Chesapeake Chase Days 49-54: All the way Home

July 30, 2020: Topsail Sound

By now, you all know that Saturday is pancake day for Captain Fred and Admiral Sue, whether on Betty Lou or home in Rock Hill.  We weren’t going too far today, so there was time for pancakes, one more load of laundry, and a walk to the Beaufort Farmer’s Market.

We were underway by 11:30 AM on our way to the anchorage in Topsail Sound where we had anchored near the beginning of the trip.  At this point in the trip, we were focusing more on getting home than checking out new places and exploring more.  We had already decided not to visit the Outer Banks (disappointing, but the most sensible choice).  The predictions were for rough water due to the strong SW winds, with the potential for higher waves than we had already experienced. 

This same weather pattern also meant we would have to go through Myrtle Beach (not a favorite) and a few other sections of the ICW that would be more tedious, but protected.

We were anchored by 8:20 PM in time to enjoy the sunset.  It was a long day, and we were hot and tired, but safe and at peace with our surroundings, blessed yet again.

Captain’s Comments:

We checked out the Beaufort Farmer’s Market this morning.  OK, but not as good as Port Royal (more crafts, less food).  We took advantage of the free laundry for one more load while we shopped. 

Leaving Homer Smith Marina was relatively easy, even with a continuing strong WSW wind. Once through Beaufort and Morehead City, we started the run down Bogue Sound. 

By the time we got to the New River Inlet, it was getting late, and we were wearing down, but there were few appealing anchorages along this stretch of ICW.  We considered anchoring in Mile Hammock Bay, which is part of the Camp Lejeune Marine base. It was relatively bleak, so we continued on around the inlet, heading for the Topsail Sound Sloop Point anchorage where we stopped on our way north. 

By the time we reached the anchorage, it was sunset.  The last time we were here in June, the only human activity we noticed was someone mowing grass (probably the lawn service).  It was peaceful, but somewhat empty or lonely with no activity in the many houses on shore.

This time, when I went out on deck to set the anchor bridle, I heard the voices and laughter of children playing on shore.  Adult conversations drifted in and out.  Lights were on and houses now seemed like homes.  Same place as last time, but a completely different experience.  Fascinating how the presence of people enjoying life and each other can have such a strong effect, even at a distance.

July 31, 2022: Southport

Destination today was the Safe Harbor South Harbor Marina in Southport, the same marina we had stayed in earlier when our granddaughters were with us.  We were underway just after 9:00 AM and secure at the face dock of the marina by 3:45 PM. 

This would be the last marina until Port Royal, our home port.  We had clean laundry, enough food, plenty of room in the holding tank, and enough water to last, once we topped off the tank.  This would also be the last time to wash off salt and dirt from Betty Lou.  Working together, we got the outside clean, a bit more than “a lick and a promise”, but not the thorough job we would do in Port Royal. 

It had been another long, hot day, so we took showers and ate out for the last time on this trip at Rusty Hooks right by the marina.  Their fish and chips were so good the first time, it was our choice once again.  We were not disappointed.  The day again ended well and sleeping with AC felt luxurious.

Captain’s Comments:

As we prepared to leave our anchorage this morning, we skipped a hot breakfast (normally eggs on Sunday), to get under way quicker, and to avoid starting the generator. But we had coffee made with power from the batteries and invertor.  It promised to be a little cooler today, so we would try a run without the generator (and AC).

We had two bridges that needed to open for us today, both of which opened on the hour and half hour.  We were making good time toward the first bridge, but I projected we would be 5 minutes late for the 1100 opening of the first bridge, Figure Eight Island Bridge, even with increased RPM, so I throttled back to time our arrival for the next opening. 

About a mile out from the bridge, I hailed the bridge tender to request an opening.  After about a minute, he said he saw me coming, and thought I would make it under the bridge without an opening.  On our way north, the tender at this same bridge had said the same thing and we had cautiously approached the bridge to see if we would fit under while the tender watched our clearance.  He waved us off at the last moment. 

This time, I hoped to avoid the extra excitement, but the tender again asked us to try to fit under.  It turned out we had a whopping 4” of clearance to spare!  And we got through the bridge about 4 minutes sooner than if we had waited.

As we headed on south, we thanked the bridge tender for his assistance, and he pointed out that we might make the 1200 scheduled Wrightsville Beach Bridge opening if we hurried.  I increased RPM to 2000 for the next 20 minutes (the first time we’ve really benefited from the extra horsepower option) and made the bridge opening right on time.  Of course, the boat traffic getting through the Wrightsville Beach area was crazy, but at least we didn’t have to contend with it while waiting for a bridge opening. 

