ActiveCaptain

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Storm Watch, The Decision and Ducking In

Well, so much for the forecasted great weather, although conditions looked fine through Friday. With Sandy, Tropical Storm or Hurricane, likely to skim by North Carolina’s OBX we couldn’t imagine not getting approval to move further south and more inland. Fortunately, reasonable folk work at Travelers and we quickly got a thumbs up- with one caveat: double the deductible should we have any wind related damage before Nov 1. Well gee, couldn’t most damage be “wind related”?
Toss around a few ideas and how the heck do you plan when the forecast changes every time you look? We have several weather apps on our iPhones; Wunderground, Weather Channel, Wind Alert and Passage Weather. NOAA Marine Weather is bookmarked for easy access. Russ studied them all and we felt that the further inland (west ) we could get, the better. The more obscure and relatively shallow the better; protection from the N and NE a must (NW would be a bonus). Our go-to app every day is ActiveCaptain and in situations like this, it was invaluable. We were able to find a spot about 12 miles off the ICW in New Bern, NC; a small creek we could duck into, 5-6ft deep with a tree-lined north facing bank that continued around to the west. The creek had one review, but that was all we needed; that and a look-see on Google Earth sealed the decision.

Approaching Duck Creek from the Neuse River at New Bern

As we motored up the Neuse River I spent a few minutes relaxing on the tramps. Temp was 84 and a beautiful, low wind sunny day; the last perhaps for over a week. I noticed little white things in the river and at first I thought they might be feathers, but a closer look showed they were little dead fish. Tons of them. I didn’t get a good shot of them on the river, but they were in Duck Creek too- much easier to photograph when we are not moving.

Why so many little dead fishies?

This small spot just off the privately marked channel, with a tad under 5ft of water doesn’t look like much and I wasn’t so sure at first if the protection hoped for would be found here in Duck Creek. Time would tell.

Duck, Duck, Sandy!

 

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The weather finds us: too, too, too

Too little wind, too much wind, too many T-storms, too few? Nah, never too few. One of the downsides to not enough wind is fog, which can make for excitement of the unknown sort. First, a word about our travel day between Charleston and our anchorage in Winyah Bay’s Western Channel, just a stone’s throw off the ICW. Another lovely marsh-lined stretch, much of it through Cape Romain Wildlife Preserve. One is almost guaranteed to spot a bald eagle or two, not to mention the ever-present dolphins, egrets, herons, seagulls with an occasional jumping fish. I completely understood how Alligator Creek received its name, when not 100 yds before coming upon it, I spotted a gator crossing the river.

Bald eagle sits on tall piling along the ICW, Cape Romain

Georgetown, SC did not make our “must stop” list this trip, mostly because we’d spent two nights in Charleston. We still wanted to get as far as possible and with help from our trusty ActiveCaptain iPhone app, found the perfect spot. Saturday we woke to fog; fog that rolled thicker and thicker with each passing minute. Here we were, in the middle of Winyah Bay’s Western Channel; somewhat out of the way but not entirely. This was a weekend and fog or no, plenty of small boats were heading out to where-ever. Oh, maybe we should sound our “anchored in fog” bell- not exactly a great mimic of a real fog bell, but it was official.

Sunset the night before

A foggy morning departure

Boats heading south passed within 100 yds of us as they turned south down the Estherville-Minim Canal; never saw them. Got underway after checking the radar- yes, it was working fine as was AIS. Further inland the fog dissipated and within an hour the sun shone and we began watching for osprey nests along the Waccamaw River. Soon, we noticed an ugly T-storm blob on the chart plotter; the kind with a purple center- the kind you really, really want to avoid. Could we outrun it? Don’t think so. Checked the forecast, didn’t like it; called Osprey Marina and nabbed the last spot on their long dock.

By some miracle, the blob skimmed by us and the next one turned out to be only rain, as it poured 2 mins after we got tied up at the dock. Mike of m/v Happy Hours V caught our lines; we eased in to the spot in front of him. Sunday’s forecast was for high winds and T-storms; none of that occurred. We decided to buy fuel and get a pump out; Osprey’s fuel prices are THE best and a p/o is free. I knew from last year that turtles hung around the fuel dock area and sure enough two paddled over to check us out. I raced to grab lettuce and…. “they liked it!”

Um, yummy- lunch

Bud on m/v Diamond Girl invited us to pizza at Scatori’s, along with 7 others, none of whom really knew each other. The restaurant will pick you up and bring you back to the marina, which is not close to anything. Met a bunch of nice folks- as it happened, all trawler people- from a for-sale Krogen to a Nordic Tug, an American Tug and a Bayliner with a flybridge. A great cruiser evening where even the waitress joined in, expressing how she loved being on the water- the rougher the better! She meant it too.