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| Motoring along the ICW. |
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| Confederate Solider statue in Downtown Portsmouth. |
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| The other free dock had more flooding at high tide. |
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| Protecting the big navy ships are little security boats. Kinda like guard dogs. |
Friday, May 30, 2014
Weather
Well, the weather that was forecast for this Thursday appears to have moved in. A cold front moved through overnight and in addition to the colder temperatures and rain, have forecast five foot seas on a five second period in the Chesapeake (when the wave height = the period in seconds, that is a bad thing). So, it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere today. I'll leave you with a couple more pictures from yesterday.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Bridges and Locks - Coinjock to Portsmouth
Since I'm fairly new to this whole cruising gig, I wasn't sure quite what to expect for this leg of our journey. It was all ICW and it had a few new potential challenges. I've only had limited experience with bridges, most of which have been on-demand and not scheduled openings and I've never dealt with a lock before. But all of that was ahead of us on this leg of the journey, so I had planned on a fairly short 45nm hop from Coinjock to just south of Norfolk.
We left Coinjock around 8am and were once again motoring up "The Ditch" (ICW). I think the local osprey have decided that the ICW channel markers are their own version of government subsidized housing. It seemed that just about every mark had an osprey nest on it with an osprey protecting her eggs.
As we continued motoring, the chart showed a bend in the river, outside the ICW channel, with a bunch of marked shipwrecks.
And, indeed you could see some of them from the boat. One does wonder how so many boats met their end in this little elbow of water.
Around noon, we made it to the first of the bridges that we needed to have opened that open on a fixed schedule. The North Landing swing bridge opens on every half hour, and so naturally we arrived just a few minutes too late to make the opening. This ended up giving me plenty of practice at station-keeping while we waited for the bridge. Fortunately the ICW doesn't have a strong current and so this is pretty easy in a catamaran. In fact, we ended up having lunch while waiting for the bridge. Once the bridge opened and we were on our way, we figured out that we wouldn't be able to make the next opening of the next bridge on our route, so we throttled back to a speed that got us to the next bridge about 5 minutes before the following opening.
After the first two bridges, next was the Great Bridge and Great Bridge Lock. The bridge opens in sequence with the lock since they are only a few hundred feet apart. We had to wait for a few minutes, but pretty soon the bridge opened.
I admit I was a little nervous about the lock since I had never done it before and had heard of people having issues when locking, but it really was no big deal. I imagine I might think differently if this were the Panama Canal and I was surrounded by big ships.
We were making good enough time that we decided to see how far we could get and ended up making it to Norfolk and had to go through the Gilmerton bridge. I guess we got lucky that a barge was coming through the other way as I've heard this bridge doesn't open, except by reservation, during rush hours.
Passing through Norfolk and Portsmouth, you can really see these are big ship towns including a naval yard.
We ended up at one of the free town docks in Portsmouth. They are right downtown and convenient walking distance to a number of restaurants and stores. The only downsides are the lack of marina amenities (water, power, bathhouse) and the fact that the dock is awash at high tide, but it is definitely nice for the price. I'd recommend it for a short stay if you are in the area.
After the day's excitement, we decided to have dinner at one of the local sports bars as a celebration of making it through all the bridges and locks and ending up at a nice place to spend the night (and not having to pay for marina dockage). I hear the weather is supposed to turn bad tomorrow, so we might be here an extra day if it sounds rough to travel. Guess we will see if the weather guessers are right.
We left Coinjock around 8am and were once again motoring up "The Ditch" (ICW). I think the local osprey have decided that the ICW channel markers are their own version of government subsidized housing. It seemed that just about every mark had an osprey nest on it with an osprey protecting her eggs.