Two hours later we exited Snow’s Cut to join the Cape Fear River, and now had the current in our favor.  Unfortunately, the current was working against the wind to whip up some surprising waves, resulting in enough spray to need to close up several windows and cut off our ventilation.  But nine knots downstream was nice.

We arrived at Safe Harbor South Harbor ready to tie up smoothly.  The dock hands were impressed with how we handled our shore power cables (not a big deal, but it was nice to have our cable coiling practice noticed).  We washed several days of salt off Betty Lou and put the dinghy cover back on (I’ve been wanting to do this for several days).  We even washed the rug stored in the lazarette that ran afoul of the dog poop at Oriental.  Then we showered on shore.

Though we had planned to cook on the boat, this would be our last marina stop till Port Royal. Since we had worked so hard, we splurged again at the on-site Rusty Hook.  But no ice cream.

August 1, 2022: Waccamaw River

Now began the real push to get home.  The hope was to be back in Port Royal by Friday.  We were ready to leave by 9:40 AM.  It is not usual for us to need assistance pulling away from a dock, especially a face dock, but the wind was strong this morning.  Even with help, we struggled, but finally got away.  It is so important in boating on a trawler to understand wind and current.  Fred understands it, and I try to understand.  Hopefully someday it will all click for me.

Today we motored along the ICW inside the Barrier Islands of North Carolina, which many years ago we traveled on the smaller Betty Lou.  It was a beautiful day to be on the ICW.  Every once and a while we caught a glimpse of the ocean and the waves.  It too was beautiful – to look at, but not to be out there bouncing around in.  We had definitely made the right decision to stay on the ICW.

The Barrier Islands are very popular for folks wanting to be at the beaches and those who are taking advantage of the many varieties of boating opportunities.  It is a very busy portion of the waterway.  Houses seem to take up every possible space available, most of them large.  I do love the combination of colors of the water, sand, sky, and clouds.  For me, it is refreshing and revitalizing.  The other thing that continues to resonate with me on this trip is how very privileged we are, especially those of us who are white, and with some money to spend.

We continued on the ICW through Myrtle Beach.  Much of this is a manmade cut.  There has been more development since our last passage through with small Betty Lou. Huge mansions, mostly on the west side, dominate much of the way.  Large homes have been built on the other side also, but these are not as ostentatious.

By the time we ended our traveling for the day, the surroundings were completely different.  We anchored around 6:30 PM in the Waccamaw River, probably the most peaceful place yet on this trip.  We weren’t even bothered by bugs. 

This too was a very spiritual and pastoral experience.  It is a place where you can feel the release of every tension, stress or concern you have, long enough to relax and be one with creation.  Thank you, God!

Captain’s Comments:

Today wasn’t Sunday, but we had eggs for breakfast since we had shore power for cooking.

Quickly got to the few chores needed before casting off.  Had to vacuum water out of the forward bilge again after yesterday’s waves in the Cape Fear River.  Only a few ounces, but we’ve had some water every day for the past five days.  Looking forward to getting that fixed.

The wind was pushing us against the dock, and the current was pushing us back into the boat behind us.  The thruster couldn’t push us off the dock against the wind, so I planned to use the aft line to pivot out our bow.  I asked the dock hand to stand by in case we had any problems.  Unfortunately, my communication wasn’t as crisp as it should have been, and the aft line was let go before we pivoted out, causing us to drift back toward the boat behind us.  It wasn’t pretty, but I changed my plan at that point and pivoted the stern out with the bow (and fender) against the dock. 

That was the big excitement for the day.

With the weather offshore, we would not have considered going outside.  The bow thruster complication would also have prevented that option.  The resulting passage down the ICW was behind Oak Island (not bad) and Myrtle Beach (pretty miserable).  Myrtle Beach is not our favorite NC town to start with and the ICW leg west of Myrtle beach is mainly a land cut that is rapidly being filled in with pop-up mega-mansions.  Also, taking this route adds almost a day to the trip.

We needed two bridges to open for us today, and both were prompt with no delays.

Nevertheless, it was a long, hot day in the “ditch.”

The payoff was that we ended up on the Waccamaw River to anchor for the night.  Though we left the last of the ICW ditch-side houses only a few thousand yards behind us, we immediately seemed to have entered a whole different world—a swamp; a world where the size of your house and the manicure of your lawn don’t matter.  A world that listens for the call of the bird and the very gentle flow of the river against the hull after a brief thunderstorm.

Even Sue bruising her hand in the window while closing it when the rain started, and the need to wipe up the floors after the hatches were closed, couldn’t spoil the silence.

August 2, 2022: Whiteside Creek (Isle of Palms)

It was as peaceful this morning as when we went to bed last night.  We didn’t linger though because now we were anxious to be home.  We were underway before 8:00 AM.  Since our days have been long and hot, Fred has asked me to do more driving.  His requests are no longer as unnerving as in the past, and I am more confident now.  Having him close by is comforting though, as I still tend to panic at times.

