Waccamaw River

We had spent a fun two nights at St. James Marina with friends. Kelly & Wende got to compare charity bracelets made by their niece, Michaela over drinks.

Ladies were both wearing their favorite bracelets

While we were at the dock I watched a sailboat snap a piling off. I felt bad for the captain as there was some mis-communication that had the sailboat backing out of a fairway in the marina and then incorrectly tying up to a T-dock that was reserved for a similar sized sailboat that had just entered the marina’s entrance. The captain quickly untied from the T-dock and attempted to back up but while he must have thought he had shifted from reverse into neutral, was clearly still accelerating in reverse. He hit the piling and snapped it off without putting a single scratch in his boat. I don’t know what the manufacturer of this sailboat is but that’s a solid boat.

https://youtu.be/iYRLxAPCWGA

After that excitement, I spent some time finding an iPad app that would give me detailed charts of the Bahamas. I settled on the Aqua Map app. I had been using Charts & Tides by Navionics.

I was not happy that when Garmin bought ActiveCaptain.com they killed the integration with other iPad navigation apps in favor of integration with their own chartplotters.

I had been using Charts & Tides for the last 15 months because it was not very expensive to purchase the Navionics charts for the US & Canada ($30 or so) and the app gave me ActiveCaptain integration. ActiveCaptain.com was a web page that had a live map and a database of crowd sourced data and reviews of marinas, anchorages, local knowledge and hazards to navigation. Better yet iPad navigation apps could download the ActiveCaptain database of information for offline display in any compatible iPad navigation app. ActiveCaptain integration is a must for cruising the ICW. It puts small icons right on your navigation screen that show you marinas, places to anchor, hazards to navigation and local knowledge of inlets and difficult areas. Charts alone don’t list the nearest place to anchor when it’s dark and you need to stop for the night. Knowing there is a shoal around the next bend in the ICW and the only way to safely get past it is to hug the red daymark to within 30 ft is knowledge that active captain gives to you right on the navigation app’s screen (if the app has active captain integration). The Charts & Tides app which is extremely easy to use and very intuitive had ActiveCaptain integration until Garmin bought them and they seem very slow to fix the broken integration. You can however buy a Garmin Chartplotter and get ActiveCaptain. hmmmm?

Before the Garmin acquisition, ActiveCaptain used to be Open and Free

I did not want to be forced to buy an expensive Garmin chartplotter. When we purchased MV Simple Life we chose to outfit our trawler with Raymarine electronics for navigation. Expensive navigation electronics like chartplotters, radar, depth and AIS are essential but when cruising the ICW you need to use an iPad with a navigation app that supports ActiveCaptain.

Aqua Map has ActiveCaptain integration and also allows you to purchase the very detailed Explorer charts for the Bahamas. I have never sailed around the Bahamas so step one was to purchase the charts and start studying the different islands and cays to plot my own safe routes to anchor locations of interest.

Green Turtle Cay, Off Little Abaco Island, Bahamas
Abacos, Exumas, Eluthra

When we awoke our friends Jim & Wende had left squid wings and fishing tackle on our swim platform. I had been asking Jim for tips on catching fish in this area of the Atlantic and advice from someone who fishes the area is exactly what we need.

Soon we were making our way past ICW MM 325

Statute Mile 325 on the ICW – Southern NC

We made it through the Lockwood Folly section of the ICW without touching bottom near low tide.

View from the ICW out Lockwood Folly Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean

We passed many amusing sights along the ICW shore.

it’s a boat
It’s a dock
Boats docked along ICW
Crew working on the Fishing Vessel
Fishing Vessel inside Little River Inlet
FV Wesley’s Pride
Little sunken boat
This is the M Casino Ship
Giant XMAS ornaments on the lawn

We passed this sailing catamaran that must have just gotten to tired to continue or find a place to anchor off the ICW so they just dropped anchor on the edge of the ICW. They used both a bow & stern anchor to prevent swinging into the channel but I would not be comfortable with the fog that another boat would not hit us.

There were hazards that were floating down the ICW like this dock.

As we came into Myrtle Beach area we started to see lighthouses & golf courses.

Governer’s Lighthouse, Little River, SC
Myrtlewood Golf Course

It was raining and foggy.

https://youtu.be/1Z6NxflkQBE

Somewhere on the ICW around Myrtle Beach, SC

Soon we were tucking into the Waccamaw River to anchor for the night.

Kelly made an amazing chicken fajita dinner to enjoy as the sun was setting in our swampy anchorage. It was yummy!

Our leg today looked something like this.

St James NC & Friends

We had spent the night on anchor in Mile Hammock Bay. The shore around this bay is on the property of Camp Lejeune. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a 246-square-mile United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The base’s 14 miles of beaches make it a major area for amphibious assault training, and its location between two deep-water ports allows for fast deployments.

I woke up in the middle of the night and it was cold.

I spent some time in awe of the stars that felt so close you could touch them. I’d have taken a picture of them but it just doesn’t work when you’re aboard a rocking boat. It reminds me that we are all spinning around on a rock in space surrounded by an endless cosmos. I like feeling small and insignificant in the cosmos. It means my life is more intimate. I chose to spend it with the folks around me and that is what gives it meaning.

