March 2, 2016
It is time! Weather forecast is favourable for our next hop north, destination Beaufort, North Carolina. If winds, currents and tides are with us we will hopefully get there in 24 hours. Our bug out options are Cape Fear, or even closer to us Charleston. We are all really excited to be heading out to sea to actually sail, we haven't had the sails up since we hit Florida nearly two months ago. The ICW has been very good to us, but we are ready to stretch our legs/sails and test out the refurbished autopilot.
March 3, 2016
Tide and wind were not with us during the night, we made little progress and in the end John headed into Charleston. We made our way into the channel along with a pilot vessel out guiding a large car transporter into Charleston Bay. The wind was behind us as we entered and the swell was high enough. I would not want to be trying to get into this narrow dredged entrance during a storm or a proper northerly blow, because the coast is so shallow here it makes for some very large swell!
No rest for the weary though. Into Charleston Bay and we rejoined the ICW. With exception to having to wait for one bridge to open it was a fairly straight forward motor. We went through urban areas and wilderness, we saw osprey and our friendly bottle nosed dolphin again. There was hardly any boat traffic which meant we could always stay in the deepest part of the channel, thankfully (with an 8ft draft we have little wiggle room).
We dropped anchor just as the light was fading in thick gooey mud. This is a great anchorage, just to the east of Georgetown, prediction is for it to rain tonight through tomorrow morning) or we can head back out to sea, via the buoyed channel. The one draw back of heading up the ICW is that it takes longer than sailing. So rather than getting to Cape Fear tonight, it will more than likely not be until tomorrow night, if we are luck. Time is ticking...
March 4, 2016
We woke up to grey windless rainy skies, yuck! So, we have opted to continue up the ICW today. It looks like the tide will be against us for a few hours, making progress slow, 5 knots or so at 1500 revs on the engine, but we will hopefully have the tide with us for 6 hours in the late afternoon which generally ups our speed to 7 knots.
This section of the ICW is very wooded and deep, going through Georgetown you can smell the pulp mills working away. There are also many duck hides and old estates. We were left trying to figure out what some of the fences across canals or old piping were for. At one time this certainly looked like a highly industrially productive area.
The day did clear off and John has even had the headsail up to help our speed, at times we were doing 8 knots! However, even with our speed there is no way we are going to get to Cape Fear tonight. Thankfully there is an exit back out to sea and with the weather and wind looking the way they are we are going to make a break for it, at Little River Inlet, and hopefully get to Cape Fear if not Beaufort by tomorrow. 
March 5, 2016
This was a bad day all around! While we did make it to Cape Fear it wasn't without us first trying to get to Beaufort. Poor John was on watch and was making great progress around the Fry Pan Shoal, just to the east of Cape Fear, but when he tried to tack around the shoal he ended up tacking through nearly 180 degrees, which meant we were going back on ourselves. Even now we are not sure why this was, it could be because of tide/current. It could be because of wind direction, but we, well actually John puzzled over this for awhile, and tried to continue on our way to Beaufort, but the slapping wave washed decks did us in and we headed back to Cape Fear, and the Fear River.
It took hours to get up the Fear River! The ICW is very far inland from the sea here and unfortunately we had the tide against us for much of the morning, slowing our pace to 3 knots at times. It was painful! Then once we did reach the ICW we were very near the bottom of the tide and the ICW channel off of River Fear is very shallow. John got us through though, at times with only 0.1 meters under our keel. His ability to maneuver Dark Horse is inspiring!
Unfortunately while travelling in the middle of the channel near Green 155 we ran aground with a thud! The children and I went flying forward down below. Luckily no one was hurt and we were bale to get off the sand bar easily. But by this time, lack of sleep had led to lack of sense of humour and we were questioning what we were doing! Why were we trying so hard to get north when our sailing friends were all south having a blast in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Jamaica. Morale was very low. Thankfully though, John spotted a way out to sea that had been described on Captive Captain as a passage only for people with local knowledge. Well, we saw three large car ferries anchored near the buoyed channel and a shrimping boat, all with AIS recorded draughts of at least 9 ft, so we figured we could get through here no problem, and that is what we did.
With a huge sense of relief we headed out through Shinn Creek to Masonboro Inlet to be back in deeper water, with the time and space to relax we put up our sails, and are now currently doing 7 knots:) the fastest we have been going all day! We have had a nice meal of salmon and now John and the kids sleep while I stand watch through the `fish sanctuary`which is actually an old artillery dumping ground and continues to be used as a firing range for American Military exercises, hopefully they wont shoot at us, though I can hear gun fire in the distance. So after such a long stressful day we have been able to spend a calm, quiet night at sea hopefully arriving in Beaufort sound around midnight. A good end to a terrible day!
