7/25/16
Southport NC
Posted by Bill

The last week was full of fun stuff for us. We had a run over the the secluded beach again, this time trying to do some fishing as well as wallowing. The mullet (bait fish) have started to appear and we thought we could catch some in the surf and fish off the beach. Alas, the mullet were somewhere else, so we settled for wallowing.

The next day we went fishing on our friends, John and Mary Ann, boat. They have a 1960 Merit. An all wood boat that was built specifically for sport fishing off shore. The boat is immaculate, and is a joy to drive. They win awards at the wooden boat show every year. We went about 40 miles off shore and had 5 lines in the water as we trolled along. The ocean was really calm and it was a beautiful day on the water. It was fun to travel at over 20 knots, and in 2 1/2 hours we were as far as it takes us almost a full day to travel in the sail boat! Tricia reeled in all 3 of the fish we caught, first a Mahi Mahi:

Then an Amber Jack:

And lastly a Barracuda, that we thew back. Mary Ann wasn’t able to go, but we had a great time with John. He and Tricia tended to the fishing and I drove the boat. It was a good day on the water.

The day after, we made a dinghy trip to the sandbar to wallow, and then rode over to Bald Head Island.

We have also been having some great get-togethers on the dock and at Matt and Shirley’s house. We have been eating and drinking very well! There has been some work as well. Tricia used a boat cover that was in the trash, and made some covers for our jerry jugs (diesel fuel and gasoline).

They get brittle over time when exposed to the sun, so this will help them last longer. She also used the material to make a bag for our dinghy anchor, so it won’t scratch the finish on the floor of our new dinghy.


She is awesome! We also sent her up Matt’s mizzen mast to bring down parts of the wind generator, and then take them back up after repairs. Boat wakes from passing boats in the ICW caused the boat to roll quite frequently, and it didn’t make it easy for her.

We also received the bulk of the parts for 2 big additions to the boat: a Marine Kinetix wind generator, and a water maker (to make fresh water from sea water while in the Keys and Bahamas). I need to get some more parts and will get busy, probably after our trip north in August.

7/17/16
Southport NC
Posted by Bill

Well, it has been a few weeks since the last post. We survived the hectic 4th of July festival and had a 4 day long party on the dock! Wore us out!!! It has been so hot here that it has been difficult to motivate ourselves for boat projects outside, but we have been chipping away at it. Also, we have been looking at and negotiating real estate here in downtown Southport. It has been taking all of our time. More on that in a future post.

One of the fun things we did was going to a 7 mile secluded beach on the ocean…yes, amazing that one still exists on the eastern US coast. You have to take a small boat (like our great new dinghy, which we love) through a series of back creeks to get to the back side of the beach, and it is not well known. I was sworn to secrecy before the track through the creeks was divulged to me, and I had to record it on a GPS so I could find my way by myself later. It is absolutely beautiful and secluded. A ranger patrols it a couple of times a day, but the only way to get to it is by water. We have been there a couple of times, taking our chairs, swimming and wallowing. We are planning a fishing trip there this afternoon.

Mark and Jan, on the other Island Bound, arrived back here from there trip back home in Kentucky. We have been having fun with them on a regular basis, and had a great reunion dinner on their boat the other night. All we needed was Byrd Ketcher…we miss you guys!!!

Yesterday, we went to the wedding of the daughter of our good friends Mark and Jane. We met them in Marathon last year. They live here in Southport and also run the Southport Inn. They just built a house in a subdivision right on the Cape Fear River, and are friends with the people that own the Revenge House at the end of the subdivision road that dead-ends into the river. The Revenge House was the house that was used in the filming of the pilot for the TV series Revenge. Their daughter had the wedding ceremony and pre-reception gathering at the house, so we got to check it out. It was a really cool wedding, and the house was beautiful.

If you watched the show, you will remember a double infinity symbol that was carved into the railing on the back porch of the house. The film crew repaired the railing, but the owners got to keep the piece that had the symbol carved in:

Keep cool and enjoy the summer!!

6/28/16
Southport NC
Posted by Bill

Late last week we returned from our trip north. It was great to see our family at our nieces graduation. While at the lake house, we got to catch up with our good friends Mark and Irina…congrats on the up coming wedding…wish we could be there. We also got to visit with most of Tricia’s family, and spend a few days with our good friends John and Jen that live close to our house there. We had a dual wedding with them many years ago and got to celebrate our anniversary together, something we always enjoy.