It was still dark at 6:30AM as I was pulling out of the bay and onto the ICW. Disappointed that I could not share a picture of how amazing it was to lay under the stars I thought I’d leave the helm and walk to the stern to snap a picture of the proto-sunrise that was taking shape behind us.

Whenever I leave the helm on the ICW you must be quick. There are many times you find yourself looking down at an iPhone or iPad to measure the distance to the next bridge or calculate your arrival at your planned anchor location. Take your eye off the helm for more than 10 seconds and you may find that you’ve run over a crap pot, hit a shoal or just ran into the bank of the ICW. This fellow ICW boater ran aground when his teenage daughter spaced out while at the helm. The boat and crew were fine and while it can be embarrassing it’s something that can happen to anyone when you’re pulling 10-12 hour days staring at the helm and things passing you by.

Soon we were passing Carolina beach and the grasslands are beautiful.

We passed a pink house on it’s own rock island with a dock leading out to it.

Pink House on a Island of Rock
Long Fixed Dock Grants Access

As we made our way South we came to Snow’s Cut. A ‘cut’ is a canal that has literally been ‘cut’ through land to form a canal for boats to travel from one river to another. It appears as if this abandon bridge is a popular place for teen parties.

Next it was into the Cape Fear River. This river is deep and has a strong current. You must stay clear of the larger traffic in the channel like this tug pushing an LNG tanker.

To get to the marina we were going to spend two nights at we had to turn to starboard at the Frying Pan Restaurant. I recall seeing photos of this restaurant during Hurricane Florence. The restaurant was flooded. I can’t tell for sure but they look to be up and running as we passed?

If you are familiar with Cape Fear you’d know that this restaurant is named after the famous Frying Pan Shoals that extend out some 15 miles off the coast of NC.

There is an abandoned tower that marks Frying Pan Shoals and guy bought it at auction and is now making a bed & breakfast out fo the tower that lies some 39 miles off the coast of Cape Fear. How cool would it be to stay for a night? Here is a video of someone dropping a camera off the tower and down into the water. By the way to get into the tower you must be hoisted up on a cable.

Frying Pan Tower B&B

We arrived at St. James Marina and were excited to spend some time with friends. Jim was just getting back from a fishing trip out to the gulf stream some 50 miles of the coast of Cape Fear. The weather was rough so I think it was a wet salty ride back in this fast open fishing boat.

The Marina is a beautiful place to spend time and it was worth the trip. Our trip looked something like this.

Anchored in Somewhere South Carolina

We got a late start leaving St. James Plantation Marina in North Carolina. I think we were enjoying ourselves and were just slow getting moving in the AM. Kelly eventually woke and made an amazing breakfast on the griddle and I filled the water tanks, emptied the trash and pulled the boat over the pump-out and we were off.

Pulling out of the marina we were reminded how beautiful the houses are and what a great place this is.

As we exited into the ICW and headed South, we were reminded that this area has strong currents and tricky shoals that form around both Lockwood Folly Inlet and Shallotte’s Inlet. To offset the danger of running aground on a shoal we spent the wee hours downloading the US ACE (Army Corp of Engineering) navigation hydrologic maps of the inlets. What a great job the ACE does surveying these tricky inlets and making the sounding maps available for FREE to snowbirds like us. Thank you.

Current rip in the inlets. Each Division / District has its own website so you’ll have to spend some time finding the hydrologic maps from each ACE District. That’s a narrow drugged channel that you must stay inside of Stay to Port.

As we headed South we saw many beautiful sights.

We have no idea what species of bird this is but we are committed to learning more about the aquatic bird species that inhabit the ICW.

This lighthouse was somewhere around Myrtle Beach. It’s though to see but there were Christmas lights strung off the walkway around the light.

An Atlantic Ocean inlet. Maybe this was around Lockwood Folly Inlet?

We find the breaking waves beautiful. What a great beach for walking the dog or just contemplating life.I think the sign said something like Greg Norman’s Australian grilleWe love that this guy was taking his dog for a ride. Man’s best friend loves the boat says Happy & Chief Martin Brody. “Born 200 years too late” – Jimmy BuffettSomewhere Myrtle BeachClose Encounters or an airport building, you decide.Who wants to walk under this rack with high winds and a 10K lb boat resting 80′ over your head?

There are many dangers along the ICW..

Slow down and read the signs of life… they point toward safetyLogs are the bumps in road of life They thud your hull or fold your wheel (that’s a propeller for the un-initiated)We hate to see beautiful commercial fishing boats listing on the bottom. We joke that we’d love to pull her up drain her beige, gut her and rebuild her giving her a sexy teak makeover. Kelly reminds me that the stink of a fishing boat is not washed off with soap. Ouch!

Heart breaking.

Well, we anchored in a narrow creek tonight. It’s inky black and a bit windy but we buried the 90 pound and 3/8 chain anchor deep by backing down on it. We were forced to only let out a short scope of rode. Any more and when the tide reverses we’ll swing into the banks of this narrow creek. So we’ll call it a night and make our way to Georgetown, SC in the AM.