Don't Fear The Fear River

 Made 32 miles today, about 10 of it up the Cape Fear River, and it was great. Waves and wind cooperated nicely and made for a wonderful cruise to Bridge Tender Marina. It is located in Wrightsville Beach but very close, almost part of, Wilmington North Carolina. Seems like a fun place, great beaches and water activities.

And the water is pretty again! Light green and clear. No more brackish alligator water!

Plan to shoot right through the Eastwood Road draw bridge and be on our way around 7:00 in the morning.

Sweet North Carolina!

 Passed into another state on Sunday! Planned to stay just one night here in Southport NC at St. James Plantation Marina but got rained out today so staying put tonight as well. Will depart Tuesday morning for Wrightsville Beach docking at Bridge Tender Marina. Our trip tomorrow will take us out on the Cape Fear River for about 10 miles! Yikes! 

Made it through the infamous "rock pile" on the way to Southport. It is a very narrow channel that is about 3 miles long lined with hard jagged rocks on both sides. If you get out of the channel in this little jaunt things could go much worse than a soft landing in sand and mud. If you meet commercial traffic you have to turn around, go back out and then try again. We followed a boat that announced the entry of both our boats and made it through in good shape. Whew!

Side note: The boat we followed through the rock pile was very nice, very experienced and was glad to lead us through. About 15 minutes after we got through the rock pile he stopped within site of a swing bridge. We almost formed up on his stern to follow him through the opened and waiting bridge. Then we heard the lock master asked what he was doing... like "what's the delay?" The boat grounded and was calling Sea Tow as we passed by! Very sad.

Beautiful Sunrise Cruise into North Carolina!

Moving North - Myrtle Beach Yacht Club

 Repairs and preventative maintenance were completed in Bucksport so we made a short 30 miles and arrived at the Myrle Beach Yacht Club on Thursday June 24th. The boat ran well and the crew was extremely relieved! It is a great marina, tons of boats, a pool, a restaurant. So we extended another day. Leaving here on Sunday morning on our way to St James Plantation Marina. 

MBYC

Great Place!

Want to see our plan for this week?

Bucksport Marina and a Wedding

 Pulled into Bucksport Marina about around noon on Thursday June 3. A whole 24 hours before our flight to LA to Ryan's wedding. This time of year with so many boats heading north it was hard to find a marina that had space for 3 or 4 weeks while we went to the wedding and returned. The people at Bucksport were life savers. They not only had space but they provided a ride to the airport and picked us up on our return, hour and a half round trip. Bucksport is in Conway SC, pretty far out in the country. 

Bucksport Marina at Night

"the Bles-sing!" on the Facedock

Round 2 with the CAT Techs

Problem Solved - Bad Fuel Pressure Switch on Port Engine

As you can see Captain was a big help.

The Wedding Was Wonderful!

Ryan and Madison Brooks

A bit more about Georgetown SC

 What a great place. Great restaurants, great people, tree-lined streets with cool houses. The people that ran the marina could not have been nicer. Georgetown was hosting a blue marlin tournament over memorial weekend while we there so there was plenty happening. Great tournament... 44 marlins caught by these million dollar sportfishing boats, 72 total boats entered tournament. Quick story... the winning boat had a person on board that didn't have a fishing license, I'm sure they weren't fishing. Probably the owner's grandmother or something. Still, no bueno. That means the boat forfeited its $100,000 prize money! Talked to the locals and they said it happens every year, wow.

Georgetown - 3rd Oldest City in South Carolina

Georgetown Boardwalk

Ut oh - what was that?

 Great night in the marsh. Early to rise and headed to Georgetown on Thursday May 27th. Made 20 miles, cruising along when we came up on a little river town and had to slow down in 12 feet of water. Didn't make sense when it felt like we were hitting bottom, the boat shaking all over. Pulled back the throttles and it went away. Throttled up and it returned... oh boy. Limped the rest of the way to Hazzard Marine. Trying to net this out:

• dock consensus including some very salty people was that we picked up a crab pot
• stroke of luck that our marina had a lift
• hauled the boat next morning, swear we all heard drum rolls as "the Bles-sing!" rose from the water
• waant wah... nothing, clean as a whistle, props, bearings, shafts and bottom looked great. That was great but bitter sweet as the problem was elsewhere. That means next stop is the engine room.
• Captain with a blown transmission was tied off in front of us (great guy) getting a new tranny from Caterpillar technicians!
• another stroke of good luck as we have CAT diesel engines
• new tranny installed on the Capts boat... they hopped on our boat
• turbo charger bad
• turbo charger expensive
• new turbo charger installed
• better, but still problems!
• can't stay at this marina! wedding coming! got to make a flight and the leave the boat somewhere! Oh, s@%!
• limped 28 miles to Bucksport Marina
• CAT techs coming back with another fix on Monday June 21st.

The end.

Onward to Georgetown South Carolina

 Wow. Long break from posting. A few adventures, engine problems and a trip to California for Ryan's wedding were partly responsible for the delay. The blogger's lack of motivation was mostly to blame.

So when the trail went cold we were leaving the Beaufort SC area, Port Royal, on Wednesday May 26th headed to Hazzard Marine in Georgetown SC. Made it through Charleston Bay to a wonderful anchorage off of the AICW in a big marsh at Dewees Creek. From a distance I'm sure it looked like we were high and dry among the swamp grass but we were safe at a peaceful anchorage in 20 feet of water, at low tide. It was a very long day as we went 85 miles in 10 hours. Rumor has it that the crew was in bed before sunset. The generator 's humming lulled us to sleep while our onboard AC provided the miracle of cool air in the middle of BF South Carolina. 

Dewees Creek Anchorage

Sunset in the Marsh