Bellhaven to Norfolk - Loop Trip Days 154 - 160

The trip to Bellhaven started off as just a usual day. We planned an early start because the winds on the Neuse River were forecast to be under 10 mph until well past noon. It only took about half an hour before it began looking like that was wrong. The waves began getting bigger and spray was going onto the boat. These kept increasing until as we approached the turn near the mouth of the river, we had started to see four foot seas. This was easily the worst conditions that we have had since the trip from Slidell when we bought the boat. The conditions were getting worse and one of our bicycles was even starting to slide under the forward rail. Finally, the turn point came and this put the wind and waves on our stern which made a huge improvement! This lasted for about an hour as we made our way through several creeks connecting the Neuse River to the Pamlico River. As soon as we reached the Pamilco, the conditions returned to roughly what they had been before the creeks. Waves might not have been as big, but the wind had increased and we were now getting heavy water over the top of the boat. That half hour took forever until we reached the Pungo River that led us to Bellhaven. Waves were white capping outside the marina and getting into the desired slip proved impossible. We ended up on a T-head at the end of a dock, nose into the wind and all our fenders out with the decision made to stay here an extra day as the forecasts have been revised to show 30 to 45 mph winds coming tomorrow. We took a golf cart downtown to what is probably the best restaurant in town, Spoon River. It is also the only restaurant open today so we are very lucky. Dinner was great, we saw another looper couple we met in Beaufort and sat to talk for a bit. While doing that, Ann, the owner came by to offer us a complimentary glass of wine and thank us all for coming in! Not your ordinary place. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1019685

River Forest before the storm

Spoon River dining room

Ann the owner

Tuesday was absolutely the pits! Winds had not been bad overnight, but around 10 AM it all broke loose. Rain was pouring down and the winds were reported at 40 mph. This continued until about 2 PM when suddenly it all calmed. It seemed as though we had gotten through the blow pretty much unscathed, but as it turned out it wasn't done yet. About 4 PM, wind began to pick up again and shortly it got much worse than earlier. The River Forest Marina guys came out to help adjust fenders and even add an additional one, but the 55 mph winds had driven us into the pilings with such force the rub rail at that area got crushed. By a little after 4 PM, the storm has begun to ease up and the forecast that called for the storm passing was actually right. The rest of the evening was fortunately calm after the constant rocking all day.

River Forest during the storm

Wednesday turned out to be as hoped, sunny, warmer and light wind. First thing to do before leaving is to get fuel and pump out the holding tank. Another boat was already at the pumps so we had to wait a bit, but got everything done and were away by about 8:45. The first part of the trip was on the Pungo River which is wide, but wind is behind us so the ride was smooth. The longest section today was the Pungo River - Alligator River Canal. This man made channel was the last section of the ICW, completed in 1929, connecting the northern and southern sections as well as giving Bellhaven the title "Home of the ICW". We reached the Alligator River at about 11:15 and continued on toward the Alligator River Swing Bridge. We had to wait here for about 15 minutes for a sailboat to catch up before the bridge would open. The best part was the destination was just a left turn after passing the span and straight into their harbor. Alligator River Marina is a very small location, but well protected and a good location to stage from for crossing the Albemarle Sound. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1020599

Alligator River Marina

Nice sunset today

Thursday morning was somewhat grey, but not raining and winds were light. We left about 8 AM for the roughly 16 mile Sound crossing. This is one of those areas that can be extremely rough, but today it is almost "water ski" calm. Not wanting to waste any time or give the weather a chance to change, we got this done in about an hour. After the Sound is the North River which leads on through a large marsh area to the Coinjock canal. This is another man made cut connecting bodies of water. Coinjock Marina is our stop making this a short day, but we are looking forward to dinner at their restaurant where prime rib is the specialty. As soon as we were tied up, it was time to make the dinner reservation and also reserve our Mate's Cuts! It was a nice, sunny afternoon so we sat in the cockpit and watched all the other boats arrive until it was time to go. Dinner was great and the room filled quickly with the people we had watched earlier. The portions were huge so we have leftovers to take back! It wasn't dark yet so we walked down the dock to look at all the boats that had come in. The most impressive was an 84 foot Trumpy built in 1963 - beautiful!! Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1021399

