Marsh along the ICW
We were the last boat to leave Barefoot Landing Marina Saturday morning at eight. We soon caught up with the other boats at a bridge we all had to wait for an opening at.
Weekends are always a challenge for us with all the weekend boaters out playing around in narrow rivers and canals of the ICW. Well this weekend was no exception! We rocked and rolled all day from the wakes of boaters.
We anchored for the night in an off-shoot of the ICW in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Being Saturday night, there were a number of party boats around and bars along the shore. It was a rather noisy night, in a very crowded anchorage. At 3:45, our anchor alarm went off, waking us both up. Bob went up to the pilot house to see what was going on. He had set it to go off if the tide shifted, which it had, putting us rather close to another boat. So, he got me up to re-set the anchor. After two tries, we got it re-set, without apparently waking any of the other boaters. On the way back into the boat, I slipped on one of the steps and managed to rub the back of my arm on the boat that was coated with non-skid. As a result, the back of my arm looks like it was put through a vegetable grater.
The alarm went off again at 7:00 and we got up and just left the anchorage. One thing nice about boating is that you never fear that you left something behind, like a pair of shoes under the bed, like you might at a hotel!
This part of the trip, we are very near the ocean and can easily see the houses that run along the coastline from the ICW.
Beach along the ICW
Sunday started out very cloudy and hazy and ended cloudy and hazy. It was a horrible day to take any photos. Getting the photos is sometimes a bit tricky. When I see something of interest, I first have to garb the right camera. Our old one is OK for some photos, but if I need the telephoto lens, then I need our newer camera. I then have to run up top of the boat or out the back after I decide on the perspective from which to take the shot. I have this dream that I can someday just wear a hat that has a camera built in and just say “click” and it automatically takes the photo! That would be real cool. .
Sunday night, Bob found us an idyllic anchorage called Spooner Creek, in Morehead City.to wait out the bad weather coming. This anchorage is surrounded by beautiful homes and one Condo building. It has a protected entrance, so even though there were waves in the ICW on Monday, we hardly moved in the anchorage. To top it off, there was a dinghy dock and just three short blocks away, there were a whole gagle of stores like Wallmart, Food Lion, Lowes, Staples, Belks, etc. What a treat. We ended up making three trips to the Wallmart before we left.
After we arrived, two other boats also came in to anchor – Skinwalker, and Winnie-the-Pooh. We met the folks on both boats the next day and had them over in the afternoon. Mark and Joyce on Winnie were an interesting couple, cruising on $9k a year. Pretty amazing. Lynn and Wayne on Skinwalker are doing the full loop. Lynn and Wayne had found out a pizza place near the Wallmart would deliver pizza to the dinghy dock and they ordered two large pizzas. What a treat! I hadn’t had pizza for months.
Skinwalker and Winnie-the-Pooh in "Secret" anchorage
The folks on Skinwalker and Winnie-the-Pooh don’t want to pass the word on this great anchorage, so please keep it a secret.
We were really glad that we had stayed at anchor on Monday given that the storms caused much havock North of us in Suffolk. We woke Tuesday to a clear sky and low winds, so we decided to proceed passing Morehead City proper.
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