Navionics – MV Simple Life

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.

We left Atlantic City @ sunrise.

Sun at 7AM — 7AM off the Coast of Atlantic City, NJ

Kelly promised a breakfast “to die for” and delivered in every way.

My favorite. Corn beef hash (“ova ah’d” as I say) with eggs a bit “sunny” and American Cheese on toasted wheat bread.

“Wheat bread” said with the emphasis on the “H” like how Stewie from Family Guy would say it. It sounds like an “Haach”.

Breakfast — Epic Egg & Cheese with Corned Beef Hash & Stubbs Sweet Heat BBQ Sauce

Here is a video of us leaving AC. It was so calm that I simply untied the boat, stepped on and put it in forward to leave the slip.

We slipped past the Atlantic City USCG station where their rescue boat sat quietly.

AC CG Station — USCG Station Atlantic City

The dogs like the cockpit grass and they often they need me take them there while we are underway.

While underway we were happy to find the sea state somewhat tame for the end of November. Our passage to Ocean city, MD was 9 knots the whole way.

While we did not have to slow down, the 25 knots winds made for a wet ride. Thankfully I stayed dry & never had to change out of my PJs and slippers.

The boat feels heavier than normal since we have her loaded with more stuff than usual. Even the bow spray seems to throw further.

Every marina we have visited thus far seemed to be shutting down due to the freezing temps.

This presents a challenge for us as there has not been any water to wash the boat or top off the water tanks. Thankfully, MV Simple Life has ~450 gallons of water aboard in her two tanks. As long as Kelly is not doing laundry (she loves doing laundry on the boat), water is not an issue.

The ride from AC to OC left plenty of dried salt crystals on the boat. Our salty windshield

glistened like a diamond in the sun.

Today’s trip was about 70 miles. That’s about an 8 hour trip. This late in the season you only have about 90 minutes more of daylight.

Leg AC OC.png — Today’s Route Skipped over Delaware

Upon arrival I was a bit embarrassed to have to hail the marina and ask where they were located. My Navionics chart chip from 2012 had the marina in a different location. The marina is actually very protected once you slip past daymarkers 1,2,3 & 4. Austin the dockhand was there to catch a line for us and hand us the diesel hose to top off our tanks. I added 350 gallons of diesel @ $3/gal.

That means we made it from Wickford, RI to Ocean City, MD on roughly 350 gallons of diesel. Not too shabby though if I were slowing down I could use half that.

Here are some pics us at the docks.

After a long day I needed to sneak away to a bar called the Sunset Grille.

Sunset Grille.JPG — Sunset Grille in Ocean City, MD

We enjoyed happy hour with new friends “CathyPaul”. It’s actually Cathy & Paul but I’m sure I heard them combine themselves into a single name, “CathyPaul”. They were lots of fun and kept me entertained the whole time.

They also taught me how to say the name of the island that I hope to anchor at tomorrow morning. It’s called Chincoteague Island “Chinko Tee gah”. Tomorrow’s trip there will look something like this..

The anchorage is exposed to the Atlantic but in a NW or W wind, I believe it will do just fine. I must say that after studying the charts there are very few inlets at this point in the trip. The inlets that you do find caution mariners about unmarked shoals, breakers over sandbars and shallows everywhere. If we had a faster boat we’d have more options to skip over the more challenging inlets. Instead we often must either stop sooner than we’d like or try to use all of the daylight to make it to the next anchorage or marina.

I found this webpage for Chincoteague & Assateague Island . It talks about wild ponies on the island.. Maybe I should take the dink ashore and let the Chief Martin Brody and his sister Happy run with the ponies?

Ponies in the water — Ponies rather than horses? Is that what you call em?

Well it’s late and I better hit the sack. These days we are running from sun up to sun down and it’s leaving us wanting more downtime.

Good night for now and Kelly & I want to give a shout out to all our high school classmates who had a reunion tonight. We wish we could have made it but we left New England too late as it was.

Tag: Navionics

Waccamaw River

Atlantic City NJ to Ocean City MD & CathyPaul