Sunrise on the Alligator River

Not quite sure what these guys are

The line of boats at Coinjock Marina

The Mate's Cut prime rib dinner

1963 Trumpy

Friday we are on a mission to get to Atlantic Yacht Basin. I had called them about possibly repairing the rub rail that got damaged in the storm and look for our occasional leak which appears in the master stateroom. Forecast has called for light wind and calm water, but maybe a few showers. All of that was correct and even a few areas of bright sunshine were an added bonus. The route takes us up the North Landing River from its mouth at a large bay along the Outer Banks following it north toward its source. This was a nice ride through mostly unpopulated areas until reaching the Albemarle Chesapeake Canal. In this area, we had 2 swing bridges to pass through and we caught up with three other boats including the Trumpy. Just a couple of miles past the last bridge was the marina. They sent us to an inlet that led around to the back of the facility and put us in an old covered shed slip that was about 80’ long and 16’ wide. Not many boats fit that description these days! It took a while, but the service manager came by to take a look to see what could be done. Seems that the rub rail will take a week just to arrive before they could start working so now I have to figure out some other way to get this done. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1025642

In the "barn" at Atlantic Yacht Basin

They have all sorts of interesting things here

Even though repairs can’t be done here, we got word that there was to be a looper gathering on Saturday. Ed, the editor of The Waterway Guide brought his 1947 Trumpy to the marina and was one of the sponsors. I started the day doing some cleaning and working on an order for new windshield wipers before heading over to the marina office to pay for our slip. When I arrived, Ron, who we had not seen since Tarpon Springs, was there checking in! He and Karen had also come for today’s event. My next surprise came when the dock master said there would be no slip charge since they were unable to do the work that I needed! We headed down to the party at about 2. A large group was already there and we met new people as well as reconnecting with those we hadn’t seen in a while. There was food, drinks, a little duo playing music and they were doing a raffle. While waiting on the drawing, we went aboard the Trumpy. I’ve been intrigued by these historic boats and now had the opportunity to actually see one up close. It was so cool to see what a beautifully cared for 70 year old vessel looked like - really cool. The time came for the raffle drawing and they called Regina’s name! We won a set of brand new Waterway Guide books. The ones I had been using were three years old so this is great! We spent the rest of the afternoon on Ron and Karen’s boat catching up and visiting with new people. Tomorrow we will leave for Norfolk to spend a few days there. 

1947 Trumpy

Helm

Stair down to staterooms

Engine room

Private concert on the Trumpy

Ed the Waterway Guide editor with Regina

Great Bridge sunset

Sunday morning was cold and this is another front passing with winds in the 15 to 20 mph range. First order of business is to get around to the front of the Marina and top off the fuel. After that was completed, we had to kill a few minutes waiting on the draw bridge's next scheduled opening. I noticed a line of boats coming up the waterway to stage for the hourly event. We got off the dock to get into place before ending up in the rear. Right after the bridge is Great Bridge Lock, last time we came through here you couldn't even detect a change in water level, but today there was about 2 feet of rise. It's only about 10 miles on to Norfolk and the marina. The gang in the lock must have been told there was free money or something ahead. It looked like a Grand Prix start for this group as soon as the lock opened! We got past a couple of really slow boats and let the racers go on ahead. The scenery becomes very industrial as we approach the City and the shipyards. There are all sorts of commercial freighters, but the Naval vessels are the most interesting (see the pictures on the track). There is an aircraft carrier that must be getting ready to go somewhere. It's behind some kind of barrier and a security boat on patrol is right there. The downtown area is just past here with Norfolk on one side of the Elisabeth River and Portsmouth on the other. We got to Tidewater Yacht Marina before noon, but had to circle around in the harbor waiting until some of those racers got into slips. Our assigned slip was in a very good location, well protected and not far from the office and restaurant. They informed us that, Dockwa, the app I use to book slip reservations, will host a reception this afternoon at that restaurant! Timing is everything!  Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1025615