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| Osprey with chicks living on a marker. They seem to prefer the red ones. |
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| 8 shipwrecks on the chart. |
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| Broken boats all in a row. |
Around noon, we made it to the first of the bridges that we needed to have opened that open on a fixed schedule. The North Landing swing bridge opens on every half hour, and so naturally we arrived just a few minutes too late to make the opening. This ended up giving me plenty of practice at station-keeping while we waited for the bridge. Fortunately the ICW doesn't have a strong current and so this is pretty easy in a catamaran. In fact, we ended up having lunch while waiting for the bridge. Once the bridge opened and we were on our way, we figured out that we wouldn't be able to make the next opening of the next bridge on our route, so we throttled back to a speed that got us to the next bridge about 5 minutes before the following opening.
After the first two bridges, next was the Great Bridge and Great Bridge Lock. The bridge opens in sequence with the lock since they are only a few hundred feet apart. We had to wait for a few minutes, but pretty soon the bridge opened.
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| The Great Bridge opening up to let us through. |
We then made our way to the lock. We deployed fenders, found our boat poles, and setup a bow and stern dock line so we could take a ride in the lock. When we motored into the lock, one of the lock operators looped our lines around a couple of the big bollards on the shore and threw them back to us. The idea is to keep your boat parallel to the lock wall without quite touching while the water raises or lowers. There was only one other boat in the lock with us, Goose, as you can see below.
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| The Great Bridge Lock. |
We were making good enough time that we decided to see how far we could get and ended up making it to Norfolk and had to go through the Gilmerton bridge. I guess we got lucky that a barge was coming through the other way as I've heard this bridge doesn't open, except by reservation, during rush hours.
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| Gilmerton Bridge. 120ft clearance...I think we'll fit. |
Passing through Norfolk and Portsmouth, you can really see these are big ship towns including a naval yard.
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| Norfolk waterside industry. |
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| Naval Ship Yard. |
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| An aircraft carrier can sure make you feel small. |
We ended up at one of the free town docks in Portsmouth. They are right downtown and convenient walking distance to a number of restaurants and stores. The only downsides are the lack of marina amenities (water, power, bathhouse) and the fact that the dock is awash at high tide, but it is definitely nice for the price. I'd recommend it for a short stay if you are in the area.
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| Rover tied up at the north Portsmouth free dock. |
After the day's excitement, we decided to have dinner at one of the local sports bars as a celebration of making it through all the bridges and locks and ending up at a nice place to spend the night (and not having to pay for marina dockage). I hear the weather is supposed to turn bad tomorrow, so we might be here an extra day if it sounds rough to travel. Guess we will see if the weather guessers are right.
Where in the hell is Coinjock
After topping off our fuel at the Dowry Creek marina, we continued our trek northward along the ICW. In the few places where we thought we might be able to do a little sailing, it seemed that the wind was right on our nose and there wasn't enough room or time to tack into the wind. So the motors ran the entire day. The best we could do was attempt to motor-sail (deploying one or more sails while motoring) when the wind was at least 40 degrees off our nose.
Motor-sailing does seem to help a bit, giving us an extra quarter or half a knot in speed. When you are only going 6 knots to begin with, anything helps.
Crossing Abemarle sound, out in the middle of a wide expanse of shallow water there is a highway with a swing bridge. I'm told they only open this bridge when the wind is low, around 30 knots or less. Given how shallow the water is, I can imagine it could be a wild ride out there if the winds are anything over 20 knots.
We had to deal with something in that sound that I haven't had to deal with since our lessons in Florida...crab pots. The pots themselves are under water, but they have a line attached to a float so the fishermen can retrieve them. If you run over one, the line can wrap around your prop and stop your engine so, obviously, you want to avoid these things. Unfortunately fishermen don't quite get the concept that the ICW is a heavily traveled corridor and seem to drop their strings of pots across the marked channel. I'm starting to see why people install line cutters on their prop shafts. I know the fishermen are just trying to earn a living and that losing a pot can get expensive, but if you are putting them in the middle of the well traveled channel, you are being a bit irresponsible and losing a pot is not as bad as disabling and losing a boat.
So, about the title of this post. There is a small marina in a narrow part of the ICW channel at the...um, we'll call it town...of Coinjock. They have a face dock that lines a pretty decent size section of one of the shores. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of the industry for this town is centered around the marina and servicing cruisers that are passing through. Since it is the only game in town, their prices are a bit higher than some of the other marinas we've used on this trip, but it is a good place to spend the night if you are cruising through the area. The marina store is pretty well stocked with a lot of basic provision needs and some boat supplies. Since there is no grocery store nearby, it is the only place around to get anything you might need.