As always, the plunge into what we call the “real world” was a shock. We are used to traveling at around 8 MPH in our boat, and when we ride around Southport, we don’t go over 45. Life on the freeways, especially in Columbus, was absolutely crazy. I still can’t believe that we dealt with that every day for so many years. Having a car and living in places that have a normal bath room, complete with flushing toilets that you don’t have to manage the waste for, and real showers that you don’t have to manage the water for, is really nice. We used to just take it for granted…now it is a treat. Also, having your own washer and dryer, sitting right there in your home, is a major treat. Dealing with laundry is a major pain when living aboard. In spite of the luxuries, we missed being on the water and I was happy to get back to Southport in general. It always feels like home when we return here.

We tried to get a few maintenance projects done on the lake house and ran into several unexpected roadblocks, so we will have to knock those out when we return in August. We have always kept our 1994 Jeep Wrangler in the garage up there, and having settled in Southport for the summers, we decided we would bring the Jeep back so we could have our own car. We still prefer to walk, but having your own car here adds a whole new dimension to living here. The Jeep only has 40,000 miles on it, but it is rarely used, and I was concerned that we would not be able to drive it back for 12 hours without it breaking down. Given that, I scheduled an appointment with an automotive repair place for a thorough inspection, a few days before we were going to head south. As I was driving it the day before the appointment, the brakes were locking up and it would not move…bummer. We had it towed and ended up having to replace the entire brake system. The difficulty in getting parts set us back several days in our schedule, but we rolled with the punches. We stopped overnight in Columbus and then made it back to Southport in one day. The Jeep has a terrible ride, especially when you get above 50 MPH. It bounces all over the road and you have to literally wrestle the wheel to keep control. It also has no air conditioning. Needless to say, after 12 hours of driving it, your ass is kicked! The good thing is…we made it without incident:

Yesterday was a good example of why having a car adds a whole new dimension to living here. We drove to Myrtle Beach (about an hour drive) and went to Sams Club, and Costco, to buy liquor. South Carolina has cheaper liquor, and Sams and Costco have even better prices. We stocked up and saved more than $10 per bottle over North Carolina or Ohio prices. Our friend Andy was visiting his parents in North Myrtle Beach, so we got to have lunch with them and catch up. Also, we won’t have to borrow a car to go to the grocery or to the beach (about 10 minute drive), or to get fresh seafood. The down side is that it makes life a little more complex: car maintenance, a place to store it when gone, towing insurance, and all of the associated expense of running a car.

The other “new dimension” change we made was the purchase of a new dinghy. If you remember, the old dinghy was leaking water badly, and we just made it back to Southport before it became pretty much unusable. We purchased a Highfield aluminum hull dinghy. It weighs a little more than our old one, but it is in a whole other league as dinghies go. I got it commissioned the day before we left to go north, so we only got one test run in it. Since we got back, we have run it several times, once across the Cape Fear River to the sand bar that we wallow at, and it is fantastic. The ride is very dry, and it can handle rough water, including boat wakes, very well. We could only use the old dinghy in fairly calm seas and it was almost always a wet ride, even before it started leaking. This adds a whole new dimension to cruising and living on the water here in Southport. I’ll post a separate post about it for the benefit of fellow cruisers looking for information about dinghies.

Southport is getting ready to the big July 4th celebration. The festivities here run all week and it is the state of North Carolina July 4th festival, so it is crazy around here…thousands of visitors, and a fun time. You can see last year’s post of the festivities if you search the blog. Happy 4th everyone!!

