November 15

We nosed our way out of the creek early Thursday morning and headed for McClellanville.

The South Carolina shores are often referred to as the Lowcountry and are very marshy and undeveloped. This is in stark contrast to North Carolina, where there is considerable housing development along the shores.

We seem to have fallen out of sync with other cruisers, as we met no other sailboats throughout the day, and only an occasional motorboat. Indeed, the only company along the way seemed to be the birds keeping an eye on things.

McClellanville is a very quaint community built around the shrimp and fishing industry. We were happy to be tied up at the dock, as strong winds and rain had just preceded our arrival.

The two fellas who gave us a hand were working on the boat beside us, and seemed very happy to take a break and chat. We soon got them on to shrimp recipes, telling them that we had barbecued them with shells on last night. The older fella said, ‘You did what!’ As it turns out, you only leave the shells on if you are going to boil them.

The younger fella said, ‘I’m a shrimp and grits kinda guy,’ and explained how we could prepare them in that way.

The older fella said, ‘I like them best fried.’ When pressed, he explained, ‘Well, you heat up some hog fat, add a little olive oil because it’s good for the heart, and of course some butter, and then throw in some onions, anything tastes good with onions, and when that’s smellin’ good, toss in the shrimp.’

And in answer to one final dumb question, ‘Nah, you never worry about taking out the vein.’

November 14

We are now in South Carolina, and passed through Myrtle Beach Wednesday morning. This is a very populated area with beautiful homes along the waterfront. There is also an abundance of golf courses, which makes we wonder if I shouldn't have snuck on a few golf clubs. One course has holes on both sides of the waterway with a cable car that ferries golfers and their clubs back and forth.

We have noticed two changes this morning. First of all, many of the homes in Myrtle Beach have Christmas decorations up. Secondly, as we pass into less populated areas, the fall colours in the trees have appeared, almost as if overnight.

We anchored in Thoroughfare Creek in mid-afternoon. As the afternoon warmed up wonderfully, we dinghied ashore to do a little exploring. At shore was a 20 to 30 foot high sand cliff, a smaller version of what we used to play on at Wanasing. Just as we pulled up to the beach, a fisherman pulled in as well. We went over to chat with him, and he explained that Sandy Island had been declared a nature preserve. ‘You can see all sorts of wildlife here - raccoons, deer, foxes and wild hogs. You have to be careful of them hogs,’ he said, ‘they’ll git ya.’ That was pretty much the end of the conversation, and definitely the end of the exploring!

Last night we bought a pound of fresh shrimp on the dock at Calabash Creek. A mother and her daughter, a real cutie, weighed them out and before putting them into the bag asked if we wanted the heads off. I said, ‘Sure, but how do you do that?’

The little girl replied, ‘It's easy, just squeeze them just like this’, and so came our first lesson in cleaning shrimp. Fresh shrimp are amazingly good, and we are experimenting with different ways of cooking them.

November 12-13

Tuesday was a great day traveling along a surprisingly populated part of the waterway. Beautiful homes line the shores, almost all the way to Carolina Beach, where we spent the night.

It has been cool, especially at night, so we are trying to cover at least 40 to 50 miles a day. Although that doesn’t sound like a great distance in land terms, it is typically an eight to nine hour day of traveling.

On Wednesday morning we motored through the Cape Fear River. The guide book says the ‘Cape Fear River is appropriately named; winds always seem to be blowing at the mouth, the current runs to 6 knots, and there is ship traffic day and night … if the wind opposes the current, river conditions here can be treacherous.’ Does it make you wonder who does this stuff, or just who writes about it? We had a wonderfully calm passage while coming to the appreciation that this is a significant body of water.

We also had to pass through Lockwoods Folly inlet and Shallotte Inlet. These are two areas notorious for shoaling and shallow water. Gormã draws five feet, and so when our depth finder registers numbers beginning with four we begin to worry. With good planning we were making these passages during the upper half of the tide change, but imagine our anxiety wending our way through this fishing derby in only five feet of water.

We anchored in Calabash Creek and dinghied into the small town of Calabash with a couple sailing on Wayward Wind for an authentic supper of Calabash cooking.

November 11

We got an early start Sunday morning, hoping to get as far as Mile Hammock Bay within the boundaries of Camp Lejune. We have begun to see a number of shrimp boats the last few days. They make quite a sight as they are motoring along with their nets spread.

Much of this part of the trip was along Bogue Sound. It is a beautiful stretch of waterway through a channel along the western edge of the sound. This channel is bounded by sand dunes along the seaward edge.

Shoaling, however, is a constant problem along the waterway. By 8:30 am we had encountered a sailboat sitting helplessly on the wrong side of a green marker, just outside of the channel, waiting for the towboat to come and pull them loose.

Now you would know you’re having a bad day if you were driving this jeep, which we encountered along the waterway at Camp Lejeune, or if you had encountered this set of markers in the middle of the channel.



They tell you to make a zig-zag which you find hard to believe. Remember that sailboat from earlier in the day? Apparently he didn’t believe it, and was hung up, waiting impatiently I’m sure, for another tow. The sad thing is his boat blocked the markers for the boat behind him, and before you know it, two boats were hard aground.

I know what you’re thinking. No, it wasn’t us. We were able to sneak past and make our way to Mile Hammock Bay. This is a small man-made harbour that was created during World War ll to provide a place where marines could practice amphibious landings. It was peculiar to look one way upon a rusting relic of a troop ship secured at dock and the other way to a beautiful sunset in a secure anchorage shared with twelve other boats.

