We arrived in Charleston, South Carolina on October 12th. We’ve been looking forward to stopping here since we left, and planned on paintin’ the town red! Too bad we can’t stay awake past 10 pm. It’s official. Our capacity to stay up late is now gone. We were in bed by ten o’clock each of the three nights we’ve been here. Kind of pathetic, but a good, healthy change, I guess (I actually used to have a little problem with insomnia on occasion…).

Here’s what we were up to on our way to “The Holy City”.

Elizabeth City to the Pungo River, NC (04-Oct-2012)

It was a nice, sunny day leaving the Harbor of Hospitality, headed south on the Pasquotank River. A few miles out of Elizabeth City, a giant blimp hangar comes into view.

I believe the “LTA” stands for “Lighter Than Air“.

We had a nice sail down the Pasquotank River and across Albemarle Sound. We used the Autohelm (now our favourite piece of boat gear), and played our guitars (we’re getting better, and can play a few tunes other than “Boil Them Cabbage Down” and “Wagon Wheel”).

An hour or so after we entered the Alligator River, we saw military jets zooming past. Phill got some video footage and I cheesed it up with the “Top Gun” theme…we were on the Highway to the Danger Zone!

Though we knew it would be dark when got to the other side, we decided to keep going through the Alligator River/Pungo River canal. We’d heard bad things about the canal (like there’s lots of debris and things to bump your boat on), but we didn’t hit a single thing.

The sunset was better than these pictures…

It was dark – as we thought it would be – when we finally got to the Pungo River, but it was easy anchoring and we had no problems. It was a remote place – no city lights for miles and miles – so the stars were spectacular. We watched an episode of “Rome” and went to sleep.

Pungo River to Oriental, NC (05-Oct-2012)

The next day we got a move on to Oriental, NC.

We were passed by Joe, Vicki and Scott on s/v Seabreeze (friends we made in Elizabeth City), but we caught up with them again in Oriental. We anchored just opposite the bridge (the free town dock was 100% occupied), deployed the dinghy and loaded up the bike and went to shore. We had showers – it was a very hot day – then toured the town. We get a lot of looks doubling around on the Dahon – we’re going to have to get someone to take a picture of us.

Oriental is a nice place; quiet, and like every Southern stop we’ve made, the people were very warm & welcoming.

We said goodbye to Scott from Seabreeze (he was returning to his life on the Chesapeake Bay the next day),  went back to the boat, and straight to sleep.

Oriental to Swansboro, NC (06-Oct-2012)

We weren’t planning to stay in a marina, but there were no suitable anchorages where we wanted to stop. The timing turned out to be good, though – we had a few unexpected boat chores to sort out. To tell you about them would be very TMI. Here’s some of what we saw on our way to “Caspers Marina” in Swansboro, NC ($1.25/foot).

It was on this stretch that we were reminded that we’re close to the ocean. We passed our first major inlets, which are channels that lead inland from the Atlantic. These inlets are prone to shoaling, and as a result can be tricky to cross, as we experienced at Bogue’s inlet, and later at Browns inlet.

Since leaving Elizabeth City, seeing dolphins is a daily occurrence.

We don’t really get great pictures of them, so we’ve quit trying. It’s more than we can hope for, but maybe we’ll get lucky and be able to capture the way we can see them look at us when they surface. We can easily see that they’re checking us out. Not checking out the boat, but us. We also often hear the dolphins before we see them – they take a breath as they surface, and it sounds strangely human.

We arrived in Swansboro around 4:30, worked until about 10pm on our unexpected boat chores, cleaned up, then walked into town to get something to eat. This was the latest we’d been up in a while, and we shouldn’t really have been surprised to find that most kitchens are closed by this time of night. We found the “Ice House” – their kitchen was open, and had a very tasty late-night dinner.

Swansboro to Mile Hammock Bay, NC (07-Oct-2012)

On thanksgiving, we anchored in Mile Hammock Bay, where we rode out our first thunderstorm.

It was a very hot, muggy day, and we passed a lot of people outside enjoying their Sunday (it was a long weekend here as well – Columbus Day wknd).

Shortly before we anchored, we were brutally attacked by noseeums. They’re called “no-see-ums” because you can barely see them, they’re so small. It’s only the pain that draws your attention to where they’ve landed on your tender skin. I react to the bites. Bumps that last over a week and itch at the slightest stimulation, like accidentally brushing them with my sleeve, for instance. I hate noseeums and wonder why they exist.

Phill caught a few pictures of the lightning while he was BBQ-ing before the rain started. There were high winds and lots of rain during the storm, but we were comfortable. To be honest, I found the noseeums way more disturbing than the thunderstorm.

Before the storm, we both skyped to wish our families a happy thanksgiving – glad to hear everyone is well at home.

Mile Hammock Bay to Carolina Beach, NC (08-Oct-2012)

The boat was nice and fresh after the big rain the night before (salt tends to build up on the deck). We got moving before the noseeums noticed that we’d opened the hatches and companionway and were up and around. We had to motor the whole day on this narrow and sometimes winding stretch of the ICW (or AIWW – for Atlantic Intracoastal Water Way – as we’ve learned it is now called).

