Boarded by the USCG

Floating above the seabed,
Chained to the ground,  
Waves of energy roll through me,
Riding the edge of sleep.

First Light

I awake. It’s still dark. Why I can’t sleep late? Instead, the smell of coffee wafts.

Drizzle Smizzle

As I make my way down Adam’s Creek the drizzle can be seen on the pilothouse glass.

I’m feeling pushed… Pushed along to 7.4kts

1400 RPM should push me along at 6.5kts but I’m feeling the current on my stern.

As I make my way down Adam’s Creek I pass many boats on this drizzly morning.

As I approach the Core Creek Bridge the creek narrows and the water speeds up in an effort to squeeze through.

Newport Marshes

The Newport Marshes are just inland from Moorehead City and Beaufort. There is an area that can be confusing as the channel bifurcates. The Russell Slough Channel is a secondary channel that goes into the backside of Beaufort and the ICW channel breaks off to starboard when you are heading south to Florida. You must be careful to respect the ATONs (Aids TO Navigation) ie. buoys. I see a trawler approaching heading north and he notices that he is on the wrong side of the red buoy and performs a hard-over helm correction before getting right back on course. There is also a tiny anchorage right at the split. I have been tempted to use it but have always chickened out because there is a 4.9′ depth that I fear swinging into at low tide and resting on the bottom. I always keep that anchorage in mind if I’m in a pinch.

As I approach Moorehead City I must pass through a narrow rail bridge.

Hang a Roger @Moorehead City

When you get to Moorehead City you turn 90 degrees around a large building.

After making that turn I was greeted by a rainbow

As I travel through Bogue Sound I’m reminded that today’s run will go through many traditionally shallow locations and I’ll have to stay tight to my line to not bump the bottom.

Boat Porn

As I go along I repeatedly have to pull the throttle back to idle to allow boats to give me a slow pass.

I almost missed slowing down for this diver down flag where these men were working on the bridge.

Diver Down

USCG Boarding

As I came into Swansboro I watched a USCG inflatable with three team members pass me and take up a course on my stern. Moments later they hailed me to tell me they wanted to board Simple Life. I cut speed to minimum make-way speed and explained that the best location to come along side and have crew jump aboard would be my stern swim platform. I felt only a slight bump and heard two Coasties coming through my salon. They greeted me warmly and asked if I was alone. I responded “yes” to which they replied … “oh, OK I guess you’ll have to keep piloting the boat and we’ll do our thing. They were doing a safety inspection which includes me showing them everything from sound devices, PFDs, throwable PFDs, signaling equipment, a digital copy of the USCG ColRegs. They also performed an engine room and bilge check as well as asked for my license and boat documentation. They were very professional and polite about searching through my current home. They gave me a passing grade and handed my my yellow boarded slip to keep for my records. I asked if I could take a picture for my blog and they said “No Problem”.

I like to keep everything digital on Simple Life.

Keep the Water Out

Sometimes it’s a challenge keeping the water out.

Marine Base Camp Lejeune

As I pass ICW statue mile 235, the shot up military vehicles and V22 Osprey aircraft overhead remind me that I’m approaching Marine Base Camp LeJeune.

Onslow Beach

As I arrive at the Onslow Beach Bridge I must wait in traffic for the next opening. The current was on my stern so I made sure to take a visual fix on land and hold my position fixed. Boats who were coming up behind were being pushed by the current past me. They are all faster than me so whenever faster traffic lines up behind me at a bridge I find it easier to let them pass you in line so that you can avoid the inevitable pass after the bridge. I backed my way into the current until I was the last in line. I watched as the boats swarmed like bees attempting not to hit one another.

Eyeballs Be Burning

As the sun gets low you’ll be seeing spots

Need to Hook Up

Now passing one of my favorite anchorages called Mile Hammocks Bay. The boat in front of me Kismet turns in. For a moment I start to follow but think… there is still three hours of daylight left. That said, the challenge with continuing on is… there is probably only one suitable anchorage within 3 hours range called Sloop Creek. If it’s full I could be running into the night looking for somewhere to drop the hook. I have never been to this anchorage so I study the entrance and make note of my expected arrival time which is after sunset. I decide to go for it.

