We have a day in Oriental with a trip to the grocery store and buy even more food. I think we could last to spring on our provisions.
Wednesday 19th November
It looks like the weather is still not right, our batteries are depleted and it's COLD so we move the boat about 100' to the Oriental Marina for some shore power and continuous heat.
Did a trip to the health food store and one more to the hardware but mostly stayed near the heater.
Thursday 20th November
Up at 5:30 for an early start (7 by the time we were off), across the Neuse River and down past Beaufort and Moorehead City where we were greeted by dolphins that escorted us alongside for a short while. Couldn't photograph them as the water is not clear enough and they only surface for an instant. We then went for miles down the Bogue Sound to Swansboro. It's a cute place where we actually managed to buy some fresh fish and wonderfully tasty local shrimp (instead of farmed Thai or Chinese which is what the supermarkets sell) from a shack by the water.
Friday 21st November
Up again at 5:30 and up-anchor by 7 and onwards down the ICW to Wrightsville. A few close calls depth-wise. Lets's put it this way, if Incognita had a 6' keel we would have been aground.
On this leg you have to make it through four opening bridges that only open on the hour or hour and half hour which complicates things just a little. Arriving too late is bad but arriving too early is also bad as there is no way to tie up and you end up with boats milling around aimlessly, trying to avoid running into each other. More dolphin sightings.
We had intended to anchor at Wrightsville Beach but we only got through the last bridge at 5 and dusk is at 5:10 and after a very windy and tiringly cold day we opted for a marina and power.
This is the Wrighstville double bascule (French for see-saw) bridge - the first double we have seen.
Saturday 22nd November
Before we left Waupoos in September, which seems a long long time ago now, we met Rhodes and Ellen Messick on the dock there when they were visiting from Sackett's Harbour where they keep their CS sailboat Skylarkin. They actually live in Southport, North Carolina, not that far from Wrightsville.
They had invited us to call in on the way down south and so we made our next destination the picturesque town of Southport after negotiating the dreaded Cape Fear River which went just fine.
with typical Carolina-style houses.
Ellen came down to the boat and ferried us around to buy propane, engine oil and groceries and we were invited to their home for supper where a game Rhodes met us, two days after having throat surgery.
Why don't they keep their boat down in North Carolina instead of up North? Well, apparently - though it's really hard to believe right now with record low temperatures - it's way too hot in summer.
We tied up to a free dock in Southport which is always a bonus for taking Buddy for walks.
Sunday 23rd NovemberThere are couple of tricky bits on the ICW from Southport to South Carolina so we were waiting for higher tides before we left. However, when we did pull away from the dock we had an engine transmission problem that had us back on the dock pronto. This fellow observed the proceedings from an adjacent piling.
Don't really know what the problem was but after tightening the shaft coupling and testing it at the dock, the problem went away leaving us free to go but too late for Sunday. I also tried to see if there was problem underwater with the propeller but after a frigid dip I couldn't see anything anyway, as the water was too murky.
We took Buddy a walk along the beach in the freezing cold.