In the above picture, you can also see a river cruise ship that docks there to do some sort of shore excursion. I can't imagine trying to pilot that boat through some of the twists and turns of the ICW. I wonder if he unintentionally dredges the ICW to help keep the depths reasonable, we saw around 14 feet of water (and I've seen as little as 9 in other places further south of here).
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| Dowry Creek Marina |
Motor-sailing does seem to help a bit, giving us an extra quarter or half a knot in speed. When you are only going 6 knots to begin with, anything helps.
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| Abemarle Sound and the Swing Bridge in the distance. |
Crossing Abemarle sound, out in the middle of a wide expanse of shallow water there is a highway with a swing bridge. I'm told they only open this bridge when the wind is low, around 30 knots or less. Given how shallow the water is, I can imagine it could be a wild ride out there if the winds are anything over 20 knots.
We had to deal with something in that sound that I haven't had to deal with since our lessons in Florida...crab pots. The pots themselves are under water, but they have a line attached to a float so the fishermen can retrieve them. If you run over one, the line can wrap around your prop and stop your engine so, obviously, you want to avoid these things. Unfortunately fishermen don't quite get the concept that the ICW is a heavily traveled corridor and seem to drop their strings of pots across the marked channel. I'm starting to see why people install line cutters on their prop shafts. I know the fishermen are just trying to earn a living and that losing a pot can get expensive, but if you are putting them in the middle of the well traveled channel, you are being a bit irresponsible and losing a pot is not as bad as disabling and losing a boat.
So, about the title of this post. There is a small marina in a narrow part of the ICW channel at the...um, we'll call it town...of Coinjock. They have a face dock that lines a pretty decent size section of one of the shores. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of the industry for this town is centered around the marina and servicing cruisers that are passing through. Since it is the only game in town, their prices are a bit higher than some of the other marinas we've used on this trip, but it is a good place to spend the night if you are cruising through the area. The marina store is pretty well stocked with a lot of basic provision needs and some boat supplies. Since there is no grocery store nearby, it is the only place around to get anything you might need.
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| Coinjock Marina |
In the above picture, you can also see a river cruise ship that docks there to do some sort of shore excursion. I can't imagine trying to pilot that boat through some of the twists and turns of the ICW. I wonder if he unintentionally dredges the ICW to help keep the depths reasonable, we saw around 14 feet of water (and I've seen as little as 9 in other places further south of here).
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Oriental to Dowry Creek - The Spinnaker
Day three of the second attempt to move the boat from Brunswick Southport to Deltaville was a combination of sailing in the Neuse river, Pamlico Sound and Pamlico river as well as some motoring in ICW canals. Since this was a shorter day trip of only 50 nautical miles, there was no nighttime passage, just day sailing.
Since I have a sailboat, I much prefer sailing to motoring and the day started out with wind of around 10 knots from the southwest. This sort of wind wouldn't give us very good speed with the traditional genoa and main sails. Fortunately boat came with an asymetrical spinnaker that we thought might be a better option, and since I've been dying to try it, we thought it was time to give it a try.
It took a little bit to figure out the best way to rig it on the boat, but with a little trial and error, we were able to get it setup reasonably well. We tacked the foot of the sail to the windward cleat on the beam that runs between the hulls and supports the forestay, ran the sheet line to a block attached to an eye mounted on the deck of the boat near the sheet winches, and attached the halyard. We raised the spinnaker (housed in a dousing sock) and then raised the sock to unfurl the spinnaker. Pretty soon we were sailing at 5 knots in an 8 knot apparent wind.
With the color transfer stains in the sail, it was apparent that it spent most of it's life stored in it's bag. But on this day, we used it twice, once sailing the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound, and a second time when we crossed the Pamlico river. I wonder if we used the sail more this day than it had ever been used.
