Sub one hour to Beaufort

We anchored last night in Swansboro, NC and have spent the morning motorsailing north in the ICW through Bogue Sound.  We just passed under the Atlantic Beach Bridge and currently have the Morehead City Port off our port side.

Rounding the marks and turning east we encountered a inbound commercial vessel with two tugs assisting.

Sub one hour and we will be dropping the hook in Taylor's Creek... we are back in Beaufort!

Jeff

Sharing the ICW with gun boats

We are motorsailing north bound in the ICW along Camp Lejune.  The military is engaging in live fire exercises so we were delayed at the Onslow Beach Bridge for an hour.

While waiting at the bridge a frantic call to the Coast Guard from MV Bobcat came through.  Bobcat stated they were off shore and bullets are raining down upon him.  The call went out to check fire and a navy patrol boat made contact with a shaken crew that had managed to slip into the restricted area. 
We resumed our travels when the bridge opened at 15:00.  Less than a mile from the bridge we passed 4 of the gun boats in the image.

We are now nearly clear of Lejune and plan to anchor in Swansboro.  If all goes well we will arrive in Beaufort, NC by midday tomorrow.

Jeff

visiting friends and family in Wilmington, NC.

We moved a short distance northward this morning into a slip at Anchors Bend Marina (if you follow the link don't believe the hype. The marina is closer to the pit of nautical living than the pinnacle.)  None-the-less it is great to be tied up along side Ella's new sailboat.

C'est la Vie looks tiny next to the 48 foot SV-Ohana.   Ella and her father Larry were on hand to assist us with docking.  While in Wilmington we were able to catch up with Ella - visit her recently completed house, check out the new boat, and the relocated Ella Vickers Collection business office.

We spent a stormy afternoon with the Lovett's aboard MV Sunshine on the 28th.

Fortunately all the severe thunderstorms remained to the west of our location.

Time for some shut eye

The Wrightsville Beach anchorage in Motts Channel is within a nautical mile of Masonboro Inlet.  So shortly after clearing the Inlet we had the hook down and were ready for a nap after our overnight crossing from Winyah Bay.

Anne

Vanishing cookies

I made these bar cookies a few days ago and some how all but 3 have disappeared.

They were a great treat while on watch in the middle of the night. So easy-I used the recipe on the sweetened condensed milk can. Graham cracker crumb crust with melted butter, then spread on the canned milk, press in chocolate and butterscotch chips, shredded coconut and chopped pecans. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. The hardest thing was waiting till they cooled in the pan!

Cheers-anne

Thank you... to SV Odysseus

Last night during our overnight off of South Carolina there was a thunderstorm off our bow. Geeze there was no mention from NOAA nor on the satilite weather consulted prior to leaving Winyah Bay. So, we had a choice run 20 miles into shore and run against the tide of the Cape Fear River or keep going uncertain of where the storm with lightning was heading. Jeff got on the radio and said our name and where we were located and asked if anyone had any information on the storm. Sure enough another sailboat, Odysseus, that was 12 NM ahead of us radioed back that the storm was off their bow and moving north at 6 to 10 knots. Good!  We were heading east.

By dawn we were east of Frying Pan Shoals and on a northerly course 30NM out from Masonboro Inlet.  Storm cells were clearly visible to our east over the Atlantic Ocean.

Our new course placed us on a light air run in 6 foot seas....not an easy or pleasant point of sail.

Currently we are out of range of thunderstormes and 6 miles from the inlet. SV - Odysseus, the boat that helped us is just off our bow. Somehow we caught up to them!

Anne

close hauled towards Frying Pan Shoals

Once clear of the Winyah Bay Channel, Anne and I reviewed the forecast, tide predictions, and current conditions.  All the while C'est la Vie was sailing close hauled so perfectly balanced that we did not need to touch the helm for nearly one hour.  She seemed to already know that we would make the decision to sail around Frying Pan Shoals and then enter the NC coast at Masonboro Inlet.  This will allow us to avoid entering the Cape Fear River Inlet in the dark and then fighting tide upriver at night.  If the conditions remain as forecasted we should pass east of the shoals dark-thirty tomorrow morning and arrive in Wrightsville Beach by midday.

Jeff

Fighting the tide out Winyah Bay

After a goodnight's sleep and a lazy morning we are currently (pun intended) fighting tide as we attempt to exit Winyah Bay and jump back into the Atlantic for an overnight crossing.

We plan to assess conditions on the outside prior to picking an inlet along the NC coast.  Our likely points of land fall will be either Cape Fear River or Masonboro Inlet.  Either way we hope to be in back in North Carolina by tomorrow afternoon.

Close encounters of the large vessel kind

We are now safely awaiting the opening of the Ben Sawyer Bridge in the ICW just north of Charleston.

The harbor channel was very busy this morning.  We were passed by two outbound container ships and one inbound container ship over took us just as we entered the jetties.

 We did mange to hit 7 knots surfing its bow wave as the vessel passed within a few hundred meters of our position.

Dawn breaks and we are nearing the Charleston Harbor Channel

Despite fickle winds that would tease us with a couple hours of find sailing only to vanish and force our return to motoring, the overnight passage from Brunswick to Charleston passed uneventfully.

Around Tybee Roads was fell in with a group of four other sailing vessels that departed Fernandina Beach and were planning to enter Winyah Bay.  Our heading were similar enough that we were within a couple nautical miles of each other most of the night.  SV - Kismet (sp) was the most talkative of the bunch.  Hopefully we will get the chance to meet up further along our travels.

The vessel visible in the morning haze above is in the channel 3NM ahead.  Our plan is to enter Charleston Harbor and then turn immediately north into the ICW.  We need to take on fuel and water before pushing on northward.

jeff