Ready to go the the Dockwa reception

Tidewater Yacht Marina

Tucked in our slip

Virginia sunset

Harbour Village, Beaufort and Oriental - Loop Trip Days 148 - 153

Tuesday was about 40 degrees and sunny, but very light wind.  There were tugs, barges, a container ship and several freighters moving about as we headed back down Cape Fear River. The most interesting thing was how the water in the channel was running. Since this is a major shipping channel, that portion is dredged much deeper than the surrounding area and it must be that feature that funnels the current. The channel looked like rapids in a mountain stream and all of the rest of the  water is calm. Bad weather these past days has created a crowd on the Intracoastal waterway today.  It gets narrow out of the shipping channel and it took a while to get past the slower vessels and right after we managed to do that, we had to stop and wait for the Wrightsville Beach bridge to open. After that, we made pretty good time the rest of the way to Harbour Village Marina arriving at about 12:30. This was a fuel stop and an overnight to break up the leg to Beaufort.  Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1013433

Last look at Wilmington 

Harbour Village

In our slip

The first thing on today's trip is a swing bridge 6 miles away that opens only on the hour. We left to get the 9 AM opening and joined about seven others who were doing the same thing. All went well here and now it's a race to the next bridge that is 20 miles further north and opens on the half hour. I managed to get around three boats in front of us and then ran hard to get the 10:30 time. A long stretch of this area is adjacent to Camp Lejeune and the waterway passes through their firing range. They do have some signs that say "Flashing lights indicate live fire", but who knows for sure if they check the bulbs in those things!  We made it through so they weren't shooting, but we did see Marines doing some sort of exercise along the way. Once past here is Swansboro and a larger inlet, then comes the south end of Bogue Sound. The wind is picking up and the sound is getting rough so I kept our speed up to get to Moorehead City as quickly as we could and that took about an hour and half!  Finally, we get there and you are almost immediately entering the shipping channel with freighters, tugs and barges while looking straight out the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean.  This is just about two miles to the marina. So now is when it starts going south, suddenly I have alarms going off on the console.  Regina points out an engine alarm on the Smartcraft and I see the starboard engine overheated which means shutdown right now!  I call BoatUS on the radio and, by the grace of God, their boat is literally right behind us. In the channel with 20 mph winds and all these big ships, I've got one engine and have to get through a railroad bridge to an area where the tow boat can get lines to us and start the tow into Beaufort. One engine on a twin engine boat makes it want to turn in a circle so that was about the longest 500 yards you could imagine. The tow must have taken more than an hour, but we finally got there and the marina had about 8 people there to help us (or watch the crash) get in. Once in, I go to the bilge to see if there is any visible indication of what happened. Hoping that I would see nothing, which would indicate that an engine impeller is all that failed, was not to be. As soon as I opened the hatch, you could see that the serpentine belt on the engine had basically exploded and this is something I can't fix - mechanic required. After a long day, we walked into town for dinner at The Spouter Inn for a little decompression time. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1014254

You really never want to see this in front of your boat

At least we are floating and not aground on the edge of a marina

I had picked Beaufort Yacht Harbor for our stop here and I'm so happy that I did. Turns out that there are a lot of live aboards here and many of them are boat mechanics. The harbor master hooked me up with Rich who is on a boat two slips down. He came over to take a look and instead just went right to work. The serpentine engine belt had completely disintegrated and the mess was terrible. This thing is like a car fan belt, but over 5 feet long with steel wire reinforcing and nothing longer than an inch of rubber or maybe four inches of wire as left.  Rich unwound pieces of wire from the pulleys and determined that the spare belt I had was a good one. Soon everything was back together and declared good after a test at a cruise rpm. For normal stuff, it was a laundry day and we went to the Beaufort Grocery for lunch while the washing machine was running. The name is deceiving and the lunch sandwiches were incredible. We even had a slice of pecan pie to finish that had the biggest pecans I have ever seen. After doing more laundry, we went to the Backstreet Pub which is a historic landmark.  The building dates to 1881 when it was a bakery and has been in continuous use for different businesses and converted to a pub 40 years ago. While there, we met a man and his son who were in taking the captain's certification course. Lots of things to discuss with them!  Just down the waterfront from the pub was Front Street Grill, where we stopped in for a light dinner. This place is nice, if you visit the town, check it out. 