March 6, 2016
A goodnight sleep does wonders for me. We made anchor at Beaufort about 11pm last night and had a wonderful nights sleep. John was up and at the helm just as the sun was rising. I made tea and breakfast for all. We were joined by a barge as we passed through the lifting bridge. This barge or pusher would prove to be our constant companion for the next 24 hours. the Evelyn Doris!This section of the ICW is not all that interesting. We are passing through fairly open sections of water and therefore there is not alot to see. However, we covered alot of distance today thanks to John and the Evelyn Doris.
John was at the helm almost exclusively today. His patience and attentiveness is a marvel to me. Because we are not sailing and because we have to stay within the dredged channel or we will go aground he has to helm/steer the whole time. This is exhausting work as anyone can attest to if they have ever driven or helmed a long way. However, John really enjoyed the night time, when we were all in bed and he was closely following the lights of the Evelyn Doris down the ICW. Normally we would never attempt to travel the waterway at night, there is too much that could go wrong, but because he could follow her and she had been doing this route for years now and had an 11ft draft we knew we could trust her to get us along the seaway without much difficulty during the night.
I awoke at 2AM to thick fog, John dropping anchor and the Evelyn Doris pushing her barge up onto the bank waiting for the fog to dissipate.
March 7, 2016
The end is in sight! We should make it to Norfolk today though the fog was is so thick this morning that it is like being inside a cloud. I cannot see the ICW markers, or the barge, though I can certainly hear her engines.
We were unable to move until about 7:30AM at which time we hightailed it on our way. But today was a day of holdups and we are stopped for an hour at the (insert bridge name) while they performed some sort of maintenance.Then we have to pause for a bit for a very large dredger making it's way south.
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| It begins! |
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| Crew accommodation and generators |
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| Pushers to keep the train in a line and to help get it around the bends in the canals |
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| Dredging lines heading off into the distance |
Then we are stuck in the Great Bridge Lock for nearly 3 hours as they unblock the gate so we can continue on our way.
As John kept us on course below it was baking mayhem! The girls wanted to make brownies and Adam took this opportunity to play with his favourite toys, the baking box!
But after all the holdups today we finally made it to Norfolk, and the home of the largest American Naval base, and one of NATO's two strategic command headquarters.
We are all very pleased to find the free dockage in Porstmouth, which is just across the water from Norfolk. We tie up, take a run ashore with the kids (unfortunately no playground) and then I go off to provision as everyone sleeps. Tomorrow we are off to New York, weather window is too good to miss!
March 8, 2016
We left Portsmouth as the sun rose over the naval ships in the dry docks. We continued to motor sail out to the Chesapeake and into the Atlantic. Weather promised to be sunny W to SW winds 5 to 10 knots, and it proved to be accurate so we have been motor sailing since we entered the Atlantic as 5 to 10 knots is not enough to drive Dark Horse down wind at any passable pace, or perhaps we are just impatient.
Today can be summed up in Lego. The fact that the kids have been able to play with their Lego while we have been at sea means it has been a very calm day!
We have been making good progress today. Hopefully we will arrive in NY, Sandy Spit, sometime tonight.
The wind has picked up a bit and John has got us doing over 8 knots with our poled out yankee and foresail. We are still experiencing a S wind, and seas are still calm, so it is time for school. We don't often do school work while underway at sea, but it is so calm there is no reason not to keep up with it.
March 10, 2016
WE'VE MADE IT!
We arrived at Sandy Spit around 11pm last night. John has brought us in under sail and we have quietly dropped anchor, only one lobster pot marker in sight. We are both amazed that we are actually here, New York, soon to head up the Hudson River to sail past the iconic Statue of Liberty. I find myself reflecting on the past months. How many times since we left the Bahamas did we question whether we would ever get this far? How many times did we feel like throwing it all away? How many sleepless nights and cries of frustration? And yet here we are, it feels like a dream. But it is not a dream, we owe so much to John. His perseverance and seamanship are the only reasons we have gotten this far. It is hard to express how proud and grateful I am to him.
We have found a marina called Liberty Landing Marina, which is on the NJ side overlooking Manhattan and the NY Financial District. This is where we intend to stay for the next week or so. It is time to take a bit of a breather and plan our next hop north.
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