November 6-10

South Lake was a very pretty anchorage, and interestingly, the first time in our entire trip that we have had an anchorage to ourselves.

While we have been suggesting that the first part of the ICW involves many passages through canals and small rivers, this may be a deceiving characterization. Much of this first portion is wide open water passing through the Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and the Alligator and Neuse Rivers.

Wind direction and velocity make a huge difference in the speed and comfort of these passages. On Tuesday we had a very slow and bumpy ride up the Alligator River before heading into the twenty-mile long Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. We were very content to be nestled into Broad Creek off the Pungo River and enjoy a ‘sundowner’.


On Wednesday we crossed parts of Pamlico Sound and headed up the Neuse River to a comfortable spot in Broad Creek. The wind was again brisk, but this time from behind us, and we had a fabulous day sailing downwind under genoa alone. For much of the day we would look out and see nothing but boats, largely sail, stretched out to the horizon both in front of and behind us.

A short jaunt Thursday brought us to Oriental, NC. It was time for some regular maintenance - oil and fuel filter changes as well as laundry and showers. Which of these do you suppose is the most expensive?

When we meet up with people who have made this trip previously, and ask about some of the must-see places along the way, they regularly mention Beaufort, NC. On Friday we had an interesting trip to Taylor Creek, which is waterfront of the town of Beaufort.

Along the way we passed dolphins at a couple of points, I think this will always be a thrill, and a dredge. The Corps of Engineers is constantly monitoring and dredging shallow spots along the ICW. My theory is that working the dredge must be very monotonous, and so to provide some entertainment, the operators leave a pile of sand at the edge of the now constricted channel they are working on. They then bet among themselves whether an approaching boat will pass safely through, or …

Shackleford horses can often be seen grazing on the saltmarsh corngrass that grows on the island area along the south side of Taylor Creek. While their origins are not clear, it is thought these horses may be descendants of early explorers, possibly dating back to the conquistadors. This is Carrot Island, part of the grazing area, just off the stern of the boat.
SHACKLEFORD

November 4-5

We rather outfoxed ourselves this Sunday morning. We set the alarm to get an early start, but felt a little foolish listening to the weather forecast at 5:45 am when we were sure we had set the alarm for 6:45 am. We totally missed the return to standard time!

We figured out how to get a close-up view of a Navy helicopter, though. You simply depart Hampton Roads at the same time as an aircraft carrier, in this case Warship 69. We were subject to very close scrutiny by the helicopter pictured flying just above the carrier. We sat very still and altered our course wide to starboard.

Shortly after Norfolk/Portsmouth there is a lock which equalizes the water level between Hampton Roads and the Intracoastal Waterway. The lock operates hourly, and so on busy days, a number of boats lock through at once. On Sunday, eleven boats were packed into the lock with us for the 12:30 passage. This makes for quite a flotilla as the lock empties and everyone continues on their way.

The return to standard time has changed our evening schedule as well – mainly there is no evening. We were quite thankful for this after a long day when we tried to make our way into Blackwater Creek, twice, and got hung up on a shoal each time. We ended up anchoring in the mouth of the creek with one other boat, who I’m thinking met the same fate as us. Just before turning in, I went above to check things out, just in time to see a tug and barge pass not far off our bow.

Monday morning we were up to get an early start as well, this time on purpose, and in our haste, and fog, passed the green daymarker on the starboard side. You shouldn’t do that. Drat! Stuck again. Brother Doug says there are only two kinds of sailors, those who have been aground, and liars.

After that ignominious start, we had a great day. We passed through Currituck Sound and then on to Albemarle Sound in the afternoon. It was pretty breezy, which led to a spectacular sail across a sound that has a reputation of being at times rather difficult. Once again, the day passes too quickly, and evening approaches in another beautiful anchorage.

November 1-3

We spent Halloween evening anchored in the Hampton River, just off the campus of Hampton University. Hampton University is one of the top ten ‘historically black colleges and universities’ in the United States. The area for anchoring is restricted to a single line in which there were seven tightly packed sailboats just outside of the navigable channel. Interestingly, all but one of these boats was Canadian.

On the other side of the river is the Bluewater Yachting Center. This is the starting point for the Caribbean 1500, a race/cruise from Hampton, Virginia to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. They are scheduled to depart November 4th, but current weather may have some impact on that.

Hampton Roads is a very interesting area, steeped in history and commerce. ‘Roads’ is a mariner’s term for anchorage. Hampton Roads is located in the mouth of the James River, at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, with immediate access to the Atlantic Ocean. Hampton Roads is bound by Hampton and Newport News on the north side and Norfolk and Portsmouth on the south side.

The town of Hampton is the oldest English-speaking settlement in America, founded in 1610. Another interesting piece of folklore is that when the pirate Blackbeard was captured and beheaded, his head was hung on a post in the Hampton River.

Newport News is home to the largest shipyard in the world, owned by Northrop Grumman. Norfolk is the site of the Norfolk Naval Base and a short distance away is Langley Air Force Base.

The weather on Wednesday and Thursday was very nice, with highs in the mid-70s. We wanted to get a picture of us in shorts in November, but as you can see, I couldn’t scramble aboard from the dock before the timer went off.

Friday and Saturday, however, were much windier. Whether due to Noel or just a strong cold front, the winds were 20 to 30 knots, with gusts to 40 knots during the night. We are counting on things settling down on Sunday so that both the Caribbean 1500 and we can get off to a smooth start.