Location: Little River, SC
Position: N33 51.7 W078 38.3
Sorry for the delay in updates. Let's see, now where were we..??
Looks like we last left off on November 12th in Southern North Carolina.
Okay. So .... let's see....
We upped anchor and left at 8am on the 13th hoping to make it to Little River (about a 50 mile run) in a day. We started off going through Snow's Cut and down the Cape Fear River, both of which can be very "interesting" with as much as 6 knots of current. Both were navigated successfully.
The next sections of interest were Lockwoods Folly and Shalotte - two inlets that we had heard were tricky and quite shallow. Unfortunately we were going to pass through just before low tide so we were a bit nervous. We did, at one point have only 6" clearance below the keel but managed to get through both spots with no groundings, thank goodness.
The last problem of the day was Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge. It is maybe the last bridge of this type in the country, opened and closed by cables that pull the pontoon section open and closed. The openings are restricted to once an hour.
We could see the bridge closing as it came into view. We were probably a couple of miles away, so we decided to slow way down and take our time on the approach.
Mark decided to switch the VHF radio to Channel 13 so we could monitor the bridge. We'd been following a pile driver barge for a while, watching it slowly pull away from us and approaching the bridge. Suddenly we heard a conversation between the barge captain and the bridge tender - there's going to be a special "commercial opening" in five minutes! That'll save us over a half-hour wait at the bridge! We exchange glances, Julie is at the helm, she eases the throttle up to WOT (Wide Open Throttle) as we make the decision to try and make it. We are still quite a way back and we hear the horns going to warn traffic to stop for the bridge opening. Mark hails the bridge tender to let him know we are trying to make the opening. No reply.
We keep on steaming. Mark hails the bridge tender again since it looks like we can make the opening just behind the barge. Again, no reply. Maybe we should slow down since he's not acknowledging our call. We decide that if we are right on the tail of the pile driver - he'll have to let us through. Mark hails the bridge tender again, this time instead of a request he says. "We're following the pile driver through unless we hear back from you!!". Still no response. We forge on through - Woohoo we made it. As we clear the bridge Mark thanks the bridge tender for holding the opening, this is usually a nicety but today it was a bit of a dig!! Still no reply. We heard later that he has a reputation for 'not being very nice'.
At any rate, we managed to follow the pile driving barge all the way to about 1/2 mile before our "exit" and took advantage of the captains local knowledge - instead of feeling our way through the shallow bits, we followed his lead and stayed in deep water for the remainder of the trip. We arrived at Lightkeepers Marina almost an hour earlier than we would have otherwise!
We visited with our friends, made sure Rachel was well secured, packed our bags, and headed to Virginia to visit family (especially grandson Alex and beautiful new granddaughter Emma). Mark took the opportunity to head to CT and visit his parents for a few days, leaving Julie holding the baby. We all spent a lovely Thanksgiving day with our daughter's family. There is a definitely a lot to be thankful for. Did we mention that our new granddaughter is absolutely beautiful?
Position: N33 51.7 W078 38.3
Sorry for the delay in updates. Let's see, now where were we..??
Looks like we last left off on November 12th in Southern North Carolina.
Okay. So .... let's see....
We upped anchor and left at 8am on the 13th hoping to make it to Little River (about a 50 mile run) in a day. We started off going through Snow's Cut and down the Cape Fear River, both of which can be very "interesting" with as much as 6 knots of current. Both were navigated successfully.
The next sections of interest were Lockwoods Folly and Shalotte - two inlets that we had heard were tricky and quite shallow. Unfortunately we were going to pass through just before low tide so we were a bit nervous. We did, at one point have only 6" clearance below the keel but managed to get through both spots with no groundings, thank goodness.
The last problem of the day was Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge. It is maybe the last bridge of this type in the country, opened and closed by cables that pull the pontoon section open and closed. The openings are restricted to once an hour.
We could see the bridge closing as it came into view. We were probably a couple of miles away, so we decided to slow way down and take our time on the approach.
Mark decided to switch the VHF radio to Channel 13 so we could monitor the bridge. We'd been following a pile driver barge for a while, watching it slowly pull away from us and approaching the bridge. Suddenly we heard a conversation between the barge captain and the bridge tender - there's going to be a special "commercial opening" in five minutes! That'll save us over a half-hour wait at the bridge! We exchange glances, Julie is at the helm, she eases the throttle up to WOT (Wide Open Throttle) as we make the decision to try and make it. We are still quite a way back and we hear the horns going to warn traffic to stop for the bridge opening. Mark hails the bridge tender to let him know we are trying to make the opening. No reply.
We keep on steaming. Mark hails the bridge tender again since it looks like we can make the opening just behind the barge. Again, no reply. Maybe we should slow down since he's not acknowledging our call. We decide that if we are right on the tail of the pile driver - he'll have to let us through. Mark hails the bridge tender again, this time instead of a request he says. "We're following the pile driver through unless we hear back from you!!". Still no response. We forge on through - Woohoo we made it. As we clear the bridge Mark thanks the bridge tender for holding the opening, this is usually a nicety but today it was a bit of a dig!! Still no reply. We heard later that he has a reputation for 'not being very nice'.
At any rate, we managed to follow the pile driving barge all the way to about 1/2 mile before our "exit" and took advantage of the captains local knowledge - instead of feeling our way through the shallow bits, we followed his lead and stayed in deep water for the remainder of the trip. We arrived at Lightkeepers Marina almost an hour earlier than we would have otherwise!
We visited with our friends, made sure Rachel was well secured, packed our bags, and headed to Virginia to visit family (especially grandson Alex and beautiful new granddaughter Emma). Mark took the opportunity to head to CT and visit his parents for a few days, leaving Julie holding the baby. We all spent a lovely Thanksgiving day with our daughter's family. There is a definitely a lot to be thankful for. Did we mention that our new granddaughter is absolutely beautiful?
So now we've had our family fix, and have just arrived back on Rachel. We will probably hang around here for a couple of days and then take our friends further South with us for a couple of days. They are ex-cruisers and need a boat fix.
