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June 2004 Update 6/6/2004 Well,
we made it to Charleston as planned, sort of. As many of you know we had
diverted to Cape Canaveral on our first leg out of Ft. Pierce because of
navigation computer problems. I thought I found our computer problem when I
discovered a bad memory chip that I removed it. Ugne spent her time programming
our back-up navigation system just in case we still had problems. As
it turned out, good idea! The Compaq laptops old tricks reappeared, system
lock-up, and it was always at a critical moment. We will solve this problem
soon. Anyone have an interest in a Compaq Anchoring System. On second thought it
would probably fail that test also. THE
TRIP: We
left the Cape at 0800 Wednesday a couple of hours earlier than planned because
of forecasted bad weather in the Flagler Beach to Jupiter area. We figured that
if we got in the Gulf Stream we could get north of the area before the late
afternoon storms developed. We were almost right. On leaving the Cape we headed
out NE and picked up the stream about 35 miles off shore in line with
Titusville. You know when you are there as the Speed Over Ground jumps a couple
of knots and gets even better when you get to the middle of the stream. The
winds were light sw 5 - 8 mph and the stream was like glass. We had a hard time
keeping the head sail filled so we had the engine running to help the progress
and we were still doing 8 to 9 knots over ground. We made good progress and were
65 miles offshore of Flagler Beach by 1900. Looking at the horizon and listening
to the weather, severe weather had developed along the coast but the range was
further north into South Georgia than forecasted. We continued to watch the
weather and moved to about 90 miles offshore to give us a better chance of
evading any storms that might come our way. The first thing we encountered were
6 - 7 foot swells out of the SW generated by a storm near Daytona Beach that had
report 60 mph gusts. It was not to bad as the swells were on our aft quarter
about 6 - 7 seconds apart. Vilkas handled them well. We also had shortened sail
just in case. Around midnight with a full moon shining between two storms that
we had dodged a small squall line developed and freshened our winds to 30 to 35
knots, the problem was that the wind was out of the west blowing across the SW
swells and a north flow of the Gulf Stream made for Very Confusing Seas and
adding to their height abit. Again Vilkas handled it well, Bill & Ugne? As
the morning progressed, not much sleep, the storms up & down the coast made
the seas in the Stream and outside the Stream very confused and they did not
measure up to the forecast of 2 - 3 ft with SW winds 5 - 10. In many cases,
many, we had rollers that would roll us 35 degrees side to side. But even with
the confused seas we were making speeds up to 11.2 knots over ground that pushed
us way ahead of our schedule. That turned into another problem, we would reach
Charleston after dark. We exited the Stream at a waypoint 80 miles off the coast
of St. Simons Island at 10am. The seas settled a bit and we decided to just sail
around and waste a few hours so we would enter Charleston at first light the
following day. The forecast, and I use that term lightly, was for the winds to
subside to SW 5 -10 during the night making for a nice smooth entry into
Charleston. Wrong
again. A
front moved in quicker than expected and the winds stayed in the 15 to 20 range
with gusts to 25 out of the SW. This development did not allow the seas to calm
down and we decided to end this adventure and enter Charleston harbor before
sunrise. What a ride this was. We
hit our waypoint at marker R8 and turned west into the channel. The wind and the
rollers from the previous night were something else, 6 - 8 ft, as we moved into
shallower water and we wallowed laboriously toward the jetty. From R8 to the
jetty is about 7 miles, Fun, Fun. Ops the computer locked up lost navigation. The
guidebooks say that Charleston is a very difficult channel to enter at night
because of all of the background lights make finding the channel markers very
hard. Add to this the weather and you will understand why I will never have any
hair on top of my head. We started this event about 4 AM. When we finally got to
the jetty and calmer water about 0530 we were welcomed by the shrimp boats
making their way out the channel some with their nets deployed. Did I mention
that we also had a small thunderstorm greet us. Fun Again. Once
through the jetty we made our way up the Cooper River to the Cooper River Marina
and dropped anchor outside the channel at 0630 to await the marinas opening at
9am. Cooper River Marina is a little remote but the price was half the cost
($.70 a foot)of other Charleston marinas. We
will be here a couple of days to visit with our son and try to solve our
navigation problems. Vilkas needs a good bath she looks like a salt shaker. Ops
again, just spilt a beer on the Compaq, guess I will have to buy a new one. A
great adventure, one I know we can handle when we meet it again in the future.