After it's first use, when we rounded the corner from the Pamlico Sound into the Bay river, we had to douse the spinnaker and, in an increasing wind, had to tack several times to make it up the river. But we made it most of the way to the first ICW canal without having to burn diesel, how cool is that. Hearing the rush of the water past the hull without the drone of an engine is one of the true pleasures of sailing.
We did have to do some motoring, as it is extremely difficult to traverse a narrow canal under sail. About 4pm we arrived at the Dowry Creek marina where we spent the night.
The marina had a little Memorial Day celebration and cookout for the locals and transient boaters that were there. Like many of these sorts of gatherings, it is generally pot luck style. The marina provided hot dogs and most of the boaters brought side dishes or other snacks (note to future cruisers...always have something on board that you can whip together to bring to a party...this sort of thing happens on a semi-regular basis). I'm not sure who it was, but someone even made homemade strawberry ice cream that was a very welcome treat. It was another great day of traveling by boat.
Since I have a sailboat, I much prefer sailing to motoring and the day started out with wind of around 10 knots from the southwest. This sort of wind wouldn't give us very good speed with the traditional genoa and main sails. Fortunately boat came with an asymetrical spinnaker that we thought might be a better option, and since I've been dying to try it, we thought it was time to give it a try.
It took a little bit to figure out the best way to rig it on the boat, but with a little trial and error, we were able to get it setup reasonably well. We tacked the foot of the sail to the windward cleat on the beam that runs between the hulls and supports the forestay, ran the sheet line to a block attached to an eye mounted on the deck of the boat near the sheet winches, and attached the halyard. We raised the spinnaker (housed in a dousing sock) and then raised the sock to unfurl the spinnaker. Pretty soon we were sailing at 5 knots in an 8 knot apparent wind.
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| The Asymetrical Spinnaker |
With the color transfer stains in the sail, it was apparent that it spent most of it's life stored in it's bag. But on this day, we used it twice, once sailing the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound, and a second time when we crossed the Pamlico river. I wonder if we used the sail more this day than it had ever been used.
After it's first use, when we rounded the corner from the Pamlico Sound into the Bay river, we had to douse the spinnaker and, in an increasing wind, had to tack several times to make it up the river. But we made it most of the way to the first ICW canal without having to burn diesel, how cool is that. Hearing the rush of the water past the hull without the drone of an engine is one of the true pleasures of sailing.
We did have to do some motoring, as it is extremely difficult to traverse a narrow canal under sail. About 4pm we arrived at the Dowry Creek marina where we spent the night.
The marina had a little Memorial Day celebration and cookout for the locals and transient boaters that were there. Like many of these sorts of gatherings, it is generally pot luck style. The marina provided hot dogs and most of the boaters brought side dishes or other snacks (note to future cruisers...always have something on board that you can whip together to bring to a party...this sort of thing happens on a semi-regular basis). I'm not sure who it was, but someone even made homemade strawberry ice cream that was a very welcome treat. It was another great day of traveling by boat.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Southport to Oriental
My new volunteer arrived in Wilmington NC last Tuesday and we spent a few days waiting for good weather, shuttling my car up to Deltaville, VA. and getting a couple last minute fixes done on the boat. With all of that complete, we set sail on Saturday, leaving Southport behind.
Since Cape Fear and the Frying Pan Shoals are just north of the Southport inlet, I decided we should just take the ICW up from Deep Point marina and head out to the ocean at the next inlet instead of taking the hours it would take to skirt around the shoals. Of course the next inlet, Carolina Beach, isn't navigable by larger boats due to the constantly changing shoals, so I chose the Masonboro inlet instead. Motoring up the inlet it was immediately apparent it was the Memorial Day weekend. There was a ton of traffic on the water and lining most of the local beaches. After a few hours of dodging boats, we made it back out to the Atlantic.
