couple of days. Need to do some laundry and go
shopping. Down here marinas give you courtesy cars-they just
leave the keys in them and you use them as you wish. Great!
Camaraderie needs some TLC and a bath-don't we all! //JB