Backstreet Pub - the old oven is right behind the ship model

Looking down the spiral stair

Life rings - if you need one

On our second day here, I started another load of laundry as I borrowed the courtesy car to go to the drug store and Ace hardware. Turned out that both were close, but too far to walk. When the dryer cycle was done and all was put away, we went to the North Carolina Maritime Museum. The coolest things they had here were artifacts from the Queen Ann's Revenge which was Blackbeard's ship. Totally amazing how these things are found, recovered and preserved!  From here, we visited a few shops before going to Finnz to see if Susan and Robin, who we met at The Spouter, would show up.  They did and we found out more about the town.  On their recommendation, we went down the street to Aqua for dinner. Great suggestion!  After some flaming desert, it was over to Cru for a live performance by Dick Knight who, over the years, had played with James Brown, Otis Redding and Gladys Knight just to name a few. This was really quite a lot of fun. 

Whale skeleton at the Maritime Museum

View on the other side of Beaufort

Desert is burning!!

Regina got a Captain's hat

Saturday meant it was time to move on. The day was sunny and a bit winder than forecast. We left about 10:30 and headed out for Oriental which was roughly 20 miles away. This was a big weekend in the town and I had gotten one of the last slips available. After getting in, I washed the salt spray off and filled the water tank before stopping to watch the Vol's spring football game. For dinner, we walked over to Toucan Grille near the marina office. This was where all the action was!  A wedding reception was underway in the courtyard, they had a band playing and the New Bern Yacht Club had done a weekend cruise to the harbor. This had everything and everyone turned topsy turvy as it was obviously well beyond their normal activity level. Anyway, after a short wait, we had a tasty dinner before returning to the boat. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1014254

Oriental Harbour

Sunday in Oriental was a quiet day. Probably like most days here. The wedding reception was over, band was gone and so were all the boats from New Bern Yacht Club. It was just us and the locals!  We walked around to look in some shops and ended up finding some fun foodie items at Nautical Wheelers. The owner was in the store and we ended up talking to him for a long time. Interesting guy and a really neat little shop. After that, we walked down to O'Town to sit on the deck and enjoy the sunshine. The deck overlooked the marina and it was fun to watch the boats coming and going on the river. We had been told that M & M's was a good restaurant and it was just around the corner, so we tried it. When we arrived, it was almost empty and we just sat at the bar to eat. Well, it wasn't too long until all of the regulars started coming in to take their usual positions. We were in the middle of the gossip of the day and the exchange of town business. This is really a place where everyone knows everyone and all about them!  Tomorrow we move on to Bellhaven. 

Our side of Oriental

Myrtle Beach, Southport and Wilmington - Loop Trip Days 140 - 147

The overnight at Bucksport was really wet. There were thunderstorms and blowing rain. The floor covering in the cockpit is a luxury vinyl material that is sort of like a sponge. Interestingly, when it gets wet and you walk on it, it makes suds like soapy water?? Oh well, it will dry eventually and the sun is out, but cold again. After traveling for miles along the old rice plantation fields, we are now going through cypress swamp. It feels like you are in the middle of the wildernesses, but we're actually almost in Myrtle Beach. This continues for miles with just an occasional glimpses of houses or resorts. Then suddenly, it's miles of subdivisions, golf courses, retailers and restaurants. This section has all been excavated to create a canal for the ICW and through here it was cut through rock. The rock remnants are along the banks and much of the banks are exposed rock and there are lots of signs that say "Danger - Rock"! Right down the middle here. Today's stop is the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club which is a really big marina marked with a lighthouse at the entrance. After watching the end of the Master's, we went to the Officers' Club, upstairs above the office, for a quick dinner. Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1005198

This was just too funny not to include

MBYC is a very large marina

Can you find us?