6/6/16
Southport NC
Posted by Bill

It has been a few weeks since we arrived in Southport and since I’ve posted anything. Since I have posted so much about Southport last year, you will probably not see much posting for a bit unless something interesting happens. We got settled in shortly after our arrival here, hit most of our favorite haunts and places to eat, caught up with our friends here, and took to property hunting post haste. We looked for property here the last 2 years, and since the real estate market here is hot as fire, we knew we had to hit it hard right away. We have tried to make offers on several properties but have not been able to strike a deal yet. We will keep trying. We also started to attack the project list and have been able to get a few things checked off. True to form for the year, the weather has been a little crazy (2 tropical storms so far), and that has put a damper in our work schedule as well as our typical routines here in the marina (think fishing and watching the wildlife). The marina is now so popular that all of the slips are taken, including the ones at the end of our D dock where we used to sit and fish and watch the wild life, a major bummer. Last night the large cruising boat at the end of D dock left for a few days at Holden Beach, so we got our prime dock space back. Greg and I (mostly Greg) jumped in his fishing skiff and caught some bait fish, and we had a flounder catching tournament. We almost caught 2 skates, and also pulled up 3 crabs that had clipped on to our bait, but no flounder. We also got a good view of the boats coming in and out of the marina, like this beauty:

It is fun to see the number and kinds of boats that move in and out. Southport marina is a major cross roads on the ICW and the Cape Fear River, so there is a lot of transient traffic moving in and out.

This Thursday we are renting a car and driving up north to attend the graduation festivities of our niece Elise. All of the Wehmer side of the family is going to be there and we are excited to see everyone. Our kids and grand kids are coming, so it will be extra special. Then we are going to evaluate selling our house on Lake Erie. No one in the family is using it, and we only get there for about a month each year, so we will take a hard look at selling. If you know anyone who wants a place at the lake, let us know! Then we intend to swing by Akron to visit Tricia’s parents, and through Columbus for a short visit with our friends, kids, grand kids and Mark and Diane. We will need to get back to Southport to deal with everything we have going on there, so it will only be a week or so visit up north.

5/22/16
Southport NC
Position: 33 55.089N, 078 01.719W
Posted by Bill

On the 18th, we upped anchor and headed for Myrtle Beach. We had the current with us the entire day and made fantastic time, so we blew past Myrtle Beach and anchored at the Little River Inlet on the North Carolina border. Position: 33 52.351N, 078 34.205W

The next day we only had to go 33 statute miles to Southport. We had several shoal areas to transit, including the last inlet on the trip: Lockwoods Folley Inlet. I read several comments on Active Captain about the inlet and the gist seemed to be: When you get to the inlet, ignore a red buoy and head far to the left to have deep water. We got the the inlet at almost dead low tide, and as I started to move to the far left, we ran up on a sand bar. I was able to back off and get back to deep water, and we decided not to ignore the red buoy, and go around it before we went far left. No problems after that. I am still not sure how I misinterpreted the Active Captain comments, but no one was hurt, including the boat, so all is good. We pulled into our slip at Southport Marina around 2:30 PM, concluding our cruising season. It was great to see all of our friends again, and Matt and Shirley threw a welcome home party last night at their new house (which is absolutely amazing). Matt made a mexican feast and everyone partied heartily. We have also hit some of our favorite places already…like Provision Company. Here we are with Mark and Jan, and Matt and Shirley:

We will be traveling back to Ohio a couple of times this summer. I also have a 2 page list of projects that need to be completed before we go south again in the fall, so we will be pretty busy.

This cruising season, we traveled 2,216 nautical miles, 2,551 statute miles. Since we started cruising, we have traveled 5,699 nautical miles, 6,560 statute miles.

5/17/16
Georgetown SC
Position: 33 21.961N, 079 17.424W

On our last day in Charleston, we did something we never do…sightseeing like a tourist. We took the water taxi across the Cooper River to Patriots Point and went to the aircraft carrier tour. It included the carrier, a destroyer ship, a Vietnam war display, and a submarine. It was very cool and we are glad we did it. Then we took the water taxi back over to downtown Charleston and had a late lunch at the Griffen, a bit of a dive bar, but the food was great. After several bar stops, we headed back to the boats and the next morning headed up the ICW. We made good time as the tide was with us most of the way and we stopped in Georgetown for the night. Charleston was fun as always, and it was fun to show Mark and Jan the city.