When in route I can’t remember if the Surf City Swing Bridge has been replaced with a 65′ high fixed bridge. I use Apple Maps and it shows it in place. I switch to Google Maps and see it missing.

While enroute to the anchorage, I hear MV Doghouse hail me on the VHF. “Simple Life, do you know where there is an anchorage around here?”. I reply, Sloop Creek and they ask if they can follow me there. I jump at the chance to be helpful and reply “follow me”. We arrive at the anchorage. I do a quick circle to check the depths. It’s not deep or wide but… it’ll do for tonight.

Tyler Childers playing in Topsail, NC

Todays 69NM route looked something like this…

St. James Plantation with Friends

We are leaving St. James Plantation Marina in Southport, NC this morning but made a promise to come back and spend more time with our friends Jim & Wende. They were very gracious hosts while we were here and we got to share in the experience of being in a “private town”. So very interesting though I must say Kelly & I will have to investigate exactly what that means?

Thanks Jim & Wende, you showed us a great night off the boat and we promise to come back and spend more time.

The night before we had anchored in Sloop Point, NC and the trip down to Southport was an interesting one. We saw heavy equipment dredging around what looked like a new pier going in. I know what salt water does to steel and I still shudder at the thought of dipping an excavator’s arm into salty water. I’m sure the water in the ICW is brackish but still.

I was checking my ICW bridge list and realized that I would not make the Figure Eight Swing Bridge in time for their restricted opening time. This meant that I would be waiting for the next opening. However the bridge tender who I had hailed on the VHF asked me about my air-draft. Your “draft” is your vessels depth in the water and your “air-draft” is your vessel’s height above the water. I replied that I believed it was somewhere between 21-22 feet. The bridge tender remarked that he currently had 22′ of clearance. Every bridge along the ICW has a “height board” that is partially submerged under the water with height markers at the waterline. While all bridges on your nautical charts will list their height at an average high tide, the actual vertical clearance varies with the height of the water. The bridge tender offered to come out of his office and stand under the bridge to check my clearance if I wished to approach the bridge slowly. This can be a tricky maneuver as there was a current pushing Simple Life toward the bridge. I slowly edged the boat idling in reverse to the bridge and bridge tender assured me that I had a good 6″ of gap between the top of our boat and the bottom of the bridge. MV Simple Life’s air-draft is 21′ 6″.

Below is a stock photo of the Figure Eight Swing Bridge as I was too busy at the helm to snap pictures. You can see I circled the “height board” and at the time this picture was taken there was slightly less water under the bridge giving even more clearance than the 22′ we had the other day.

Just a few more miles down the ICW and we had to pass through the Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge located at statute mile 278 along the ICW. This is a restricted bridge that only opens on the top of the hour.

As we continued on to Cape Fear (Southport, NC) we were delighted at the scenery.

We passed many Atlantic Ocean inlets that had high sandy bluffs and marshy islands dotting the entrances. You could see and hear the surf breaking in the shallow inlets and it makes for nice scenery. The last of those 4 photos is one of a fixed dock that just barely exceeds the height of the water level. Interesting choice of fixed dock heights as this surely must be slightly submerged at times? Slightly submerged docks must be fun to walk along but just like submerged rock jetties that often protect many of the ports we enter they can be dangerous if boats come into contact with them.

As we got the point where the ICW connects with the Cape Fear River via “Snow’s Cut” we were passed by a US Army Corp of Engineers survey boat. These folks use sophisticated sonar to accurately probe the depths of these constantly changing waterways. He kindly slowed down as he passed and got back on plane once he was in front of us. However, just then the VHF crackled on channel 16, “Trawler in Snow’s Cut, are you OK?”. I quickly answered the hail with “comeback to the trawler in Snow’s Cut”. It was a boat in a marina that was hailing us stating that they “saw what had happened”. I replied, “If you are referring to the ACE boat that passed us, yes we are OK”. I found this communication amusing and I can only guess that the survey boat had passed the marina giving a large wake and making the marina boat unhappy and maybe this was her way of shaming the ACE boat publicly on the VHF?