After a day of sunshine, the rain is back this morning. We're not leaving early because there are some reported shallow areas north of here and a rising tide will improve that. As we cruised up the waterway the most interesting thing was that there were more boats out in this weather than we had seen when it was nice! The trip was interesting in that we were passing a lot of beach areas and in the distance, we could see ocean front houses while close to us were the ICW developments. The worst area expected was at Shallotte Inlet, but there was a huge dredge there and depth was no problem. Further up was Folley Inlet and we did see shallow water there, but it was well marked so we had no issue. Our Marina for e next few days was Southport and we arrived in the rain will wind out of the north. Chris came out to grab lines and get us into our slip which he did very well. Later, we went to dinner at Oliver's, on the waterfront, which turned out to be a very good choice. Food and service was excellent! Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1006078

Harbor Pilot tower next to Oliver's

Tuesday was supposed to be better but the clouds and rain continued. The temperature still has not gotten any warmer so we hung out at the marina for the morning. I was working on reservations for Wilmington and looking at the next legs north. We had a snack, got cleaned up and went to the Maritime Museum on the edge of town. This was an interesting place with lots of local history and one of the staff members gave us a basically private tour through the facility. While we were doing this, we looked out the windows toward the inlet to see a large freighter aground right in front of us! It was almost high tide and he was totally stuck and we never did see him get moving. Guess we'll find out tomorrow if he was ever able to get going again. From the museum, we walked down the main street of town to Mr P's Bistro for dinner. The marina people told us that this was a great place to go and that was spot on. It doesn't look like much from outside, but this is an excellent restaurant. They offer a wide selection of entrees and take great care of their guests. We stopped in a little winery just down the street from here on the way back, met Rick and Linda, who gave us all sorts of local knowledge. Now we have only one day left to see the rest of the town!

The grounded ship turned out to be a dredge working the channel

The azaleas were amazing.  The green stuff on the tree branches is called resurrection fern because it goes from brown to green when it rains.

Beautiful evening

Fortunately, Wednesday was a sunny day! The temperature still isn't too warm, but the sun makes it very comfortable outside. We walked into town for brunch at the Moore Street Market. This is located in an old home right downtown and is very popular. Afterward, it was back across the street to the Fort Johnston-Southport Museum. The fort is no longer there, but it dated back to the Colonial days and the initial settlement of the Carolina coast. It was used until the end of WWII as a coastal lookout station. The museum covered not only the fort, but the town as well. For quite a few years, movie making was big here until North Carolina ended incentives. After the museum, we started off on a walking tour of town following a prepared guide. This little venture turned out to be the real three hour tour and we actually skipped the last two stops on the walk and found a nearby place to sit down and rest. The wind picked up again and it started to get chilly. Provisions was the place we had planned for dinner, but it is basically outside so the Frying Pan was right across the street, had great reviews and an inside dining room - plan changed. BTW - the restaurant was named after the light ship that was off the Cape Fear coast until it was retired in 1960 after 30 years of service.

Plan of Fort Johnston

St Phillips Chapel c.1860

The Three Lives of Karen was filmed here

Indian Trail Tree in Keziah Park - thought to have been bent to act as a direction marker

