Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Its a long story, and I will try not to bore you with too many details, but it must have been the work of a higher power that made all the ducks line up in our favor; to get so far, so fast. That or Serena had the whip out, and not the fun one!

Actually it has been a pretty good trip. It's ironic though, that when we left we heard stories about people cruising down south, who would get up early in the morning, drive all day, and put the hook down, get up early, and do it again. making miles without enjoying the trip was the belief. And I told everyone, that won't be us, we are going to take our time, move 5, maybe 6 hours a day, relax, and enjoy. Well, I was wrong, we are those people they talked about. The day before yesterday we did 12 hours. The day before that it was dark by the time we dropped the hook. We are machines........ Or maybe its just that there is nothing better to do out here in the middle of nowhere. Plus, Vita moves so damn slow, that if we don't put in the hours, we don't get anywhere. Oh well, plenty of time to rest when we're dead, isn't that what they say.

We are 50 miles from finishing the ICW and heading offshore to New York City, "when" the weather gives us a comfortable window. In the US for 4 weeks, and technically only about 2 weeks of travelling before we are home. It might take a month and a half....  We will rest and relax, and watch the weather man's report, looking for favorable winds and seas for the 60 hour trip from Norfolk VA, to Nyack, NJ. Three days and two nights. It will be our longest single trip yet, over 250 miles, and we are really looking forward to expanding our experience base.

The last blog was a while ago, but our internet has been very spotty at best, and we have been driving like mad people. We left off after our stop in the marina at Barefoot Landing in South Carolina. We did the whole marathon load the boat thing, and headed out to Little River Inlet to relax for a day before moving on.

I took the opportunity to make a drop down door for the companion way. It allows quick access to the cockpit, keeps the heat in, and is water proof to keep water out. It has been amazing. This is a prototype made from a shower curtain we had on board, but I will make this out of canvas after we make sure the design is sound.

We also filtered our water. On the way down we drank water bottles, but they are expensive, and take up a lot of room. In the Bahamas they are not really available in quantity, and are really expensive. So we bought this small water pitcher with a charcoal filter, and use it to filter our drinking water. It works so well, that we are still using it, and have not bought a case of water since we've been back. It takes about 2 hours to filter a weeks worth of water though. Serena does it while she watches TV, and I am in the cockpit making sure Ray(the autopilot) doesn't make me do another "stuck in the mud" post.

Back under way we headed up to Southport, but the free town dock was full, and the tides and wind were in our favor, so we pushed on up the Cape Fear river, and kept pushing until we dropped the hook at sundown in Wrightsville Beach. 

Tight spot, North Carolina. Okay, not a real place, but there was huge dredging operation going on, and we were traveling in 7' of water, in a narrow channel. Nail biter.

Okay guys, you win, I'll go around, or aground. Man this was tight.

Waking up in Wrightsville Beach. The morning was completely still. Cold as hell, but wow!

Mush doggy..... We drove on again, stopping in the old Hateras Plant that we stopped in on the way down. Another tight little spot. We had free wifi though, that was nice, but no energy to do anything with it. I think I may have quickly updated Facebook.

We ran across Bella Donna on the trip. Like a fish out of water, first time on the ICW. I remember that! They are to be featured on Shark Hunters this summer for six episodes. 

We got stuck waiting an hour for the bridge at the Camp Lejeune Firing Range, but at least they offered our own personal air show for the inconvenience.

Not all ICW markers are where they should be. Some are more obvious than others.

Then we made the mad dash through Beaufort NC. The weather was horrible, raining, cold, and windy. The day was actually pretty good right up until the end where we had a wind against tide situation, with a 5 mile fetch pushing us into a narrow creek. It was the most difficult piece of driving I have had to do the whole trip. By the time we got out of there I had a migraine headache, my neck was strained, and I was in no mood to even be spoken to. Then just as I was starting to relax a giant barge and tug almost put me into the shore on a tight corner. I just managed to slide in behind the tug as he passed me, keeping Vita off the shoal, and wham, a wind gust pushed her over 40 degrees. We didn't even have any sails up. It was crazy, but short lived. I have never been so happy to get the hook down, in Cedar Creek, where we would get stuck for 2 days. The winds topping out over 35 knots, and no protection from wind and waves. But it was surprising comfortable. Good holding, and lots of room, but loud and bumpy.

The second day we managed to get out of the creek. The winds were down to about 20 knots, and still we were knocked down to 1.5 knots leaving the creek into the Neuse River. We would not even have been able to make it out of there the previous day. I told Serena that it was only a hour and a half to get to Oriental NC, where we would tie up at the free dock, get some fuel, and maybe go out for dinner. Well.... we dropped the hook 24 miles north of Oriental at 8:00pm, after dark. The free dock full, the fuel dock shut down for upgrades, and the next fuel 5 miles off the ICW. But at least we were closer to Elizabeth City.

And it ended up being a beautiful sunset.

The next morning, in a haze, and a narrow channel. Hello Mr. big dude! There was plenty of water though. Thank god we weren't in Georgia.

The following day was long, 12 hrs, we pulled over in the middle of nowhere in the Alligator River. Then up and gone by 6:30 am. But now we are in Elizabeth City, chill-axin'. Went for dinner, and a walk. We'll do a few chores today, and the Art Walk is on Friday, so we'll take that in before we head further north.

Some days are hard to take.

Vita back to one six.....