It would seem the kids in Snow’s Cut like to party at this old bridge abutment. “Party on” Capt B.

Once in the Cape Fear River it became quickly apparent from the size of the docks that extend out into the river that this river is used by large ships. Passing these behemoths must be done at a distance.

A quick turn back onto the ICW, by a dilapidated building and we arrived at St. James Marina.

Time to push on to Georgetown, SC where we’ll update with a new post of what we saw along the way.

Prince of Tides

Beaufort, North Carolina is your quintessential small southern town. It is the 3rd oldest town in North Carolina and as you walk through this quaint small town, you can’t help be taken a back by it’s charm.

As we came ashore there were two monuments to local heroes within feet of where we landed. The first was Michael John Smith who gave his life for the pursuit of space exploration. Michael was a NASA space astronaut. Like so many, I believe that every human owes a great debt to astronauts who risk their lives so that the human race may have a better chance at surviving this hostile universe. They take risks that many of us might think too great. Michael was aboard the Challenger space shuttle when it exploded only 73 seconds after launch. The entire nation stood in horror at that moment, Like so many of you, I recall the shock and disbelief of this tragedy. The whole nation was forced to mourn the loss of these 7 heroes.

The second memorial stone was dedicated to a local oceanographer named John G Newton who discovered the U.S.S. Monitor using side scan sonar technology. Side scan sonar is an improvement on the DSM (Depth Sounder Module) that MV Simple Life uses to determine our depth as we came into Beaufort.

Leaving Beaufort was as tricky as getting in. The currents here in Beaufort are swift. When we arrived, I had to swing MV Simple Life into a narrow fairway with an extra strong 3 knot current directly on our beam. Simple Life’s full keel gives that current a flat surface to push her down-current quickly. With some fast movements at the helm and some help from the thrusters we landed her gently into our assigned slip. The trip out of the slip was made easier by the fact the strong current was on our bow. I nudged her out of the slip and simply swung the bow a few degrees off the current and she quickly pointed out of the fairway.

The currents can be seen pulling this green can under as we were exiting Beaufort and rounding the Southern point of Radio Island.

Currents are brought on by the tides and our friend Rebecca informed us the the movie “Prince of Tides” was filmed on location here in Beaufort. Knowing now that the movie was fillmed in Beaufort, maybe it’ll make a good first-time watch while on anchor?

Youtube link to 1991 Prince of Tides trailer

Our last night in Beaufort was a late one and the morning’s light was unwelcomed. We had a long trip ahead of us if we were to make Sloop Point anchorage by sunset.

We needed to make up time so we used the fast currents to our advantage and raced westward through Bouge Sound.

Bouge Sound is an East-West body of water trapped between main land North Carolina and a set of barrier islands. The sound has a narrow channel and marshy islands that abound. While the ocean was lumpy, Bouge Sound was a flat and reflective, like a mirror.

The only boat traffic we passed was a tiny little tug and barge with a piece of heavy equipment on it as well as one of those awkward looking front-loaded boats where you drive from the bow.

A little further South and we were reminded that Camp Legune is around us. Signs along the river warn of possible live fire events.

This picture of a shelled APC (I’m just guessing this was an armored personnel carrier, military expertise needed here) reminds me of a Monet or maybe a watercolor painting. The marshy grasses in the foreground simply mush together while the island and threatening clouds in the background appear to bleed and wash out the watercolors on a canvas.

With sunset approaching we had to race to make it through the restricted Onslow Beach swing bridge.

Every morning we research where the shoals are along the ICW. It seems the ICW’s bottom is in a constant state of evolution. You need to use sites like activecaptain.com/livemap/ to be able to use the knowledge other ICW boaters have posted to avoid running aground like this poor sailboat did.

We anchored in Sloop Point behind green daymark 15 and it was a peaceful night as we listed to the rain pitter-patter on the boat. The perfect background noise as we whisked off to the master stateroom.