Onto Beaufort, NC sometime next week, on the outside. June
7 – July 4 The
weather extended our stay in Charleston to two weeks so we got to spend
additional time with our son. He let us use on of his cars on the weekends so we
could get out to re-supply our stores. One purchase we did make was a new laptop
a Toshiba Satellite. It then took me almost a week to get all the software
loaded. So far we have been very pleased. As
I stated above the weather extended our Charleston stay. A cold front had pushed
in and hung around for several days. Each day we got up early planning on
leaving and heavy rain would move in canceling our departure. Our plan was to go
outside directly to Beaufort, NC. However the weather was not cooperating so we
decided to take the inside route and head up the ICW. We are not fans of the ICW
as you cannot make more than 50 – 60 miles a day. The first day we pushed it
arriving in Georgetown around 1800, a very long tiring day. Georgetown is a
great little town that is in the process of rebuilding the downtown area. We
stayed 2 nights so we could take in the sights. We
left Georgetown June 20 and headed to Little River, SC. The first part of the
trip was up the Waccamaw River and it was delightful with a lot of wildlife
including Bald Headed Eagles. From Enterprise Landing to Little River the ICW
runs 26 miles through the Pine Island Cut. A narrow man made cut with steep
banks and kind of boring. Fortunately we did not meet any barge traffic. We
stayed at the Coquina Marina for two nights for a weather window so we could go
outside to Beaufort. On
June 23 we headed out the Little River outlet for the trip to Beaufort. Going
north out the Little River outlet forces you to sail SE to get around the Cape
Fear shoals. We had winds out of the south so the first part of the trip was
kind of rough. Once we got past the shoals and turned north the seas were aft of
beam the ride got a lot smoother. We arrive at the Beaufort Inlet around 11 am
on June 24 and took a slip at the Beaufort City Marina. Beaufort
is a great stop and the city caters to the cruising sailor. They even have
courtesy cars available for shopping trips. We stayed 5 days visiting the sights
and performing some boat maintenance. We
enjoyed our Beaufort stay but were ready to move on. June 29 we left Beaufort
for an anchorage in Broad Creek off of the Neuse River north of Oriental, NC. We
arrived around 1430 and anchored just outside the crab pots that lined the
shore. It was a great anchorage with little traffic. The next morning we hauled
anchor at 0700 for a trip to Belhaven on the Pungo River and anchored at the
back of the harbor near the bridge. Once the wind settled down it was a nice
anchorage. The
next day we motored up the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal to an anchorage at
the foot of the Alligator River mile marker 101. Again this canal was like the
last one narrow and straight but this time we did meet a barge coming at us. Of
course we passed each other at one of the narrowest parts even touching bottom a
little bit. About half way up the canal Dear Flies attacked us. We fought them
the rest of the trip. Once anchored we were able to put up our netting to keep
them away. On
July 2 we left the anchorage at 0630 for the long ride up the Alligator River
across Albemarle Sound and up the North River to Coinjock, NC. The winds were
very light so we were looking for a smooth ride across the sound however we were
not counting on a million crab pots be scattered all over the place. The three
hours across the sound were very tiring. There is no place to anchor in this
area so we tied to the wall at Coinjock Marina. The marina is one of the neatest
we have been at with great people. The food at their restaurant was very good.
We stayed an extra night so I could change the oil in the engine. July 4 we left Coinjock at 0615 for the final leg on the ICW arriving at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth, Va. Mile marker zero at 1600. This leg had quite a few bridges and a lock to go through. The day was uneventful until we got to the last bridge, the Gilberton Bridge. It had broke down in a half opened position so we had to circle for about an hour waiting for the repair. Once we were settled in our slip at Tidewater we were treated to the Norfolk July forth fireworks that fired from a barge in front of the marina. We spent 4 days in Portsmouth touring the old city as well as crossing over to Norfolk to visit the USS Wisconsin.
USS Wisconsin
Helo Carrier in Dry Dock |
