Leg 3: Worton Creek MD To Charelston SC

Boy its been a while, things have been super busy many 60+ miles days have made short time for blogging and when time presents itself there is offten little wifi.

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Thursday November 29, 2018

Finally I had my shot to start moving again. Waking up at 4am, I had the boat ready to go by 5. I departed Worton Creek MD for what I hoped would be a nice run down the Chesapeake. Wind was predicted to be 15-20kn all day, and sunny. After clearing out of the channel of Worton creek my engine choked and died. Lucky there was wind I Just deployed the sails and continued on out of the creek. Most likely the choppy conditions had caused the fuel filter to become blocked. I did not need the engine today anyways as the wind was more than enough, I had one reef in the main and the Jib trimmed into 100% and was still sailing along at 7knts. After passing the Chesapeake Bay bridges I pulled out of the channels and set the autopilot. Then going down below I swapped both the fuel filters.(Amazing how something that used to take 30 min can take 2 after doing it enough times) Engine was back! Taking over again I continued to sail to Madison bay a beautiful relatively undeveloped bay. I had the entire bay to myself aside from two houses on shore. I set the anchor and went to bed.

Friday, November 30, 2018

Waking up a little bit later so that I have the sunrise to help me get out of the tight channels in Madison bay I set sail for the Solomon Islands. The plan was to stop and re-provision stopping at Zen Heiser‘s Marina for the night I went into town to do food shopping buying as much food as I could possibly fit on the boat, refilling water tanks, doing laundry, taking a shower, and refueling.

Saturday, November 31, 2018

Saturday I had my first chance to chat with somebody who was experienced in sailing, and had also made the trip many times. Shout out to Jeff Carlsen at Sail Solomons sailing school. He showed me a bunch of things on the charts about the local areas, and areas I would be traveling through. This really raised my confidence about the next section of the trip!

I used Saturday as an opportunity to get some more errands done as well as to get a couple small projects done around the boat, being that I did not want to pay for another night at the marina I move the boat over to a local Anchorage, and prepared to leave the next morning. Unfortunately forecast for calling for thick fog however I prepare to leave for the day I would make a call in the morning

Sunday, December 1, 2018

The next morning I awoke to very thick fog and after motoring out of the harbor to see what the conditions were out in the Chesapeake Bay opted to turn around and go back to my Anchorage as the fog was so thick I could barely see more than 200 feet in any direction around the boat. Being that I did not have radar and by myself this did not seem like good conditions to try to traverse. Instead using the rest of Sunday I continue to get more projects done around the boat including reattaching the dodger so that I could get out of the rain and still move the boat on a day-to-day basis.

Monday December 2, 2018

I woke up very early at about 3:30 in the morning to continue on my way and after getting out of the Solomon Islands I put the sailss up and made great time down to Mobjack Bay.

Tuesday December 3, 2018

Waking up the next morning I repeated the process of getting up very early and setting out on my way with the potential of making it all the way to Norfolk or bailing out into one of the smaller anchorages nearby. It was a downwind run and with the wind behind me and the sea is pushing me through the sound I was maxing out at 7 1/2to 8 almost 9 kn at certain points completely under sail I made such good time that I was able to enter Norfolk harbor and anchor right near the military base for the night.

Wednesday December 4, 2018

After pulling the anchor I departed through Norfolk Virginia. Originally I was planning to stop and taken some of the city. However, it was pouring out and the two local free places to tire boat up and dock for a couple hours were both closed for repairs so instead I opted to continue on words. It was a very, very cold and wet day. I had the heater running in the cockpit and was cuddled up underneath the dodger most of the day steering from within the cabin trying to keep warm. It was cloudy, raining, sleeting, and snowing all day with temperatures in the 30s. This was my first area where I had to transverse an opening bridge and locks. I found out later that I had made a bridge opening, that had I missed it would have caused me to have to wait a week for repairs to be made! After making it through a couple opening bridges and my first lock I decided to enter the great dismal Swamp Canal as opposed to going down the intercoastal waterway there many places to stop along this I was not sure how far I would actually make it so I continued on my way making it all the way to the visitor center in North Carolina by sundown.

Thursday December 5, 2018

The next morning the locks did not operate until 11 AM getting some much-needed rest I woke up around 8 o’clock in the morning, cooked some breakfast made a large pot of coffee and decided to go explore the great national park. The great dismal Swamp is a very intriguing area as I’ve never been to a swamp before. There were some boardwalks as well as some walking trails through the woods and I took advantage of both getting probably about eight or 9 miles of exercise and returning to the boat it was still only 830 so I went into the visitor center and chatted with the fine people who work there who allowed me to take some books from their book exchange as well as giving me a free sticker that I was adding to the growing number inside the boat listing all the places that the boat had been since the refit. Returning to the boat I then proceeded to get a good workout in doing many sit ups push-ups pull ups and curls and finally it was time for the bridges to open and the locks to go. Firing up the engine I got going in around 11 AM and after clearing through both of the locks proceeded down to Elizabeth city.

Friday December 6, 2018

Elizabeth city was nice there was public showers, and a bathroom and I went to the ablemere museum which is a museum the documents that entire section of North Carolina which was pretty interesting. Other than that there wasn’t much to do. I made friends with the other boat that I had been kind of tagging along with and had some wine and cheese with them over dinner. I talked to the captain about potential places to stop and anchor and what not. I opted to go to bed extremely early in order to get up very early the next morning to make the run.

Saturday December 7, 2018

The following morning I was up at 3:30 and had the boat ready to go by 415. I made the run down the alligator River stopped to get fuel at one point and then continued traveling all the way down through the alligator River Canal arriving to an Anchorage just as the sun had gone down. This may have been the longest day of the trip so far It was approximately 80miles in one day.

Saturday December 8, 2018

Forecast for the following day was showing a bad storm approaching the area. So the next morning again at around 4 AM I pulled the anchor and set out on the next leg of the journey down the Pamlico sound through more canals to Oriental North Carolina where there were public docks.

After managing to get one of the free dock spaces I went and explored the town this particular area appears to have been badly hurt by the hurricanes this year. As many of the houses in the area appeared to be very run down, and potentially abandon we did get the storm as predicted and the water levels in the harbor rose to the point where the doc that I was tied to was actually underwater and only the pilings were still above the water.

Sunday December 9, 2018

Are used Sunday is a chance to get a bunch of projects done around the boat do laundry go food shopping etc. etc. hoping to leave on Monday morning I 10, 2018 quickly realized that the weather was not going to be playing ball instead I opted to do a few more projects around the boat and ready myself for the morning when I would be awakening very early to make the next long run

Monday December 10, 2018

Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating Monday and I had to wait another day to leave.

This next section is short entries due to the days being rainy and long travel days with little of note.

Tuesday December 11, 2018

Leaving at approximately 4am I made my way Oriental NC. I saw more boat wrecks this day since I have started the trip. I suspect most are from the two hurricanes that the area was slammed with. Along the area of emerald isles NC I was able to put the sails out and at one point was flying along at almost 8knots with the tide! I made my way to the camp lejuene marine base for the night.

Wednesday December 12, 2018

The next morning I departed for Cape Fear. But I missed two bridge openings so the day was cut short by having to wait for two hours for bridges to open.

Thursday Dec 13, 2018

I made it to myrtle beach.

Friday Dec 14 2018

The following day was too rainy, and foggy to proceed so I stopped at a dock in the Waccama national wildlife refuge for the day.

Saturday Dec 15 2018 .The following day I left and made it to the romain national wildlife refuge, this is hands down the nicest place I have anchored so far the star gazing was amazing and the area was filled with pods of dolphins.