Butler Island to Wrightsville Beach

—Blogpost written by Bob

Butler Island to Barefoot Landing

The clackety-clack of the anchor chain being pulled from the river bottom broke the early morning silence. It was 6:30 AM on Thursday, May 14, when we started our day, at least 15 minutes earlier than usual. The sun was just rising above the trees as we motored away from the west side of Butler Island.

Taken at sunrise just before
we raised the anchor
near Butler Island.

The tidal current was thwarting our progress most of the morning—we could only do a little over 5 knots as we proceeded up the beautiful tree-lined Waccamaw River. Vegetation, like parts of water lilies, always seem to be floating on the river’s surface, today was no exception. The water lilies grow un-disturbed along the banks of the river. Cypress trees with their huge trunks grow in the water at the river’s edge.

Three hours later, we were still slowly going upriver. Our boat speed had increased to 6 knots by this time but it certainly didn’t seem much faster. We finally reached Bucksport at the head of the Maccamaw River at 9:40 AM. Bucksport is little more than a small general store surrounded by a RV campsite and a marina, situated in the middle of nowhere.

Lola didn't seem to appreciate
the Waccamaw River
as much as we did.

Our helm schedule today switched to on the half hour (instead of on the hour), for a change of pace. About 10 AM we always start talking about lunch possibilities. Yesterday we had leftover beef stroganoff which was a real treat, but my midday meal was a sandwich, ham and cheese with lettuce—it was delicious. Maggie had her favored tuna salad sandwich.

After motoring through the luxurious outskirts of Myrtle Beach, we reached our day’s destination, Barefoot Marina, at 1 PM. We topped off both fuel tanks before moving to our slip on the north end of the face dock on B pier.

The first thing on our land agenda was hot showers—they were so appreciated!

Again today, we didn’t see a single other cruising boat, motor nor sail until we docked when one or two passed by.

Barefoot Landing to Southport NC

We departed from our slip at Barefoot Marina and made it through the Barefoot Swing Bridge at precisely 9 AM, a predetermined time so that we could reach certain tide levels at the two notoriously bad inlets in North Carolina. We traveled through the famous “rock pile” in South Carolina and we were making good time—too good, in fact. We were traveling with the tidal current doing 7+ knots (8.05 miles per hour).  My calculations for today were based on an average boat speed of 6.365 miles per hour and the two opening bridges we went through did little to slow us down.

An abandoned sailboat in the stretch
of the ICW known as the
"rock pile."

It was low tide when we went by the Little River Inlet—we followed my previous waypoints very closely and the shallowest depth we saw was 8.3 feet. After we got through the Little River area and got into the state of North Carolina, we tried to slow down because we were still ahead of schedule.  Then the tide turned against us which was a good sign of the rising tide for the upcoming NC inlets: Shallotte and Lockwood’s Folly.

We reached Shallotte at 12:15 PM, about 45 minutes ahead of my plan but the tide was sufficiently high for a safe passage. The shallowest water we saw in the channel was a bit over 8 feet but most of it was above 11 feet. We had one little mishap when my waypoints showed we should be on the outside of a red buoy—I quickly found shallower water and got back on track just as quickly.  (There was some yelling, screaming, and even swearing at this moment.)  Apparently the Corp of Engineers (or the Coast Guard) moved the red buoy to agree with the changing channel. We were through this notoriously bad area of the ICW by 12:30 PM without going aground but I won’t say without some stress.

The two bad areas in North Carolina were 10 miles apart—sufficient time to relieve some of the stress from the first one. (The water between the two ocean inlets was a nice shade of green—it looked cleaner than most other areas of the ICW.)

The southern approach to
Lockwood's Folly.  The
channel is to the left
of this image.

At 1:15 PM we arrived at the last notoriously bad area of the day, Lockwood’s Folly. We were still ahead of plan—about 1-1/2 hours ahead of plan but the tide was just a little past mid-tide and rising, the perfect time to arrive. Lockwood’s Folly had been recently dredged to the original ICW channel and all the buoy locations were perfectly restored, to our surprise—we expected to have to follow my waypoints through a circuitous natural channel. The ICW channel buoys were in nearly a straight line and the dredged channel was very easy to follow. The shallowest depth I saw was 15 feet. At this point we were home free.  I went below and made cabbage-hamburger stew while Maggie piloted us to the marina.

