Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com
We fueled up and pumped out on Thursday morning before making our exit from the Morehead City Yacht Basin after being there for a week due to Hurricane Sandy. We were both looking forward to resuming our journey south.
Once out of the channel from the marina we had to clear the Morehead City Bridge. This is a fixed bridge with a height at MHW (mean high water) of 65 feet. It was high tide and the tide boards at the base of the bridge were indicating 63 feet and change. What to do? Sweet Escape has an air draft of 61 feet plus about a foot and one half at the top for sensors and antennas. We decided to try because the alternative meant that we would have to find a place to wait for the tide to go down. We made it, but not by much. In fact, our VHF antenna dragged along the bottom of the bridge as we went through.
Next up was the Atlantic Beach Bridge - another supposed 65 footer at MHW. We approached the bridge and could see several sailboats anchored along the edge of he channel, obviously waiting for the tide. We approached the bridge and read the tide boards. 62 and one half feet. No joy here, we would have to wait. It was 11:00 AM and the next low tide was at 4:30 PM. Morehead City just would not let go.
We anchored off to the side of the channel and cooled our heels (literally) for a few hours. I say literally because it has been very cold here. With temperatures in the low 40’s at night and high 50’s during the day - combined with strong winds, we feel like we never left Wisconsin. We have been using our generator powered reverse cycle AC/heat a lot. Each day we bundle up in multiple layers like Eskimos with ski caps and gloves - well, glove in Brian’s case, having had one of his gloves blown away in the hurricane.
We waited until 3:30 PM and decided that the tide had gone down sufficiently for us to clear. Having had our travel time seriously limited by the fiasco at the bridge and not wanting to be fooling around on the ICW after dark, we motored 20 miles south to Swansboro where we anchored off the channel in the creek there with several other boats. We dropped the hook just after sunset and before it was fully dark outside.
Friday, we left the anchorage on another frosty, windy morning headed for Wrightsville Beach, 40 miles south.
This stretch of the ICW runs inside the barrier islands and there are many inlets to the Atlantic Ocean which means a lot of shoaling occurs here. It is almost impossible to not touch bottom along this section of the waterway. If you are careful and pay attention to what is going on you can avoid a hard grounding. This means paying attention to your depth sounder and being ready to power down at the first hint of shrinking water. The best plan is to “FTOB” (follow the other boats) and let them show you where the skinny water is.
We hit bottom four times, each time in the middle of the channel, but never hard and we were able to get off with no problems. Charts are pretty useless because the bottom shifts with the currents. So you pay attention to the aids to navigation and watch your depth sounder and oh yes, FTOB when you can.
We arrived at Wrightsville Beach and anchored in the anchorage there where we saw a spectacular sunset. It should be noted that we watched the sunset from inside the boat rather than outside with temps in the low 50’s and a 15 knot wind We are so looking forward to being able to use our cockpit in the evenings again.
But to do that, we must head south and so it was this (Saturday) morning we weighed anchor bright and early (for us anyway) and headed back out to the ICW and actually west for most of the day with the exception of a two hour run south on the Cape Fear River. We motored along the ICW accompanied by some dolphins that swam in our wake for a short time.
We had the tides with us. We had three worrisome fixed bridges to clear but arrived at all three on a low tide and cleared with feet to spare.
Our destination was Calabash Creek, 60 miles south just across the South Carolina state line, where we planned to anchor. Upon arrival we found the anchorage pretty full, forcing us further up the creek in shallower water than we wanted to be. But, we had little choice as anchorages are few and far between on this section of the waterway. Further complicating things was the fact that we arrived about 45 minutes ahead of dead low tide. This made getting into the creek a chore in and of itself with so little water. We first attempted slowly down the center of the channel and grounded. We were able to easily get off and found deeper water along the left side of the channel. Once into the creek, we anchored in about six and a half feet of water. This was a calculated decision. Since it was still ahead of low tide, you can imagine what happened. Yup, as this is written Sweet Escape’s keel is sitting on the bottom of Calabash Creek. We expect to leave at about 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. At that time we should be at low tide plus three hours and should be floating. To quote Captain Ron - “it’s the tides man, they can work for you or they can work against you”.
Readers will have to wait patiently (as will we) to see if our calculation turns out to be correct. If not TowBoat US can expect a call.
When we find some Internet we will add some photos to our albums page from this time period.
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