Our thanks to Kellirae and Bill on Ocean Dancer for this AGLCA Forum detailed log of their voyage north on the Waterway during these weeks of coronavirus shutdowns. Please note that Osprey Marina and Barefoot Marina are both CRUISERS NET SPONSORS.

Below is an updated report. With regard to anchorages, we have a 5’ draft and use a 144’ CQR.

4/1 New River anchorage (MM570) Anchored in 19′ deep @ 5.7’AMLR. Dodged quite a few crab pots at the entrance but they are along the edges once far enough in. Excellent spot.

4/2 Lady’s Island Marina, Beaufort, SC. (MM536) Marina open, amenities closed. I like the yoga studio there and took a class via Zoom. Mary said Publix delivers but available times are several days out.

4/3 Toogoodoo Creek (MM495) had a strong enough cell signal to read the news. We had to move past a few more crab pots this time, going a bit further into the bend. Anchor held firm in 16′. Lo tide, about 10′ deep. DEPARTURE: tide pushing us out, gentle bumps forward to retrieve chain. Chain was clean. Anchor had thick greasy mud to rinse down.

4/4 Awendaw Creek (MM436) All charts said 8’, in those spots we were in 15′. We had concern about reviews stating it was soft, draggy mud. The 144lb CQR grabbed firm immediately. Grateful. Thick greasy mud took about 10 minutes to rinse off all sides of the anchor. The chain was clean. Good cell coverage here, too.

4/5 Butler Island (MM396) is a great oxbow anchorage north of Georgetown, SC, with a lot of room and a strong current, 20’ deep. A few locals zipped by waking us for the fun of it. Excellent holding and cell service.

4/6 Bob Creech alerted us to the (MUCH better) fuel price at Osprey Marina. We radio’d as we approached to make sure the dock was free. The dock was, indeed, free. However, the boat that had just left it was still coming out of the narrow marina channel. Hello there! (Note to self: ask better questions.) After securing ourselves, Brian arrived and facilitated a fillup and a pumpout. We wore our homemade masks and our outside gloves, with additional tweaks to our dock safety procedures. Payment was made from an outside window at the knee level of the new person (June) inside, who was standing at the register. Between talking to her knees, through a mask, over the hum of the ice maker, it was hard not to laugh at the whole situation.

We stopped that night at Barefoot Marina (MM354) in Myrtle Beach. Bonus: there is a Walmart about 4 miles away that delivers to the marina and had a time slot that worked for us. We had a positive experience ordering directly through Walmart’s website.

4/7 We arrived Pipeline Canal anchorage (MM311) in Southport. After feeling our way around in there at low tide (and a supermoon) throwing all kinds of mud, (even up past the boat ramp, Bob), we inched back out and docked at South Harbor Marina. Remembering how small the office was, we made our payment over the phone and were emailed a receipt. Bill cleaned the strainers after their mud bath, and I took a walk up the road to see that a catamaran and small trawler had found safe water in the canal.

After stops at Osprey, Barefoot, and South Harbor, including a grocery intake, we felt like we had enough exposure risk to start another two-week countdown.

4/8 A longer run (almost 58NM) to Mile Hammock anchorage (MM244.5). It took two tries to get the anchor to hold but hold it did; we went all the way around it in a thunderstorm. There were nine boats (counting us) in the basin. One may have dragged during the storm. They moved into the corner behind us and sat with engines running. Up to this point, we’ve been the only boat in most anchorages. Once or twice there’s been another boat or two but certainly not nine. Traffic is picking up. NOTE: Aquamap’s anchor alarm is awesome.

4/9, Another storm hit while passing Swansboro. By Beaufort, the sun was shining and the winds had settled to a breeze. We checked out several anchorage possibilities along the way and chose a new spot at MM170 the north bank of the Neuse River; we thought it would offer better protection, a nice depth, and swing room in the high winds expected that night. Two out three was not enough! This is an excerpt from our log: “We were able to go to sleep but were awakened at 1:25 by 2-4’s and serious wind. Anchor was firm, we were safely held. Conditions worsened, things and crew were being tossed about inside the boat. We decided to pull anchor and move. First, life jackets. Life ring at the ready, too. With headsets on, Kr carefully maneuvered to bow to work anchor, Bill handled the boat. We were patient, careful, and maintained calm demeanors. Clear communication at every step. It was difficult to stay on course at slow enough speed to watch for crab pots. At approx 4am, we reached the entrance to Bay River where it was a whole different experience: calm wind, glassy water. We sat with engines running for 2hrs before braving the narrow river channel in the dark. Just before 6am, decided to make the run to Belhaven (34 st miles) to get across Pamlico before winds pick up again later this morning and to wait out the rest of the expected weather for the weekend.”

4/12 River Forest Marina, Belhaven (MM136). Thank goodness for Henry’s hospitality. We took his advice and “prepped the boat for extreme conditions, replaced lines and added six 1.5” hurricane lines (Many thanks to the previous owners for those!) for 13 total lines. Wind will blow us off the dock, everything that can be stowed is tucked away or strapped down. Front hit in the morning, several tornadoes reported. We were lucky; they missed us. One 1″ line on the port bow frayed. Winds clocked at 60mph. Front passed as expected and things had calmed by 6pm.” (another partial log entry). We stayed a few days to rest up and clean up.

4/16 Still a bit anchorage shy, we skipped a planned Alligator River anchorage and headed for Coinjock (MM50). There was a patch of 3-5’s in the Albemarle Sound; we picked up speed to get out of there. The restaurant was doing a bang-up take-out business and the docks were full by dusk. We are definitely seeing more boat traffic now, almost all northbound.

4/17 Top Rack Marina (MM8). Currituck Sound WARNING: “Called NC Wildlife Violations 800-622-7137 for line of crab pots well inside channel from G97 to N of G83. Many of the pots were directly on the magenta line or to the port of it. A catamaran (Selah) also called to report. At G55 another crab pot dead on sail line. At G53, we hit one, heard 2 bumps under the boat, the float came out the back intact. The hull protects props; was it pushed aside and banged along until we passed? Now in VA, called VA Marine Police 757-247-2200 (Dispatcher Borum) took report and contact info, affirmed they handle these reports.” At the Great Bridge Lock, we were one of three boats and went in with radio silence. No instructions on how far to pull up, no one to catch lines, it was a little weird. It wasn’t hard; we were glad we weren’t first timers.

Several marinas have asked us to use Dockwa to facilitate no-contact payment. It’s proved to be efficient, accurate, and includes direct contact with the marina staff before confirming. (I confess that I was expecting to dislike it.) Henry at River Forest prompted us to add our BoatUS membership number in our Dockwa account information to automatically benefit from discounts.

So, here we are so far. We greatly appreciate the marinas that have been open to transient boaters, especially the ones offering fuel and pump-outs. We have gotten creative and come up with a few more washable masks. We are wearing them at all docking situations and sticking to our on-board safety protocols. This has been a different trip north, for sure.

Kr

Kellirae and Bill
MV Ocean Dancer