Friday, May 4, 2018

Wrightsville Beach to Coinjock

--Blogpost Written by Bob



Wrightsville Beach to Mile Hammock Bay




We topped off our diesel fuel and fresh water tanks before leaving Seapath Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach NC on May 1.  We caught the 9 AM opening of the Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge--it opens on the hour.  The bridge was a very short distance north of the marina.  It was a beautiful sunny morning and we were well rested from our layover.



Four sailboats followed us northward up the ICW.
The Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge is
shown oil the background.


We waited about 20 minutes for the Wrightsville Beach Bridge to open for us and a little later we waited another 20 minutes for the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge.  We waited just under an hour for the Surf City Swing Bridge.  We ate lunch while waiting for the 1 PM opening.


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A couple times throughout today, the (brand new) bilge pump switch stuck in the "on" position--this is the first time this has ever happened.  (It usually fails in the "off" position.)  If I hadn't noticed this, our automatic bilge pump could have burned up.  These are the types of things that make boating so much fun.
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We traveled through the New River Inlet area at low tide--something we swore never to do but we didn't plan today's trip very well.  We made it through unscathed though.  We anchored in Mile Hammock Bay (I always want to call this Half Moon Bay for some strange reason) at 3;30 PM.  Mile Hammock Bay is on Camp Lejeune's property.  This is the fourth time we've anchored here in two years.

We anchored using our secondary anchor, our FORTRESS F-37--this is the first time we've used this anchor.


Mile Hammock Bay to Bay River



Last evening, we re-worked our travel plan a little more so that we can get to Coinjock Marina late in the afternoon on Friday. (The reason we want to make it to Coinjock Marina is for a slip for the night and a prime rib dinner at the marina’s restaurant, both are worthwhile reasons.) This meant that we have to make some more miles during the next two days, about 7 more miles each day.

The FORTRESS anchor held fine last night, thankfully. (The mud that came up with the anchor and chain was just like Chesapeake Bay mud!) We got a good night’s sleep and we up and hitting the ICW by 7 AM. We got through the Oslo Beach Swing Bridge at 7:30, its second opening of the day and it’s our only (opening) bridge for the day. 

The sun is shining brightly and it is warmer than yesterday. The air still has that morning coolness, typical of early spring on the east coast. There are three sailboats, including us, that are traveling the ICW in a small group—we were all anchored in Mile Hammock Bay last night and caught the same bridge opening this morning.


Captain Jack asleep on the cockpit seat
while we were underway on May 2.

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This morning the bilge pump switch is working fine again. The switch may just have hung up on something yesterday, not allowing it to fully drop and shutoff. (The bilge pump switch was still working fine at the end of the day.)

During my off watch I looked up how to reduce the time interval for track points on our chart plotter—I’m going to try to implement this tonight and eliminate the “cutoff corners” on our tracks (which makes it difficult to follow them at times). (As it turns out, we didn’t have cell phone coverage in the evening—I’ll try again tomorrow night or the next night.)

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The first tricky place we ran into today was around Bogue Inlet, particularly on the north side of the big curve the ICW makes as it goes around all the islands in the inlet. Bogue Sound follows Bogue Inlet going northward on the ICW—it is very long (stretching some 23 miles) and day marks are pretty far away from each other. Actually, Bogue Sound runs in an east-west direction—we were traveling east toward Beaufort.


This ship was docked in Beaufort NC and was
loaded with large wind turbine blades.


The second tricky place was just north of Beaufort, leading into Adams Creek—here, the markers are not very well placed. The channel is plenty deep when you find it.


This tug and barge overtook us as we entered
Adams Creek, just north of Beaufort NC.


We anchored in the Bay River (after transiting the length of the Neuse River) at 6:30 PM (at MM 160), just outside Gale Creek where the ICW joins the Bay River. We traveled 84 statute miles today (the further east we have traveled on the ICW in one day!) in 11-1/2 hours for an average boat speed of 7.3 miles per hour (6.35 knots). It was a very long day but the next four days will be much shorter and easier.

When we anchored for the night, the wind was blowing out of the south at 16 knots. We had 90 feet of rope/chain anchor rode out with our FORTRESS anchor on the far end in 12 feet of water depth. We bounced a little because we weren’t very well protected from the wind, but it calmed down after sundown.


Bay River to Alligator River



We woke about 6:15 AM and drank our morning coffee as the sun was rising over the Bay River. It was nice simply not moving for awhile. We needed a little relaxation time, even if it was short lived. We raised the FORTRESS anchor at 7:15 AM and got underway, entering the ICW canal just to our north. After the canal we went through Goose Creek—we’ve anchored in this creek three times during the past two years.


This sailboat was ailing under jib alone on the Pimlico River.


After crossing the Pamlico River, we motored into the mouth of the Pungo River and all the way up the river—it took 2-1/2 hours to get all the way up the Pungo River to the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal.

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We’ve been considering spending next winter in New Bern N.C. and spending more time exploring the southern Chesapeake Bay and eastern North Carolina along the way because the total trip will be a lot less intense. In this case, we would fly home and drive our car down from Baltimore. We’re going to do more research on this option before we decide for sure.

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The Alligator River-Pungo River Canal is a 22-mile long man-made canal (cutting through a cypress swamp) connecting two estuaries—even though they are called rivers, they are actually tidal estuaries. The water in the canal is dark brown in color and there is very little tidal current. We experienced about 1/2 knot tidal current against us throughout the entire length of the canal. The scenery is beautiful on both sides of the canal, though a little monotonous after 22 miles of it. We entered the canal at 12:10 PM and exited the canal at 3:10 PM, exactly 3 hours later.

We decided to go an additional 5 miles further than our plan and anchor just off the ICW at MM 100–this was a mistake!  We couldn’t get the FORTRESS anchor to hold in the soft mud, even with a 10 to 1 scope. We watched the boat’s drift on our chart plotter. To remedy this situation, we motored 5 miles back to the original spot we selected and anchored there for the night. We finally got re-anchored at 6 PM.

We are now anchored in 9.5 feet of water with winds of 15 knots out of the southwest with a 10 to 1 scope on our anchor line.  We are protected from the winds to a certain degree by a cypress swamp about 1/2 mile away. It’s not great but it’s the best we can do tonight. The FORTRESS anchor seems to be holding OK at this location.


Alligator River to Coinjock



We got an early start (6:45 AM on Friday, May 4). We want to arrive at Coinjock Marina in the mid-afternoon. We made reservations for a slip there.  The wind picked up as the sun rose higher in the sky. 

I forgot how long and boring the Alligator River really is—it’s 25 miles from the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal to the mouth of the Alligator River!  The water is a dark brown color here and the wind creates quite a chop on the water’s surface because of the long fetch in almost any direction.

We made it to the Alligator River Swing Bridge by 9:30 AM but had to wait 25 minutes for the opening because of repair work being done to the bridge.


Two sailboats follow us through the Alligator River
Swing Bridge.  The barge on the left side of this
image was a work platform for repairs being
done on the eastern span of the bridge. 


The day was tiring as we battled wind-caused waves to push our stern around all day.  The southwest wind varied from about 12 knots to 25 knots. In these situations, Otto (our autopilot) normally excels.  I am so glad that we were taking 1-hour shifts steering!

We docked at the Coinjock Marina at 3 PM.  We filled up our diesel tanks upon arrival and hooked up shore power so that we could run our air conditioner.  (It was 87 degrees outside when we arrived.)  We took showers and had a fantastic dinner (prime rib) at the marina's restaurant.  Tomorrow, its on to Great Bridge, VA...stay tuned...


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