Quicksilver Sail Tales: Blue Skies Smiling on Me...Until they aren't

Yesterday,10/19/20 was gorgeous, 76 sunny, nice breeze and this morning their was heavy fog, 100% humidity, 62 degrees and drizzling. No I'm wrong its raining. That's how it is when your traveling via boat.

We are approximately 70 miles from Charleston, SC as I write this. We stayed on Alligator River when we left you(no alligators) beautiful stars because nothing is around(including cell service) From their we stop in Morehead City, NC but first made a quick pickup at the Mayo Fish Dock and scored 3 lbs of fresh Atlantic shrimp at $7 a pound. We were able to fuel up. Pump out, do laundry and get groceries. The highlight was having lunch with our friend, LuAnn, who lives near Oriental. She drove an hour and half. We appreciated it, caught up on all the news and had shrimp and grits at the Ruddy Duck.

Mile Hammock Bay was our next anchorage located at Camp Lejeune. We spotted some dolphins fishing and some noisy birds. The next morning we headed for Carolina Beach, SC. This part of the ICW (Intracoastal Water Way) is a bit crazy because there are a couple of inlets from the Atlantic and their are temporary markers all around to help you navigate the most recent shifting of sand (called shoals) and the current is usually a bit stronger. So especially if going at low tide you watch the depth sounder go from 20 feet of water to 6. Yes, I get spooked and always ask Jon to take over. But after all the fuss you end up in Carolina Beach...awww we grab a mooring ball and stay a few days...now this is nice. Laying on the beach, long walks along the beach...making our way out to a sand bar and jumping waves. We slept good at night. Well kind of..we met a Vet, ex-navy seal, ex-hell's angel, ex-sniper(we hope, he says he has a M16) ex-con(he went to jail for selling drugs, but has gone straight after he was released) who rode his hydro bike over to us and talked for about an hour. Telling us all about his life and how he looks after all the boats in the bay because there has been some pirating and he hates theives. All while we are having our beer on deck, sitting on his hydro bike holding onto our boat. He was very interesting and said he has taken a lot of psychology courses to help him understand himself. He said he'd watch our boat too. So yeah, we slept pretty good.

Wow, next came time to head down the Cape Fear River (no, i did not see Robert Dinero or Robert Mitchum) Lots of fun, not really, the current was against us and the wind behind us. At one point I think we were going about 4 knots( for you land lubbers, that's less than 5 miles an hour) torture. All day was like that and when I called for a reservation at Barefoot Marina in Myrtle Beach he'd said he have to ask his boss and call me back. ??? No one called, so up until 4pm we kept trying to reach someone...there was no answer and I left about four messages already. Finally the 6 day old employee tells me sorry they don't have any room. Oh crap!! (Some inside info..this stretch has only one or two anchorages that we passed miles ago, and we called all the other marinas along the route, even ones we had passed....All Full!) Okaaaaaa, let's think, think, think..I go on Google maps looking for restaurants with docks...nope none ...its low tide..too shallow...part of this ICW is rock ledges...I'm steering because Jon wants to see what anchorages are after Myrtle Beach...all about 20 miles past. Uggh we are still going about 5 knots or less, we won't be at Myrtle Beach ( Barefoot Marina until after 5. It gets dark at 6:30...so...ok if there are any empty space at the fuel dock we will just pull in and ask for forgiveness in the morning... we get through the Barefoot Landing swing bridge and see a few spots on the fuel dock and on another face dock....some one comes on radio asking the marina where they want them (obviously they called the day before and got a reservation) so I hop on radio and ask them if they can take us too. Fingers crossed, he ask where we are...We Are Right Here i answer..ohh let me check...fingers crossed...no, no room. All reserved...sooooo we start looking across the way to the day docks that are supposed to be for dinner or shopping...but maybe we could eat and accidentally fall asleep..only problem is the docks have a narrow entry between pilings. The current is running pretty good. Jon is making a couple of passes...more than a couple, we were circling for about half hour to 45 minutes. Suddenly, Jon hears the marins talking back and forth that maybe they could fit the sailboat circling, in between two power boats....YES!! So, I fix the fenders and lines...there is 8 men on the dock between two 50-60ft motor yachts and Jon gracefully squeezes in( well the dingy was caught on the anchor of the boat behind us for a second. ) We literally had a foot on each end. Everyone applauded from both sides of the ICW. As we are walking to check in one lady says (in a real sweet southern accent) "bless your heart for being on that water all that time" oh..just another blue sky.

We left the next morning beautifully rested, fueled up, pumped out and shoved off. The day was beautiful and we were averaging 7 knots. We put our anchor down behind Butler Island about 4pm. The current was running about 2 knots and the area was full of branches and debris from the resent flooding, but the anchor held well. We sat back and watched the debris float past our boat and watched the sunset. We were inside about ready to go to bed when we heard an awful noise...oh no maybe a branch hit our boat. It will just slide off...what the heck...it sounds terrible, it must be stuck...I can't see anything from the windows or from the windows in the canvas. Jon decides to go up on deck and see what it is. While he is walking up one side I'm looking out the other side of the front dodger...there is something hung up on the life line...I yell to Jon to look over here, but something isn't right, it's black and ??? I get closer and get scared to death as a cormorant flies off the bottom life line. I scream and Jon laughs. Oh blue skies.

Jon and I always take turns steering and navigating. We try to talk the night before we travel and look over charts. We also pick out a few anchorages. Daily chores include......wait I was interrupted as it was pouring out and our new anchorage is coming up...Awendaw Creek...Jon is calling for me. The sight strikes me as completely hilarious...his face is priceless( mind you there was only a 15% chance of rain so we don't have our center panel on or our sides on) I'm laughing and singing Blue Skies and Jon look miserable...which again, I find hilarious. We anchor during the monsoon and begin putting our canvas back up and try to dry things out...not possible. But its fine. We have some Poker Mix and ice cold beers. Another blue sky.

Ok....you don't want to hear about our daily chores so I'll say so long for now...besides we are on beer two and its time to relax. Tomorrow we should make it to Charleston. Look up the song Blue Skies and play it while you read this blog. Please leave a comment if you want..tell us who are and we will try to answer.