St James NC to Oriental NC

We had a leisurely morning at the St. James Bay marina and left late in the morning hoping to hit the slack tide at the Cape Fear River inlet.  We made better time than expected and hit the river while the tide was still going out.  We went from about 6.5 knots to 2.5 knots in three boat lengths which was impressive in a depressing sort of way so we headed back into Southport and anchored for lunch.  Whenever we talk to other cruisers we all say that it is not about the boats it is about the people and this has been very true in North Carolina.  While we were anchored for lunch a beautiful old 1938 workboat, the SOLOMON T, came by and the owner called out that he was going out for a couple of hours and that if we were still there when he came back he would check on us to see if we needed anything or if we needed a car to go anywhere.  We were tempted to stay just to get to know this very nice person but we left when the tide was slack and had a slow trip up the Cape Fear River then on to Wrightsville Beach.

This is the fourth time we have been in Wrightsville Beach, the last two times we have gone aground.  This time we made it in and out of the harbor without incident.  Right outside of the entrance to the harbor is a bridge that only opens on the hour.  We had to wait about 10 minutes for the bridge (it is much better to get there 10 minutes early rather than 1 minute late).  There were five other boats waiting and doing the "bridge dance" of circling around each other.

 A couple of hours later we came to another restricted bridge and had to wait for about 20 minutes before the bridge would open.  This section of the ICW varies between tree lined sections and developed sections.  Most of the houses are beautiful with well kept grounds and gorgeous rose gardens with azaleas in full bloom.  Some of them also have interesting lawn ornaments.

The boat traffic has been fairly light for the last couple of days - a group of sailboats traveling north, the occasional powerboat, and a few very large barges.  The pushboats often push two barges at a time so they are impressive especially in the narrow sections of the ICW.  We came across a series of  anchored barges with pipes between them working on a project.  When these barges are underway they are a sight to behold as they and their cargo of pipes bend around corners of the rivers so both ends are out of sight.

We anchored for the night in Mile Hammock Bay just south of Camp LeJeune.  Other than the artillery fire it was a quiet night.  The next day was a short day to Beaufort NC.  The anchorage is in Taylor Creek and is narrow with a strong current.  The first time we tried anchoring we ended up too close to the channel so we picked up the anchor to try again.  As soon as we had the anchor up a nice man on a moored boat called out that we could use the mooring next to him.  The mooring belongs to a friend of his whose boat is not in the water.  It was a treat to be on a mooring and not have to worry about the anchor or the limited swing room available in a very busy area.  We went ashore and went for a long walk to the Piggly Wiggly to pick up some groceries. 

Thursday morning we left the mooring in time for the 8:00 opening of the Beaufort Bridge and had an easy run to Oriental, NC and spent the day having "what a small world" experiences.  We pulled into the open side of the free dock next to Russell on LADY PAULINE who we had met in 2006 in the Bahamas.  The new owner of the marine consignment store heard our boat name and said "Were you the ones sailing back and forth while the bridge was closed in Titusville last fall?".  In the evening we went out to dinner at the Silos with Russ and Pat from CONSORT.

Friday morning we listened to the weather and decided to stay on the nice calm free dock for another day. The wind was whistling down the Pamlico Sound at over 20 knots and creating short steep unpleasant waves.  The dock is supposed to only have two boats, one on each side.  A 40 foot catamaran came in after being beat up in the sound and wanted to tie up to the end of the dock so we moved our boat down so he could fit as did LADY PAULINE.  A few minutes later a catboat came in and tied up next to the seawall next to us.  Oriental is very boater friendly and is full of friendly boaters.  All morning people wandered down to the dock and talked about boats.