The salt water marshes are gone! The 8 foot tide swings (and their associated strong currents) are gone! We are half way up the North Carolina coast now crossing the Neuse River. If we headed due east from here, we could be in Ocracoke or Hatteras, but we will stick with the ICW route north this time around. Today we will tie-up at the Mayo Seafood fish docks at Hobucken, NC for $0.40/foot (a record low cost slip fee).
Tomorrow we have a short day on the water, planning to arrive at Belhaven NC before noon. We are looking to score a free public dock tie-up by virtue of our early arrival and then have a relaxing day exploring Belhaven, NC.
Since our last update we have stayed at an ocean-side restaurant in Southport NC, where we had to eat on the premises in order to stay free for the night ($22 meal and sweet deal!).
Then we were off to Camp Lejeune (a renown marine corp training base), where we anchored for the night and were entertained with marines conducting high speed rough water training in inflatable assault boats (i.e. crashing our wake).
When we woke in the morning and started to pull anchor, we noticed immediately that something was wrong. Our anchor chain was pulling tight against our forward hull and our anchor buoy was nowhere to be seen. Normally, we attach a buoy on a rope to the first part of the chain that we drop. The floating buoy tells us (and other boaters) where our anchor is.
We hailed down a passing fishing boat with two friendly guys who offered to pull us backwards (we didn’t want to use our own power for fear of the buoy rope getting tangled in our props). As they pulled us backwards, we continued to lift the chain, but it just kept getting tighter and tighter to our hull. Then we realized that we were floating backwards … the anchor was obviously off the bottom but hung up on something.
The fishermen pulled us out into the middle of the basin where we dropped a secondary, stern anchor. We thanked them for their assistance and Eric prepared to get wet again. He was pretty sure that our buoy rope was tangled in the rudder or props, so he went down below armed with his Alaskan fishing knife. Right away, he confirmed his suspicions and cut the buoy rope. The buoy floated up, the anchor chain relaxed and we knew we were good to pull up the rest of the chain and anchor. Just a 45-minute diversion, but a hectic way to start our day!
Last night we docked at Morehead City. This commercial marine town was busy with big ocean going vessels. We were busy too. We walked 3 miles round trip to do groceries, as well, we pushed through 4 loads of laundry.
As we head north there is a growing presence of large ocean going commercial traffic, consequently we have also noticed that for any of these ports where the ICW coincides with commercial traffic, there tends to be a lot of law enforcement vessels buzzing around; to see 4 or 5 different vessels representing different federal, state and local jurisdictions is common place. There is also evidence all along the ICW of the most recent hurricane debris scattered along the shoreline. The vessel below was a large, commercial shrimp boat, now left abandoned on the shore.
We are getting this last segment of our loop travels right! Our pace is sustainable. We have made no commitments. The weather is great and cruising in this area and the associated waters are providing some of the most pleasant we have encountered on the loop. We recently found ourselves on a large section of river that looked like glass - no waves, no wind, just calm water. We like that!
As much as we are excited to be heading home, we are not in a rush. Here is a photo of a very common sight; osprey nesting in the ICW channel markers. And we're still seeing dolphins daily, although not sure how far north they will follow us! Till next time, looping on!
