We had an uneventful night at anchor… it was a little noisy a few times when a large cruise/dinner boat would pass behind us… it had banners on it Saturday Night Party Boat… and they had the music cranked up LOUD… they made two trips out…. One about 1930 hours and again at 2200 hours… looked and sounded like everyone was enjoying themselves on the boat.

I woke up about 0600 hours and fed Beecha and then took her to land for a walk… returned to the SAILS and Mike had informed me that his anchor was up and ready to depart… Mike pointed to the 48’ Krogen that had anchor in front us… his stern waterline was about 2 foot higher out of the water than it should have been… he had anchored over in too shallow of water and at low tide he was sitting on the bottom… the funny part was he did not even realize it and was on the bow attempted to raise his anchor… when his windlass stalled he went to the pilot house and put the boat in gear to move forward… needless to say he did nto move… he was high and dry till high tide... tough situation for him… there was nothing we could do as he needed 2 feet of water to even begin to float his boat again.

We tossed the lines securing Mike to us and he pulled away and headed out to the ICW… I pulled our anchor and we were underway at approximately 0730 hours. Took a little longer to pull the anchor than normal as the chain was coming up real muddy and it was sticking to the chain like it was glued there… just took some extra time to rinse it as I retrieved it.

We had several bridges that always seem to give us trouble with making it to them on time… couple opening only on the hour… Mike assured we would not have an issue… his boat is documented as a commercial vessel and it is a “tug boat” so we made all the bridges with no delays.

We stopped for the evening in Swansboro, NC at one of our favorite stops. It is a dock and dine restaurant… Ducks Bar and Grill… we were secured to their docks at approximately 1625 hours at approximate location N34°41.171’, W077°07.172’. We would have dinner and drinks with Mike in Ducks.

Today we traveled for 8 hours and 55 minutes covering 57.38 nautical miles averaging 6.43 knots.

Woke this morning about 0800 and rolled out of the sack 30 minutes later... did not want to get up this morning but we needed to get rolling... plans to go to Southport and needed to get there early to get the FREE city dock... late arrival would tough to get the dock. While getting the boat ready to depart I heard a familiar voice on the VHF... Jim Healy from SANCTUARY... tried hailing him but he evidently could not hear my transmission. Then I was hailed by Mike Efford from MI-T-MO... he informed me that he and Jim had both spent the night at Bucksport Marina they were only a few miles from Barefoot Landing. Told Mike we would be underway momentarily and we dropped the liens and departed at 0910 hours.

All day I could hear Mike and Jim on the VHF... I had told them earlier that we were going to Southport and we all agreed that we would meet there. I was still ahead of them a few miles. Had the current running with us so we were getting a decent speed boost and arrival time to Southport was approximately 1430 hours... checking the current for the Cape Fear River we would still have a flood tide for an hour to an hour and half if we continued past Southport... and the the next flood current would be Sunday an 1142 hours... too late to leave Southport the next day... so I contacted Mike and Jim and let them know that we were going to continue past Southport and go to Carolina Beach State Park Marina... about another hour north... they agreed and would follow us.

Arrived at Carolina Beach State Park Marina and tried hailing them on the VHF with no response from them... could see several boats in the marina so we entered ad tied up to a long face dock adjacent to the fuel dock. Jim pulled into a slip and Mike pulled in behind us on the face dock… we were all tied up and secure when a ranger came out from the office... well I don’t think he was an actual park ranger but an employee of the marina... he was real unsure about us staying at the dock and said he would have to call and check... so we waited... he returned several minutes later and informed us that we could not stay where we were currently docked and would have to move to the head of B dock since none of the slips were wide enough for our beam... he also informed Mike that he could not stay in the marina period… he was too big… he would have to leave... after some discussion it was determined that they were not going to allow Mike to stay… so we opted to leave the marina with Mike and proceed further north to Carolina Beach and anchor... Jim was headed to Wilmington the next day which is located further up the Cape Fear so he decided to remain in the marina.

Mike got to the anchorage first and anchored and we anchored adjacent to him and then backed down and re rafted together for the evening. At approximately 1715 we were secure for the evening at approximate location N34°03.191’, W077°53.308’. Mike joined us for dinner and we had a great evening with him.

Today we traveled for 7 hours and 20 minutes covering 51.26 nautical miles averaging 6.99 knots. We were at the Carolina Beach State Park Marina for 45 minutes.

Alarm set for 0600 hours and was up and getting ready to depart before it even went off… topped the water tanks off… Susan took Beecha for a walk and we departed at 0730 hours. Destination for the night planned as Southport, NC or further depending how we hit the tides.

Not a mile a way we crossed paths with a sailboat we had spent the evening with in the Haulover Canal… it had been a couple of years… sailing vessel PAGAN CHANT… exchanged some VHF chatter with him as we passed.


We next came to the Socastee Swing Bridge… I had heard on the VHF that they had just opened for a sailboat ahead of us… the bridge is on demand but was not sure how quickly he would open again… as we approached I hailed and as I thought he had us wait since he had just opened and closed… needed to clear the traffic… we sat for about 10 minutes waiting for the opening.




Having spent a late night with the owner of Bucksport Marina and indulging a little to heavily in the tequila… my morning energy boost was coming to an end quickly… was not really felling like a long day of cruising… Susan needed to pick up some provisions so we decided to call it day early and we docked at approximately 1045 hours at Barefoot Landing Marina at approximate location N33°48.092’, W078°44.702’. Had hoped to be in North Carolina today but it didn’t work out that way. Barefoot Landing is always a fun stop and we had not been here in a couple of years so we are looking forward to staying here tonight.

We have also been in contact with another fellow MTOA member Mike Efford aboard MI-T-MO and he is just behind us traveling north… this early stop over will close the gap between us and we will most likely be cruising together tomorrow.

Today we traveled for 3 hours and 15 minutes covering 20.73 nautical miles averaging 6.38 knots.