Southport to Beaufort NC

Apr 3 thru Apr 5

—Blogpost written by Bob

Southport to Wrightsville Beach

The wind has died down today (Wednesday, April 3) and we decided to leave Southport at 12:45 PM, 35 minutes before low tide.  This way, we will be traveling up the Cape Fear River with the tidal flow assisting us while still allowing 4 hours for the 24-mile trip to Wrightsville Beach.  (Low tide is at 1:20 PM today and we expect to arrive at our anchorage in Wrightsville Beach at about 5 PM.)

The outside temperature was a chilly 39 degrees this morning but by the afternoon it reached the high 60's.  (We changed our plans about having a stay over day at anchor in Wrightsville Beach on Thursday--instead we will continue our trek northward, taking advantage of a good weather day and minimizing our cold nights at anchor.) 

Southport Marina on the
morning of April 3.

s/v Rainy Days ready to leave
Southport NC

Well before leaving we loaded our bikes on deck, filled our fresh water tanks, bailed the rainwater out of our dinghy, purchased a bag of ice cubes, and turned in our bathhouse keys. By the time we were ready to leave, the sun’s rays were warming up the atmosphere—it was downright nice outside!

I checked the engine maintenance log and determined that we are 30 engine hours away from the next oil and oil filter change—Beaufort NC should be the best place to accomplish this. (We should then be good until we reach Baltimore.)

We departed Southport Marina at 12:45 PM as we planned.  Our motor trip up the Cape Fear River was uneventful (sometimes the nicest kind of trip) but somewhat boring.  

I was surprised how far we traveled on the Cape Fear River before the tide actually changed—it was a gradual change that lasted all the way to Snow’s Cut. When you consider the river’s momentum has to stop and become reversed, it is understandable. When we started up the river, we could only travel as fast as 2.8 knots. By the time we got to Snow’s Cut (a distance of 8 miles and nearly two hours after leaving Southport) we increased our speed to about 6 knots—even at this point we experienced about 0.5 knots of current against us.

We faced no bridges that had to open for us today--so we made good time.  We anchored in the Wrightsville Beach anchorage at 5:30 PM.

The Wrightsville Beach anchorage is in the middle of a residential area was bordered on the north by the low fixed bridge that goes into the beach town. It was a nice quiet anchorage. We’ve anchored here four times previously—this time we anchored on the west side of the anchorage where our previous four anchorages were on the east side. The water is very clean here because the ocean inlet is nearby.

Wrightsville Beach to Mile Hammock Bay

We raised anchor at 8:30 this morning (Thursday, April 4) in order to make the 9 AM scheduled opening of the Wrightsville Beach draw bridge. It was relatively warm outside as we waited about 10 minutes for the bridge to open.  We passed through the draw bridge and slowly motored toward the next bridge (the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge, 5 miles away) that also opens on the hour. (We had to motor slowly the entire distance between bridges to avoid sitting still for an extended time near the next bridge.)  We still had to wait about 15 minutes when we got to the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge.

Some might think that traveling on the ICW is boring and some parts of it are, however, it’s a lot more interesting than motoring in the ocean, as we recently found out. There is a lot more to see along the ICW and the opening bridges actually break the monotony of the trip. Today, we took hour-long shifts at the helm instead of our normal two-hour shifts.

s/v Rainy Days motoring up
the ICW in North Carolina.
The water in this area is
a pretty green color.

Typical homes along the ICW
in North Carolina.

A big pink (somewhat garish) house
built on an island along the ICW.

The Surf City Swing Bridge no longer exists—it has been completely demolished over the winter. It has been replaced by a high fixed bridge. 

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In Southport we removed the dinghy painter (the one that came loose in Winyah Bay while we were anchoring) and replaced it with two painters, one tied to each side of the stern of s/v Rainy Days. As shown in the following photo, the dinghy tracks much better and does not waddle from side to side as it did previously. The waddle was probably caused by the rhythmic prop wash. (Apparently this was a lesson we learned previously but forgot about it somewhere along the way.)

Our preference is to use two dinghy painters
to prevent waddling caused
by the prop wash,

We cam through a harrowing experience at the intersection of New River Inlet with the ICW. We went around (at low tide) briefly while minding the ICW markers.  Apparently one of the markers (#72) was out of position and another red buoy was lying on the nearby shore.  We were able to motor off the bottom steering in the direction where we thought deeper water was located.  We proceeded very slowly until we cleared the area.

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We anchored in Mile Hammock Bay in about 10 feet of water at 2:30 PM.  I immediately began searching the for problem with our starter.  

This morning, the starter had to work extremely hard to start the engine—it just barely turned over. I know that the battery voltage was good and I check the battery terminals for corrosion regularly but I never check the starter connections—I checked the starter connection in the evening after we anchored for the night. The starter connections did not look bad--there was some minor corrosion on the negative side (which I cleaned off). 

Some corrosion (white deposit in center of
image) on a common engine ground.

However in the process, we found that the battery switch was on Battery #2, even though I always run on "ALL" so that the solar panels and the high-amp alternator charge ALL the batteries simultaneously.  We changed the battery switch to "ALL" and the engine started fine.  We checked for corrosion on Battery #2 terminals and found none.  So, at this point, I don't know what the problem was but it is working fine again.

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We started happy hour at 4 PM and basked in the sunshine entering our cockpit.

Mile Hammock Bay to Beaufort NC

I woke up in the middle of last night (1 AM) and realized I forgot to put the cap back on the coolant reservoir yesterday.  So, I took all the drawers and drawer unit by the companionway out and replaced the cap. (The engine room lights were still on as well.). I had trouble getting back to sleep afterward, so I read for about an hour.  

There were only three other boats anchored in Mile Hammock Bay with us last night and all were gone before we departed in the morning. We left our anchorage at 7:20 AM (on Friday, April 5) hopefully with sufficient time to make the 8 AM opening of the Onslow Beach Bridge (which was about 4 miles away). (We just barely made the 8 AM opening—next time we need to allow 45 minutes since it takes time to get the anchor up.

The sky was overcast as we departed the anchorage and stayed that way all day. The outside temperature was in the low 60’s. Rain was expected for all day but the very latest forecast this morning had it starting later in the day.

This portion of the ICW (in and around Camp Lejeune) was somewhat boring because there was not a lot to see. It took us about 1-1/2 hours to get through this area. North of the military camp, near MM 231 there was a grounded shrimp boat—it looks like it has been grounded for some time but I don’t think it was here in the Fall on our way to Charleston.

I don’t recall seeing this grounded shrimp
boat near MM 231 on our way
south in the Fall.

It started to rain as we motored past Swansboro at 9:30 AM. It was a light rain that didn’t impact on us in any way.

A blue shrimp boat called Foxy
Lady that was docked in
Swansboro NC.

Maggie was off watch at this point in time
as we motored toward Beaufort
on Bogue Sound.

s/v Rainy Days docked at Beaufort
Docks in Beaufort NC.

 We arrived at Beaufort Docks at 1:15 PM.  After checking into the marina, we had lunch (delicious four cheese pizza) at Black Sheep along the waterfront.  The rain started again at 3:30 PM, just after we finished getting diesel fuel.  We are glad to be here in Beaufort NC for three nights!

Stay tuned for our experiences over the next couple days here in Beaufort and our continuing travels up the ICW...


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