To Wrightsville Beach

 Departed at 9am on Saturday morning.  Waited for a Commerical ship to pass before entering the channel.

The current was against me.  It was supposed to turn around at 11 ish but I had turned towards Wrightsville and it seem the current there was different.  

I did motor-sail with the jib in a run until I turned off the tributary for Wrightsville which was more trechtious and with great caution, I decided to furl the jib.   Good thing.  It  was a good run,

At MM 283, USACE and Bob423 clearly showed the channel was shoved.  I saw a sailboat Le Vent try to go through it and I tried to radio her to be careful.  She ran aground and turned around.  I went out of the challenge to the port and then cut through the channel to the other side and cleared the shoaling.  I was very obvious with Aquamap.  I guilded Le Vent through it.  Love You Aquamap.

There was showing in the channel.  Bob423 are the blue track.  The red track was Bellum.

It was 25miles to Wrightsville Beach and another 30 miles to Hamlock Bay. There were no real safe anchorages that I could find so I anchored at Wrightsville Beach at 2PM.  It was blowing 20 knots.  There was a great 420 regatta.

I dropped the dinghy and went to the dinghy dock and walked 4 km to the Food Lion, had a Wendy’s Bacon burger *double and bought beer and some groceries and walked back to the dinghy dock.

The next day was very windy and I was tired so I spent Sunday at anchor  did some boat repair and cleaning   Tried to lubricant the throttle and shifter below the compass but the steel screws were seized to the binnacle casting   I got two of the four screws off and then dropped one screw down the cockpit drain   Supper was Salmon

On Monday, it was windy but calmed down and I tried to get to Hammock Bay, 30 miles  North.  The Wrightsville bridge warned us we might have to wait at Figure 8 bridge will only open if the winds calmed down.  I figured it would be fine.  I went about two miles and there was a 40ish sailboat aground on the channel.  She obviously did not have Aquamap which clearly shows the proper track.  I think this might have been the same guy on the radio earlier who was at the fuel dock asking for the Figure 8 bridge phone number because his VHF was not working.  Tow boat was there  

The channel was obviously shoaling

I got to the Figure 8 bridge and the winds picked up  after 40 minutes doing circuits, I gave up and returned to Wrightsville Bridge   

The ride back had the winds in my face and was a little rough.

On the way back the grounded boat was anchored in the middle of the channel about 1000 feet north of the shoaling  

A Storm Watch was announced.  I decided to anchor anyways.  Today’s trip was from 10:30 to 3PM  

Little River to Southport at anchor at Tina’s Pocket

Got up early but it was too foggy to depart. At 8:30 I motored to the Ocean and about 10:30 the winds picked up starting in a light close hauling, changing to abeam and eventually turning off the motor.  

The winds went up to 12 knots and was quite rolley.  I was not feeling very well.  

At 3, the winds were astern and I started the motor and put the sails away.  Winds were pretty close to forecast 

I motored into Southport and decided it was too windy and shallow for me. It would have been a nice place to spend Friday night.  I motored another two miles to anchor at Tina’s Pocket, a large anchorage area near MM 305.

To Little River

 I got up early.  At night I heard the bilge pump run.  It ran twice.  I checked the shaft packing and she was leashing a lot. Tightened it and departed up the Waccamaw River to Barefoot bridge at 12:15, missing the noon opening and the next opening was at 2PM.  I kinda expected this and pulled into the free Day Dock at Barefoot.  I dropped my gargbage and tried to update my iDevices at LULU’s but the Internet was very slow.  I had lunch, pumped out the water in the dinghy and departed for the 2PM opening which was on time.  

Motor and motor sailed to the inlet at Little River and anchored near Bird Island

The next day looks like a south wind which should provide a good bear reach on the outside for 25 miles.  

Waccamaw River north of Enterprise Creek

 Departed Minim northbound.  

Got  a lot of motor sailing in closed haul and with the current I regularly did over 7 knots SOG.  I went by Georgetown but didn’t stop. 

I decided to furl the jib to go through the 

Ocean Highway (Lafayette) Bridge

Chicken shit

I keep motor sailing to 

Wacca Wache Marina and bought 17.78 gallon of diesel including refilling the Jerry can.  

I motored another 5 miles to anchor at MM 375. There are no more anchorages for another 30 miles. 

Minim creek

 I departed at 9:30 aiming to get to Georgetown 42 nm which was ambitious.  I ended up at Minim creek - about 10 miles short.  .  Very isolated. Did not put out anchor light.  It was that isolated and a little challenging to get in. 

I did refuel from the Jerry Can while underway  

Church Creek to Isle of Palm

 I got up early and departed at 8 AM to catch to slack water at Elliot Cut which was about 10 AM.  

The currents were in my favour and then against me and I made it to Elliot Cut at 10:20 which was fine and easy.  But I missed the opening of the Wappoo Creek bridge by 10 minutes.  I decide to anchor at Wappoo creek for 40 minutes to rest and have lunch.  I did a lunch anchorage and did not seriously tested it.  When I did weigh anchor, it was heavy.  I had snagged a 44 LB original Ronna in excellent condition.

I went out and did Wappoo creek bridge and motored in very shallow channel and almost missed the bypass at MM 460.5 and I turned back to do the loop.  I had also accidentally turned off USACE charts.  

I motored further and for 15 minutes motor sailed until the winds died,  The channel was fairly straight and the winds were a beam from the ocean,  

At 3 PM I decided to call it quits and entered White Creek at MM 451.  We had stayed here with the Rally, but I did not remember much of it. It looked like the safest anchorage round.  Like the whole area around Charleston, the tides are 5-6 feet.  But in the creek, there seems to be no change of currents, which is one of my fears.

As I anchored, MY Radar, ACCUWEATHER and the VHF announced Thunderstrom Watch… Not warnings.

Norm suggested I tie down the solar panels  I used stretch wrap to tie them down

Also I broke my prescription  glasses

Beaufort to Church Creek

 I got up early at 8 to try to catch the current so it would favour me.  It did work for a while but with such a long run, parts of the trip would be fighting the current.  

My plan was to anchor at Stream boat landing   I arrived at 3 and decided to go further and I ended up at Church Creek at 5pm   

I hat put out my jib and at MM 491 was a barge that appeared to be approaching so I sailed to past port to port   It looked like she was not giving me much space and I steered to the starboard ending up in a dead end and had to tack to avoid grounding   It turned out the barge was anchored!

Got to Church Creek at 5 with 9.5 hours on the Yanmar,  The day was overcast   The anchorage was buggy with these small gnat type bugs that I’ve been seeing recently.