The Griffen:

The aircraft carrier:

5/15/16
Charleston Maritime Center, Charleston SC
Position: 32 47.355N, 079 55.455W
Posted by Bill

The ICW route from Beaufort to Charleston is one of the most scenic along the Atlantic ICW. It also has some really bad shoal areas, with depths below 5 feet at low tide, which is how much water we need to stay afloat. It takes some planning to figure the tides and currents into the route, and you have to make sure that you hit the shoal areas at the right time. Because of all of this, we knew we could not make it into Charleston in one day, so we planned several anchorages along the way as a staging point so we could arrive at our marina in Charleston at slack tide. The current runs very strong at all of the marinas in Charleston, and it is not much fun to try and dock in. We have seen several boats crash while trying. The other major factor in the route plan was the opening schedule of the Lady’s Island Swing Bridge next to the mooring field in Beaufort. It will open on request before 7AM and is closed from 7 to 9, and then opens on the hour and half hour until evening rush hour. We wanted to get through before 7, but that would mean that we would hit the first shoal area at low tide…not good, so we had to wait until the 9:00 opening. We hit all the shoal areas perfectly, with at least mid tide and rising. As we approached the target anchorage, the tide was with us but was going to turn against us. Fortunately, we started picking up the tide from the next inlet north, which made the tide favorable, so we kept going, and rode it all the way to Wapoo Creek, the furthest anchorage in our plan. Wapoo Creek is a short passage from the Stono River to downtown Charleston. It has a nasty tidal current and a lift bridge that we need to have opened. We anchored just outside the west entrance of the creek, in the Stono River at position: 32 46.087N, 080 00.315W. The reviews on the anchorage were all very positive and suggested the anchor holding was excellent. We did not find this to be true, and it took 3 tries before we felt like the anchor held…but it didn’t. We dragged around most of the night…not far…but just enough to keep me from sleeping. Most of the bottom is rock with a thin layer of mud, stones and shells. Fortunately, we had settled weather and only had to contend with the current changes in the river.

The next day we timed the opening of the Wapoo Creek bridge and slack tide at the marina perfectly. The winds were up so we were glad we didn’t have to also deal with the strong tidal currents while docking. We got into our marina around 10:30 AM, so we walked into town and checked out the farmers market, then grabbed a bite to eat for lunch. We really love this town. It is so vibrant and well maintained. The streets were full of people, mostly a younger crowd. There are literally hundreds of restaurants and bars within a few miles of walking. Mark and Jan had never been here before, so we tried to show them a good time, hitting King Street during the afternoon, and the market district in the evening.

Today we are doing some laundry and grocery shopping, cruising essentials, especially while we have the convenience of being tied to a dock. We have spend less than 7 days in a marina since we left Marathon FL on the 22nd of February, which we think is great! Tomorrow we plan to do some site seeing and then leave on Tuesday. It will probably take 3 days to get to Southport.

I have a couple of pictures to share, but if you want to see more about Charleston, enter charleston in the search box on the top, right of the blog home page. You can see lots of pictures and learn more about why we love this city in our previous posts.

Our boats moored on the Beaufort River:

Shopping the market on Market Street:

5/12/16
Beaufort, SC
Position: 32 25.822N, 080 40.618W
Posted by Bill

We left St Augustine and made it to Fernandina Beach without issue, grabbed a mooring ball and hit happy hour at The Crab Trap, and a burger at Tastys…yum. The next day we took on fuel and water, and left at 12:30, going out the St Mary’s inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. There is a really cool fort on the inlet:


There was a ton of shrimping boats just out the inlet. We sailed overnight to Port Royal Sound and up the river to Beaufort SC. We had some really good sailing for the first 8 hours, but the wind died and the sea state started slamming us from the side (beam seas). The waves were only about 3-4 feet, but the direction was horrible. When our boat is not under sail it is really really rolly in beam seas, and it was like getting slammed with boat wakes for 12 hours, not fun at all. We had to dodge many big ships coming into and out of the Savanah River just before dawn, and then hit the inlet to the sound just as the sun came up and the tide changed, in our favor. Total of 20 hours underway. We grabbed a mooring in Beaufort and had a late breakfast at Blackstones, one of our go-to places here, then collapsed and took a much needed power nap. Later we had dinner at the Old Bull Tavern, where they have good food and fantastic cocktails. We enjoyed several! Today was laundry day and tomorrow we head out for Charleston. We are planning to be in Charleston from Saturday to Tuesday, then the final 2-3 day leg to Southport…home!

Sunset on the Atlantic: