Progress on the east coat

So here we go, from St Augustine the need to go North, there's things to do besides enjoying ourselves. Stopping along the way looking for safe anchorages meaning protection from wind and waves as best we can. Our route does take us through some very shallow spots so the weather and timing tides has to be a consideration along with bridge opening times. Not all of the bridges open on demand, or locks either. The plan is to get into Deltaville Virginia so we can haul Pearl out to anti foul along with the other maintenance. As we have visited lots of cities on a road trip and on the boat we won't really be stopping in many.

Playing with reflections

Here is our log for a little while.

Friday May 12th.

Off we go to Alligator Pass Florida, not too far today, didn't see any alligators. 

N 30° 34, 577  W 81° 28, 232

Saturday May 13th

There is a storm on its way so it was a long day, roughly 90 nm miles 

N 31°39, 56 W 81°12.537 Off St Catherines Islands North Newport river. Georgia. Peaceful night

Sunday May 14th 

Set off at 07:00 picked up fuel at Isle of Hope marina, we came here for fuel here the last time we passed by, nice folks. 74 nm miles today Now in South Carolina.

One of the many swing bridges we have gone though 

Getting shots of wildlife is challenging to say the least, when the boat is always rocking.

Monday 15th May

We had a slight delay, the port engine wouldn't start.

Forgot to say we were in Beaufort in an anchorage  so we took the dinghy into town.

Tuesday 16th May

The tide was dropping and we had to get through the really low spots at 

Mc Clenanville.

 Beaufort visit

These houses have lots of steps to enter inside

These horses know exactly where to stop, he is looking at the white line

Wednesday 17th May.

Now north of Charleston

Bucksport Marina, again a great place on the Waccamaw river. We have stayed here before and its very reasonably priced.  Fuel bought here has a Boat Us discount for fuel too so we filled up. The owners son took me to supermarket and brought me back, all part of the great service and hospitality here.

On guard! baby chick in that nest, hiding

18th May we stopped at South Harbour Cove, Southport its very shallow, doubt we would come here again. Idiots on fast boats rocked us about.

May 19th 
We had set the alarm for 03:30 so we could get past the shallows but again the port engine played up. We really wanted to get past Wrightsville beach and through the silly times for the bridge openings. Didn't leave until 05:25 We were heading for Mile Hammock, an anchorage we had been to before with some military activity to watch but, not much happening this time round.

He's not interested in us one bit, they normally complain, very loudly

May 20th Saturday.

Lifted the anchor, I managed to get covered in slime and mud from the anchor

Heading for Oriental or there about. We caught the Onslow 08:30 bridge.

Dropped the anchor in Cedar creek at 14:22, there was a bit of a blow but we were fine. N34°52.812 W076°41,442

May 21st Sunday

72 nm today dropped the anchor at 16:16 hours  N35°40, 502 W076°06, 254 

May 22nd Monday

07:15 start 12:50 finish at Public Creek, very close to where we were attacked by bugs the last time we came here. We watched a few barges and tugs pass by. 

N36° 17, 214 W075° 57,818

All different ospreys in various places

 May 23rd Tuesday
Off to Norfolk Virginia, 06:50 we went through the Great Bridge lock, and through Norfolk. Not a day we would like to repeat, the weather turned nasty, so did the sea. Wish we had stopped in Norfolk at Hospital point as we would have been much safer. The wind howled around 27 knots and the sea took us on an awful ride, bucked and rolled us with its 6 foot plus waves. So much for the forecast 5 -10knt wind and 1 - 3 ft waves.  Lesson learned: never trust the weather man !!  We had to take a very dramatic turn into a small anchorage. It was such a relief to be inside Phoebus Bay, out of the main river.

We do see some odd sights, they are on a sandbar

Guess this target was hit a few times then, this was where we passed by on a non firing day 

Wednesday 24th May
Well we did have an early start which wasn't intensional, fishermen woke us up around 05:30 asking us to move as we were over their unmarked fishing nets. So off we go at 6 in the morning back out into the main river with terrible weather again heading for a safe spot. Thankfully we pulled into an anchorage not too far away. We headed in as far as we could which was very close to Langley, headquarters of the CIA, the George Bush Centre for Intelligence. There just happens to be a runway where military jets take off and land so it was sometimes a little noisy. Quite spectacular though, watching the F35's screaming overhead.
So we sat out the weather for 3 days until the storms had passed.

This is what we had coming through Coinjock, the automatic foghorn and radar worked very well

These idiots come past us so fast however he did slow to around 15 knots instead of the 30 plus he was doing when we saw him on AIS. Still caused us to rock around.

This little fella bought his lunch with him / her while hitching a lift

Saturday 27th May
06:30 start and its almost mill pond conditions and we are very happy to get to Deltaville. Roughly 33 Nm today, tied up on a dock by 11:40. Fishing Bay Marina welcomed us, and actually remembered us from our previous visit.  It's almost like a second home to us. Now is the time to settle for a few days before the work starts.

The following blog will be about our stay in Deltaville.
So its BFN
Glenys and Don
M/Y Pearl