Crimes of the Heart was filmed here

View across the Southport Inlet

Thursday is the travel day to our next stop at Wilmington, NC. High tide is early today and the plan is to get to the fuel dock as soon as the office opens. Good plan but also conceived by about four other people. Anyway, we got there and had to wait for fuel and a pump out. We got moving just after 9 AM and headed up the Cape Fear River toward our destination. It was chilly when we started but the day warmed quickly. There was not much boat traffic going up river and this river is very wide and deep. There are quite a few widely spaces, very large houses along the way and several shipping ports, but not much else. We reached Port City Marina about noon and got into our slip. The Azalea Festival is is full swing and the main concert stage is within sight of us. Billy Carrington is tonight's headliner and we can hear it all right here. We did the River Walk into town for dinner at Elijah's and then got back to hear the concert! Track and photos - www.ramblr.com/web/mymap/trip/273527/1008461

Port City Marina

Coast Guard cutter downtown

View across the Cape Fear River

Elijah's deck on the river

Nightfall over Port City

Friday the thirteenth was a warm and sunny day. It was also the day to find the post office and mail a check to our Uncle in Washington. Guess that's appropriate. On the way out of the marina, we met Theresa and her little dog, Chaka Khan, which Regina tried to steal (well not really). What an interesting person! We talked for nearly an hour. For fun stuff, we visited the Cotton Exchange to have lunch at the German Cafe, but they decided to close early! We will have to come back tomorrow. The Wilmington Railroad Museum was nearby so there we learned about the Atlantic Coast Railroad that had been headquartered here for many years before it was moved to Jacksonville, FL. That was an unexpected blow to the city. Today that railroad is part of the CSX system. We walked around town looking at all the Azalea Festival activities and checking out the many little places along the waterfront area. It was during this that we discovered the Blind Elephant. This is another speakeasy and has nothing but a street number on the door. It was really cool and had a fabulous piano player!

Regina with Chaka Khan

Railroad Museum

Blind Elephant

The Azalea Festival continued in full swing on Saturday. Front Street had blocks of vendors with every imaginable product possible and about a million people! We looked through some of that and a few shops before returning to the German Cafe. There was already a crowd waiting outside for the doors to open and as soon as the food arrived it was obvious why they came. After dinner, we went to the Dead Crow Comedy Room which was located in one of the old basements. They had four warm up acts before the headliner came on stage. Much fun and some funny people! We got back to the marina about five minutes before a fireworks show started. Unfortunately, it was hidden behind an adjacent hotel building so all we could do was listen. Bummer.

Sunday was supposed to be departure day, but yet another one these weather fronts has blown in. We could go and have an uncomfortable ride and night or hang out here longer. Not a hard decision.  The day turned out to be cloudy, windy, but warm so walking into town was just a fight with the wind.  The street vendors are still here and a good number of people shopping and listening to some random street concerts.  We stopped at Beer Barrio for lunch - unusual name for a Mexican restaurant - and had some specialty tacos.  From here, the Bellamy Mansion Museum was just around the corner and they had a 3 PM tour.  This 10,000 square foot antebellum home that has been meticulously restored.  Our guide directed an almost 2 hour tour of the home and all of it's history.  After the tour, we went to Rebellion for a light dinner and then to the boat to watch the ACM Awards show.  Surprisingly, all of the vendors and people had vanished from the street in about an hour!

Bellamy Mansion with Baptist church in background

Bellamy Mansion front door

Bellamy Mansion rear and side yard

Bellamy Mansion slave quarters

Parlor

Bedroom

Kitchen in the basement

Dining room also in basement

Sunday night was rain, thunder, lightening and crazy wind.  By Monday morning, we were down to the wind part, but tomorrow is looking pretty good.  For our last day, we decided to catch lunch at The Basics again and then Uber to Costco.  This was our first chance to go to Costco since we left Marietta!  After we got back, unloaded and put everything away, Regina discovered that Guy Fieri had been to Wilmington and had done a Triple D episode at The Copper Penny!  Now that is always statement about a restaurant so it required a trip for our last dinner here.  When we arrived, it was packed and folks were waiting outside.  We went in to get on a list and saw two seats open at the bar so we grabbed them - how lucky was that!  I had one of the sandwiches that Guy tried - a Hot Pork Tenderloin - amazing but so big I could only finish half of it. Tomorrow morning we head for Harbour Village at Topsail.