Sat. Nov. 6, 1999

Mile 260 - ICW

Surf City, NC

Dear Gang:

It ‘s 2;20 pm and we’re sitting here idling waiting for a bridge to open at 3pm. Just passed a 40’ sailboat (Easting Down) hard aground. Luckily its low tide. Said a tug and barge pushed him off the channel. We met that same tug a while ago with some tense moments.

Arrived in Norfolk/Portsmouth, VA Fri 10/22. Just about out of food, couldn’t even get creative, wasn’t anything to create. Hadn’t been able to stock up since home. Ken said we’d have great shopping nearby – WRONG! Nearest store about 1.5 miles away. Luckily, while doing laundry, I met a guy who lives on his 65’ power boat at marina. Next am he offered to take me shopping since he had to pick up a couple of things. His car turned out to be a little Mercedes convertible. When I wheeled out a full cart of bags, he was a little concerned, but I assured him I knew how to load a small car.

That reminds me of a dumb thing I did just before I left home. It was 5pm and we were trying to get away that evening. Ken had come to disconnect the car battery and take me to the boat. I pulled my car into the garage, popped the hood and pressed my electronic LOJACK locking to be sure no one could steal my car. Just as Ken dropped the hood, I spotted the garage door opener on the front seat. (That wasn’t the dumb thing.) When I pushed the door opener, nothing happened and the key wouldn’t work since it was locked electronically – and we couldn’t reconnect the battery since you must release the hood inside. SO – I’ll never be able to drive my car again!! Some day a new owner of the house will be surprised to find a cute little antique red convertible sitting in his garage – unused for years. I know you’re all surprised to hear I could do a dumb thing.

Mon Nov 8, 9:30am As I take pen in hand, we have just completed our run through several miles of the Cape Fear River, a tricky job if everything isn’t going right. Lot’s of current, red and green bouys going every which way and lots of ranges for commercial vessels. Luckily, everything was going our way – favorable wind and tide starting at 7:15 am. We got an early start but soon had lots of company, both sail and power, traveling with 15-20 boats. A great, fast passage.

Sat. turned into a long hard day motoring through narrow channels just in from the ocean. Many inlets, lots of current and shoaling, Since we draw 6’, about the maximum for the ICW, we must stay in mid channel and can never take our eyes off the fathometer for more than a few seconds at a time. When we finally pulled into the marina, pleased for a restbit, we were greeted with swarms of no seeums and driven below. Ah, the cruising life! Yesterday was a much better day, (motorsailing all day to a lovely anchorage with"plenty of depth in the channel" until we ran aground at the entrance – at low tide. We put out the headsail and with the help of the engine and lots of luck, were soon off. I keep telling Ken this is part of traveling the ICW and not to get upset. Of course it was my fault according to him. Every time we run aground he’s at the wheel and it’s my fault. I can take it.

Norfolk and Portsmouth were kind of disappointing. We walked through "down town" Portsmouth. They’re renovating it, but have a long way to go. Took the ferry across to Waterside in Norfolk. It’s supposed to be like the inner Harbor in Baltimore. It is, but basically a small marina and lg building with lots of shops and restaurants. It was a cold, gray day so perhaps that was the problem.

Mile 0 starts in Norfolk and goes to Miami, about mile 1100. We keep a Chart Kit and ICW Cruising Handbook in the cockpit and follow them religiously by the mile. Everything is referenced to the tenth of a mile and every 5 miles is a mile marker sitting on a post in the water. Once you leave Norfolk, there isn’t a lot of sailing. It’s narrow cuts, rivers and canals with a couple of sounds the first 200 miles. At mile 11, you go through The Great Bridge Lock, the only lock on the trip. The gate opens, you enter, go to the lock wall and throw the lock tender a bow and stern line, which they loop around bollards. You tend the lines while the water drops 2.7’. It takes about 10 min. to drop, then the forward gate opens and out you go.

Right now we’re motor sailing through a lovely 30 mi channel with several other sailboats. Easting Down wants to pass, but a tug pushing 2 long barges is coming at us so they decided to wait. I wonder why! There are many gorgeous homes with long docks reaching to the water. Most have an electric hoist at the end with a small power boat sitting in it. Hardly anyone leaves a boat in the water. For the last 200 miles, there have been hundreds of these docks, many several hundred feet long. Most have floating docks at the end. I should say HAD since Floyd floated most of them off their pilings and left the ends of the docks smashed up. Sometimes you’ll see a 3-400 foot dock with the middle section missing. Floyd damaged most of the towns we stop in and its still a major part of a news program. Some rivers have just dropped below flood level.

In Belhaven, NC, (mile 135) water had covered a great deal of the town; the little grocery store had not reopened and we were hard up for food again. Luckily, the sea food market had just reopened, so we bought shrimp, oysters and scallops – we just had to suffer through!

3pm OOOPS! Reached our anchorage for night (mi 342) on the S Carolina border. Supposed to be enough water at entrance but must not have given #2 red enough berth. Ran aground, Ken at wheel. So we decided to continue to Myrtle Beach and a marina. Sail out, lucky once again. At marina we ran into Easting Down. They said they finally had to call Tow Boat US on Sat after several power boats had tried to help them get off. COST $700.00!!! I guess I’ll be more concerned about running aground from now on – that would definitely be my fault!

10/31-11/3 we spent in my favorite harbor, Beaufort, NC (mi 200), a friendly little boating community catering to transient boats. Lots of boats gather here waiting to head offshore for Bermuda or the Carribean since the Gulf Stream sits about 30 miles off shore. I’ve done it a couple of times in the past and I’m having to hold Ken back – he thought he was going off sailing, not motoring 1000 miles to FL. The same gale that hit RI/MA and the rescue team also hit us in Beaufort. 30-35 knots of wind with gusts to 60. It got pretty exciting for awhile. The harbor is long and narrow with lots of current. Depending where you’re anchored, you sit either to the wind or current. Sometimes everybody is doing something different which leads to fending off and tense dispositions! The boats around us were from Canada, Australia, Germany, France, England, with a few US boasts thrown in. The island behind us is a wildlife preserve with wild ponies wandering down to the water. There’s a great mariner’s museum ashore where you can spend hours wandering around, attending lectures, or borrow one of two courtesy vehicles (jeep or pickup) to go shopping. Ken spotted a book, "A Pictorial History of Swansboro, NC) in their bookstore. Swansboro would be our next stop, a small town where my father grew up and full of Stanley relatives. Since my grandmother, Maybelle, had been a town character, I was sure she would be in there. I bought it and sure enough , she was along with numerous other Stanleys .

When we arrived in Swansboro, my Aunt Daisy Mae (I never told you my real name, did I) invited us to dinner: one bushel of steamed oysters- which you dunk in a hot pepper vinegar, a large bowl of cold shrimp and of bucket of hush puppies. We were in heaven!! Then we spent an hour going thru the book listening to stories about people my father had known, many of whom I had met on numerous visits over the years.

The weather is finally warming up. Haven’t worn longjohns for several days- but still sleep with socks. About a week ago, it was still getting down to the 30’s at night. When I’d ask Ken how cold it was out, he’d say "It’s colder than a witch’s left tit." That must be a male thing – I didn’t know he knew any witches.

NEWS NEWS! My laptop was waiting for me in Swansboro and I have an email address:

Warmest thoughts to all,

Jane