We arrived at South Harbor Village Marina in Southport NC at 3 PM, an hour ahead of plan. We were beat, mostly from the stress affiliated with the anticipation of going aground—not from hard work.

The small boat traffic past the marina made for rough conditions on the face dock.  We used 3 fenders, two dock lines, and two spring lines to stay in position and properly fend off and it was still "bouncy."

Today we traveled 42 miles in 6 hours for an average boat speed of 7 miles per hour (6.09 knots).  This average is probably a better one to use for my planning purposes since it involved a good mixture of tidal currents and two opening bridges, even though they didn't involve delays.  (Delays at opening bridges, sometimes as much as 30 minutes, can cause significant reductions in average boat speed!)

Southport to Wrightsville Beach

Our plan for the day was to leave South Village Harbor Marina at 10:30 AM and catch the incoming tide on the Cape Fear River. Low tide at Southport NC was at 10:48 AM which allows us sufficient time to get to the junction of the ICW and the Cape Fear River from the marina. (During a previous trip a couple years ago we motored against the tide on the Cape Fear River and it was a very slow process which we don’t want to repeat. As I recall, we were doing only 2+ knots.)

We only have a 28-mile journey (4 hours) ahead of us today and without any problem areas unless we don’t catch the incoming tide just right. Our trip up the Cape Fear River is a little over half of the day’s journey.  We left the marina 15 minutes ahead of schedule (10:15 AM).

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We have paid particular attention to COVID-19 precautions as we’ve traveled up the ICW. Last night I noticed that a BoatUS tow captain and his crew (a young family of four) were all wearing face masks. Here at the marina I haven’t seen anybody wearing a face mask, just some reminders about the need for social distancing. (North Carolina is a RED state and their attitudes toward COVID-19 are more selfish than BLUE states.)

For the most part, we have avoided marinas as much as possible as our way of staying clear of COVID-19. We practice social distancing in the marinas and wear face masks if we don’t feel sufficient social distancing is possible. I’ve just reviewed our remaining travel plan and eliminated a marina stop at Coinjock NC. However, we will be stopping at SeaPath Marina in Wrightsville Beach (for 2 night starting tonight) because we need to provision and do laundry.

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The sun was shining brightly and there was very little wind in the morning. We woke up to the wakes of small fishing boats passing by boats on the the face dock without regard to late sleeping sailors.

s/v Rainy Days docked at
South Village Harbor
Marina in Southport.

We thought we were smart getting to the Cape Fear River at tidal change but it took quite a while for the tidal momentum in the river to change. We bucked a 1-1/2-knot tidal current all the way up the river to Snow’s Cut (for nearly 2 hours). We slowly picked up boat speed as we moved upriver but we never caught up to the point of tidal change.  We should have waited another half hour.

Snow's Cut was a real zoo!  TowBoatUS was slowly towing a motor boat against the tide, fishing boats were all over the place, and jet skis were zigging and zagging in between everything else.  It was clear that most of the boat operators were completely clueless about proper and safe operation of a boat.  This mayhem continued until we reached Wrightsville Beach.

We arrived at our day’s destination, SeaPath Marina in Wrightsville Beach at 2:15 PM.  Immediately, we learned that the marina was renovating their showers and they were not available for us yet.  We were not deterred the least since we have an inside shower onboard--it's just a little messy to clean up afterward.

We spent 4 hours today to travel 28 miles for an average speed of 7 miles per hour (6.1 knots) which really surprises me since most of the day we seemed to be bucking the tidal current but numbers don't lie.

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We expect the tropical disturbance that is currently off the Florida coast to impact our weather tomorrow and the next day.  So, we may be here a little longer than planned.

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Stay tuned for our continued journey up the ICW...


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