We were fighting the current much of the day, and in many places the water was shallower than we expected or than the chart indicated.  The entrance to the first place Fred had picked as an anchorage, was too shallow for us to risk.  Our second choice was also too shallow.  It was now getting later than we had planned for anchoring, but there was another site that had good reviews and showed deeper water.  “Third times a charm.”  This one was deeper, and easy to get in and out of.  By the time we were anchored in Whiteside Creek it was almost 7:00 PM, another long day but closer to home.

Fred writes about our extraordinary experience in the wee hours of the morning.  Wish you all could have been with us.

Captain’s Comments: A Little Night Music

The temperature overnight was tolerable, and we had set alarms to get an early start to catch a favorable current.  We made coffee again without the generator and delayed breaking the silence that was interrupted only by the birds calling each other.  Eventually we completed morning checks, started the engine and pulled the anchor.  We didn’t get going quite as soon as planned, but 0735 wasn’t too bad. 

As hoped, we did have a favorable current (until about 1000), and the morning stayed overcast and somewhat cooler.  It has been nearly 15 years since the last time we came down the Waccamaw River.  Many of the same shoreside facilities are still here, but most have been upgraded and expanded.  Since we are now going through the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, fewer houses line the riverbanks.  Of course, remnants of old rice fields to the east also discourage development.

Some of those remnants were visible on Murphy Island.  It, along with several others, now form the Santee Coastal Reserve.  It was created largely through a gift from the Nature Conservancy, but has a long history going back to it being a source of Carolina Gold (rice) built on the backs of slaves.

With the current in our favor, we arrived at our planned anchorage around 1400—too early and too hot to stop, so we turned on the generator and AC and kept going.  We picked another anchorage further south, on the ocean side of the ICW.  By the time we arrived, we were nearly at low tide—what was starting to look like an especially low tide due to the SW wind—and the entrance was too shallow for us.

Further south, we tried another creek on the west side of our path, with the same result.  By now it was 1700 and only an hour from low tide.  We needed the next choice to work, since we were running out of waterway before we hit Charleston, and we were running out of endurance.  We picked Whiteside Creek, north of Isle of Palms.  It had adequate depth, was (barely) wide enough for us to swing with the tide, and, with no trees around (just marsh), it had as much breeze as we were going to get.

After dinner, I left the generator and AC on as long as possible before turning in.

I set the anchor alarm tight to wake me when the tide changed, since we were back in the land of big tides and in a narrow creek.  The alarm went off about 0300 and I went out on deck to check the anchor (it was fine), and I heard an amazing sound.  I called to Sue to come up and listen.  The dolphins were feeding, and every time they surfaced for a breath they made a popping noise as they blew out the water from their blow holes.  There must have been dozens.  We stood under the stars and listened for a long while before heading back to bed.

August 3, 2022: Ashepoo River

We had better luck with depths today and our route was very familiar, especially through Charleston Harbor and beyond.  Our destination was an anchorage in the Ashepoo River, which would be the last anchorage on this trip.  Tomorrow we would be in our home port, a day earlier than originally planned.

My thinking was now more focused on what needed to be done once we were secure on our home dock.  This was not wise.  I would have done better to focus on what was around me, to be in the moment while we were still on the water.  I did spend some time doing that, and so was able to see what first appeared, from a distance, to be a drone with a large happy face parachute hovering in the air.  My thought was, how appropriate.  It was not a drone but two people para sailing while being towed by a boat.  The happy face was still appropriate!

The Ashepoo River anchorage was wide, quiet, and plenty deep.  Tomorrow we would be in Port Royal.  Our summer adventure was coming to an end, but the memories would stay with us for many years to come.

August 4, 2022: Port Royal

Today we didn’t have far to go to reach Port Royal. 

We were ready to be home but timing the tide right was a factor in when we pulled anchor and how fast we went.  Just after lunch, Port Royal was in sight.  There is an indescribable feeling of elation I get coming home after a long journey, any journey.

We did ask for assistance docking since the thruster was unpredictable and there was wind.  Before 2:30 PM we were in our spot securely tied.  Welcome home Betty Lou and crew!

Captain’s Comments: Epilogue

The pictures ran out earlier in this post, so if you’re still reading, I hope it’s because you love voyaging as much as we do.  Voyaging—better than, and different from, just traveling.

This was our second long voyage on Betty Lou (the third if you count our trip to the Bahamas in the old Betty Lou).  Inevitably, this invites comparison, so here are some raw statistics.