From there, the plan was to sail on the outside to Beaufort, and then continue via the ICW up to Oriental, NC so we would bypass Cape Hattaras. Everything I've heard of Cape Hattaras indicates that you need to give it a pretty wide berth or it can be pretty dicey. The winds weren't as favorable for this leg as they were for the last one, so we weren't able to go directly to Beaufort, but sailed more up along the coast. This wouldn't be a bad thing, except there is a big restricted area that is surrounded by a bigger "danger zone" where the military likes to conduct training. Not wanting to be a recipient of their training exercises, I ended up tacking several times to get far enough out to clear the zone during the night.
The tacks would result in the boat heading southeast, so a couple times I went and sat on the foredeck and just looked up at the stars. It still amazes me how many stars you can see when the light and pollution of civilization isn't around. By the end of my night watch, I had made it just far enough out to clear the danger zone and we should now be able to make it most of the way to Beaufort in a relatively straight course.
We were fortunate that we had wind most of my watch as the forecast called for them to lay down in the evening. Naturally, after I went to bed, the winds died down and we didn't end up making a lot of progress the remainder of the night. I got up just in time so we both got to see the sun rise over the ocean. With the sun up, you could see how amazingly calm the sea had become over the past few hours. There was barely a ripple in the water, just a smooth and gentle roll like the ghosts of yesterdays waves. We finally gave up on pure sailing and fired up an engine so we could make it to Beaufort in time for low tide and wouldn't have to fight a strong current going back in the inlet. Other than the lack of wind for sailing, it was a beautiful day.
Once near Beaufort, we were again greeted by all the people making the best of the Memorial day weekend on the water. Dodging a number of boats, we (along with several other sail and motor boats) made our way up the ICW and we ended up in Oriental, NC. around 4pm. We took advantage of the marina showers, used the marina courtesy car to make a run to the grocery store, had dinner, and called it a night.
Rango, or another little green lizard, made an appearance as well. Unfortunately when we found him later hiding under the cover of the BBQ grill, it appeared that his back legs were not working well. We decided that his story would not end well if he were handicapped and trying to live on a boat, so we took him to shore at the marina and left him there. Hope he can manage better in Oriental. Good luck little stowaway.
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| Working hard on a sailboat. |
Since Cape Fear and the Frying Pan Shoals are just north of the Southport inlet, I decided we should just take the ICW up from Deep Point marina and head out to the ocean at the next inlet instead of taking the hours it would take to skirt around the shoals. Of course the next inlet, Carolina Beach, isn't navigable by larger boats due to the constantly changing shoals, so I chose the Masonboro inlet instead. Motoring up the inlet it was immediately apparent it was the Memorial Day weekend. There was a ton of traffic on the water and lining most of the local beaches. After a few hours of dodging boats, we made it back out to the Atlantic.
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| Sailboats and motorboats, and jet-skis. |
From there, the plan was to sail on the outside to Beaufort, and then continue via the ICW up to Oriental, NC so we would bypass Cape Hattaras. Everything I've heard of Cape Hattaras indicates that you need to give it a pretty wide berth or it can be pretty dicey. The winds weren't as favorable for this leg as they were for the last one, so we weren't able to go directly to Beaufort, but sailed more up along the coast. This wouldn't be a bad thing, except there is a big restricted area that is surrounded by a bigger "danger zone" where the military likes to conduct training. Not wanting to be a recipient of their training exercises, I ended up tacking several times to get far enough out to clear the zone during the night.
The tacks would result in the boat heading southeast, so a couple times I went and sat on the foredeck and just looked up at the stars. It still amazes me how many stars you can see when the light and pollution of civilization isn't around. By the end of my night watch, I had made it just far enough out to clear the danger zone and we should now be able to make it most of the way to Beaufort in a relatively straight course.
We were fortunate that we had wind most of my watch as the forecast called for them to lay down in the evening. Naturally, after I went to bed, the winds died down and we didn't end up making a lot of progress the remainder of the night. I got up just in time so we both got to see the sun rise over the ocean. With the sun up, you could see how amazingly calm the sea had become over the past few hours. There was barely a ripple in the water, just a smooth and gentle roll like the ghosts of yesterdays waves. We finally gave up on pure sailing and fired up an engine so we could make it to Beaufort in time for low tide and wouldn't have to fight a strong current going back in the inlet. Other than the lack of wind for sailing, it was a beautiful day.