We’ve passed at least a dozen osprey nests, so it’s about time we show you a picture of one.

We had three swing bridges whose schedules we had to work around. Some bridges open on demand, but these three had scheduled openings, so you don’t want to arrive early, or else you’re anchoring or doing circles. There was some clock watching and throttle adjustment to keep us entertained as we passed some interesting things along the waterway.

Anchoring options in Carolina Beach are limited, so we picked up a mooring ball in “Myrtle Grove Sound”. It was $20, and after we called (skyped) to let him know we were there, Randy, the manager of the mooring field, came out on his boat to get us registered. Randy reminded us a lot of a Randy we know back home –  (Chris, this guy is “Randy of the South”!). We chatted a bit, and I forget how we got on the topic, but he told us that he met his wife at a shaggin‘ party. I guess the looks on our faces prompted him to explain further. The Carolina Shag is similar to a slow swing dance, or Jitterbug.

Randy kindly arranged access to the showers for us at one of the two marinas he also manages. He unlocked the doors, asked us to lock them when we leave, then left to go home in his golf cart. In the process of checking out the facilities, Phill accidentally locked us out of the showers. We were pretty interested in getting clean, so he knocked on the stern of one of the boats with its cabin lights on in the marina, and its skipper, Gene, was kind enough to let us in again. Gene told us the storm the night before was the worst he’d ever seen in Carolina Beach.

All clean again, we went back to the boat and had our first pasta dinner on board. The weather had gotten quite cold after the storm, and wheat or no wheat, we wanted something that would stick to our ribs. We were snoring a short time later.

Carolina Beach to Southport, NC (09-Oct-2012)

Continuing our rash of marina stays (there are not many good places to anchor 50-60 miles apart in this part of North Carolina), we stayed at the Southport Marina, in Southport, NC ($1.25/foot). We tried to anchor in Dutchman’s Creek, just south of the town, but the combination of the wind and the current made it uncomfortable, so we went to the marina instead.

It was here that we met Craig and Elaine at “Over and Under Adventures”. This stop merits a post of its own, so I’ll tell you about it later.

Southport, NC to North Myrtle Beach, SC (10-Oct-2012)

The next day, we crossed into South Carolina and stopped at Barefoot Landing, a shopping outlet “village”. We rode the bike around the outlets, but neither of us was very interested in shopping. It gives us back aches, so we went to TBonz for some of their $5 happy hour treats and $2.50 “Homegrown Ales” on tap. After that, we got directions to the local grocery store, and started peddling (well, Phill started peddling). We stopped at an oyster place and tried their broiled oysters. When the waitress heard that a dozen oysters was all we’d be ordering, she insisted we have a basket of “hushpuppies”, on the house.

We could only eat two of the five of them – they were not good in a very greasy, burnt kind of way. I’d also recently finished reading “Wheat Belly“, so the deep fried dough just doesn’t appeal like it used to. When the waitress came back with great enthusiasm to see what we thought, we lied and said they were great. I wanted to ball them up in a napkin and smuggle them out in our knapsack to avoid offending her, but in the end we were able to bury them in the oyster shells.

We got back on the bike and kept riding to the Bi-Lo grocery store. We bought ten bucks worth of stuff to get us through the next couple of days, went back to the boat and watched two episodes of Rome, then called it a night.

North Myrtle Beach to Minim Creek, SC  (11-Oct-2012)

We were off the dock by 7:30 and made our way through Pine Island Cut. According to our cruising guide, many people find this the most stressful stretch of the AIWW because it’s a narrow channel bordered by rock ledge on either side. We didn’t find it bad at all, but then again, we never met any oncoming traffic.

While motoring, we did boat chores (like defrost the fridge, clean the dry well, etc) and admired the beautiful homes (not crappy shack nice, but pretty nice) that line the waterway.

We stopped in Georgetown, SC to get some fuel, water and a pump out. Georgetown is the third oldest city in South Carolina, after Charleston and Beaufort (pronounced Bew-fert). I walked to Front Street (the main drag) to get a few grocery items, and stopped at “Sweeties” and bought some Low Country bourbon pralines. After we polished off the 1kg of wine gums Susan & Harvey gave us before we left, we haven’t really had any sweet stuff on board.

We really enjoyed this stretch – it was a nice change from the all the development we’d seen earlier.

We anchored in the east branch of Minim Creek, off the Estherville/Minim Creek Canal. It was very beautiful and isolated.

The mosquitoes were pretty thick – we’d intended to eat supper in the cockpit, but they chased us inside (it wasn’t so bad – there was a chilly breeze and I’d take mosquitoes over noseeums any day).

We were excited because the next day we’d be in Charleston, a city, as I already mentioned, we’d looked forward to visiting since before we left Ottawa. Despite the excitement, we fell asleep after a few minutes of an episode of Rome (had to re-watch the whole thing later).

Enough writing – 2000 words is probably way too much – I hope I didn’t bore you. I’ll tell you about our stay in Charleston later.

‘Til then…