	Chesapeake Chase 2022	Tortuga Tour 2021
Time Period	6/9—8/7	4/16—6/15
Total Duration (nights)	59	60
Nights at anchor/mooring	22	25
Nights in marina	37 (7 in Port Royal)	35 (6 in Port Royal)
Days under way	40	32
Total # of additional crew	6	3
Miles traveled	1639 nm (1885 sm)	1520 nm (1748 sm)
Avg. miles/day under way	41.0	47.5
Main engine hours	273	246
Main engine fuel consumed	595 gal	584
NM/gal	2.75	2.60
Generator hours	145	86
Estimated gen. fuel use, gals.	72	43
Estimated total fuel use, gals.	667	627
Measured total fuel use, gals.	715	619
Avg. purchased fuel $/gal.	5.27	2.51

What did we learn?

There are some factors you can’t control and just have to deal with.  Fuel expense, though still a small portion of the total cost, more than doubled for this trip.  I can’t explain the mismatch between measured and estimated fuel used, other than possible error in the fuel gauge.  I doubt the generator used substantially more than estimated. 

Some equipment problems can be reasonably anticipated, and appropriate spares can be kept on board to allow quick repairs.  Engine belts are an obvious example.

A spare solenoid and ECM for the bow thruster never would have crossed my mind, though.  While loss of the bow thruster didn’t stop us, it was quite inconvenient.  I spent a lot of time in uncomfortable boat yoga poses getting it back in service.  I still have more work to do to remedy the original problem, but I’ll be working on that this fall.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to share a satisfactory update before our next voyage.

Trip planning is an area where we have more control.  Some lessons we can take forward from this trip:

• Heat was a bigger factor than wind.  Because of the excessive heat, we ended up staying in marinas (for the shore power and AC) and eating in restaurants more than we had planned, and we used the generator substantially more than we have in the past.  In general, once we started the journey, we could plan around the wind, but not the heat.  We’ll need to give more thought to climate conditions and season when planning our next trip.
• A grand tour of a region like the Chesapeake Bay is too much to take in all at once.  Though we had purposely planned shorter travel days, in hindsight, we should have planned fewer, but longer, stops, even if it meant slightly longer travel days and missing out on some of the places we wanted to visit.

Water and holding tank capacities were never challenged on this trip.  Not when we had three additional young crewmembers.  Not even when we had some older additional crewmembers.

Looking back at lessons from last year, many didn’t stick.  I never wore half the clothes I packed—again–especially the long pants.  Shoes still magically reproduced at the door.  We still took too much wine.  We still didn’t use the (new, folding) bikes enough to justify the effort (but at least, in storage bags, they survived this time).

On the other hand, we remembered to anticipate the need to defrost the refrigerator every 3-4 weeks.  And we had a bigger container for the recycling.

Perhaps most importantly, we took more tonic and limes, and plenty of rum.

“Best of” Awards

If you’re one of our readers who has been breathlessly awaiting the announcement of the final Chesapeake Chase “Best Of” Awards, please breath. The wait is over–here they are, starting with the most important award first.

Best Ice Cream

• Grand Prize: Cow Cafe, New Bern, NC. Creamiest, made in house, great flavors, reasonably priced.
• Second Place: Celtic Creamery, Carolina Beach, NC. A very close second.
• Third Place: Annapolis Ice Cream Company, Annapolis, MD. A little less cream/flavor for more $
• Honorable Mention: Get the Scoop, Rock Hall, MD. Made off-site by family dairy. Great value.

Best Bakery/Donut Shop

• First Place: Enso Kitchen, St. Mary’s, MD. Real sourdough. Real crust. Great donuts too.
• Honorable Mention: Britt’s Donut Shop, Carolina Beach, NC. Only one variety. The way Krispy Cream should be.

Best Restaurant

• First Place: Blue Heron, Rock Hall, MD. Small menu of amazing creations. Only open 8 weeks, but staff performed like they’d been working together for decades. Owner/chef helped serve.
• Honorable Mention: Mallards at the Wharf, Onancock, VA. Established/upscale. Picture worthy meals with taste to match.

Best Marina

We were pretty certain of first place, but the list of worthy contenders was long.

• First Place: Haven Harbour, Rock Hall, MD. Best landscaping. Great pool, in shade with separate adult pool. Best ship’s store/office. Free bikes, with two grocery stores to choose from.
• Honorable Mentions:
  • Federal Point Yacht Club, Carolina Beach, NC
  • Safe Harbor Bluewater, Hampton, VA
  • Safe Harbor Zahnisers, Solomons, MD
  • Homer Smith Docks and Marina, Beaufort, NC

Old Friends

We treasure the time spent with family on this trip.  We’re also blessed to have made new friends along the way.

But coming home to old friends… well—frankly, is even better than sitting in the cockpit watching the sunrise with a cup of fresh coffee in hand.

Unless, of course, the old friends are there with us.

Peace

fks