Once near Beaufort, we were again greeted by all the people making the best of the Memorial day weekend on the water. Dodging a number of boats, we (along with several other sail and motor boats) made our way up the ICW and we ended up in Oriental, NC. around 4pm. We took advantage of the marina showers, used the marina courtesy car to make a run to the grocery store, had dinner, and called it a night.
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| Our Route. |
Rango, or another little green lizard, made an appearance as well. Unfortunately when we found him later hiding under the cover of the BBQ grill, it appeared that his back legs were not working well. We decided that his story would not end well if he were handicapped and trying to live on a boat, so we took him to shore at the marina and left him there. Hope he can manage better in Oriental. Good luck little stowaway.
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| Is this Rango, the lizard from the earlier trip? |
Friday, May 23, 2014
Vessel Safety Check
Did you know that the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary would come out to your boat and perform a free safety check? I didn't until my friend and fellow cruiser Doug clued me in when I was in Brunswick.
The safety check is basically an inspection of your boat to see that it is in compliance with all the coast guard rules. Since this is an inspection designed to help people be in compliance, there are no penalties for any discrepancies...unlike if the Coast Guard stops you and finds a problem while you are out on the water.
So, I decided to get an inspection done before I left Brunswick. Requested the inspection online here. The next day had several USCG auxiliary members contact me offering to do the check and scheduling the check was painless. The inspector arrived and performed the inspection and it took maybe an hour or so. He went through and checked for all the needed safety equipment (fire extinguishers, flares, horn, lights, life jackets, placards, etc.), checked the vessel hull ID and USCG documentation number, checked to make sure our sanitation systems were in compliance (overboard valves wired shut), and gave me some tips and hints on a variety of subjects including the upcoming trip north.
The boat passed, and I was awarded my safety inspection sticker.
I don't know if it is true, but I've heard that the USCG may be less likely to stop you on the water, board your boat and perform an inspection if they see a current sticker on your boat. In addition to knowing you are in compliance and not likely to be faced with a fine if you are boarded and inspected, having the sticker may save you some time and hassle by not getting stopped for inspection as often.
So, for free, it seems like a pretty good thing to do. I'll certainly continue to have them done just to make sure I'm in compliance and safe on the water.
The safety check is basically an inspection of your boat to see that it is in compliance with all the coast guard rules. Since this is an inspection designed to help people be in compliance, there are no penalties for any discrepancies...unlike if the Coast Guard stops you and finds a problem while you are out on the water.
So, I decided to get an inspection done before I left Brunswick. Requested the inspection online here. The next day had several USCG auxiliary members contact me offering to do the check and scheduling the check was painless. The inspector arrived and performed the inspection and it took maybe an hour or so. He went through and checked for all the needed safety equipment (fire extinguishers, flares, horn, lights, life jackets, placards, etc.), checked the vessel hull ID and USCG documentation number, checked to make sure our sanitation systems were in compliance (overboard valves wired shut), and gave me some tips and hints on a variety of subjects including the upcoming trip north.
The boat passed, and I was awarded my safety inspection sticker.
I don't know if it is true, but I've heard that the USCG may be less likely to stop you on the water, board your boat and perform an inspection if they see a current sticker on your boat. In addition to knowing you are in compliance and not likely to be faced with a fine if you are boarded and inspected, having the sticker may save you some time and hassle by not getting stopped for inspection as often.
So, for free, it seems like a pretty good thing to do. I'll certainly continue to have them done just to make sure I'm in compliance and safe on the water.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
My Stowaway
I haven't seen my stowaway since shortly after we arrived in Southport. Either he has found a good hiding place or has decided he had enough of sailing. Thought I'd post one more picture of him. While I was at the helm he came over and climbed up on the winch, changed from his green to a more brownish color (still not good camouflage on the gray self-tailer on the winch) and took a nap. Or maybe he was feeling a bit seasick, who knows. In any case it he seemed pretty brave given how close he was to me at the time.
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