carolina beach and mile hammock

it was another rainy day when we left osprey marina first thing in the morning.  we had three trouble spots with shoaling to negotiate and as tom said:  "to quote meatloaf (the singer),  two out of three ain't bad."  they were the new river inlet, shallotte inlet and lockwoods folly.  they are going to have to dredge lockwoods folly - it was pretty bad.  in fact, we later heard the coast guard on the radio saying that it was 3 feet at dead low - ugh.  but not only did we make it as far as southport, NC, we also managed to cross the cape fear river all the way to the carolina beach state park marina where we had stayed last fall and spent a fruitless afternoon looking for venous flytraps in the woods.  well, i hate to say it, but we spent another fruitless evening looking for those venous flytraps with no luck at all - i wonder if it is a myth?  we did, however, see a baby owl in a nest up in the fork of a very tall tree.  that is why the photos are so fuzzy - i zoomed in as far as the camera could go.  it just wasn't enough.

baby owl - use your imagination!

baby owl peering down at us

pitcher plant

the next morning, in light rain (again!), we resumed our journey without being really clear as to how far we were going to get.  everything is dependent on tides, currents and bridge openings and though we thought that swansboro would be a good stop for us, as luck would have it, we got delayed by the surf city swing bridge which only opens on the hour rather than both hour and half hour.  vertical clearance was only 12 feet - we had no choice but to wait.  sometimes, when the bridge is marginal, we can drop the mast and still get through.  add to that the current against us and in the end, we stopped at the mile hammock anchorage just past 1500h. the next good place to stop would have been swansboro, 15 miles away and at our speed, another three hours so we just quit.  the mile hammock anchorage is located within the military base of camp lejeune and though it is open to the public for anchoring, there is no shore access.  tom and i dropped the dinghy and went back out into the ICW to look for possible PFAs (pet-friendly areas)  - not that we need one currently, but for future reference and to exercise the dinghy.  one by one, boats started showing up at the anchorage.  when we entered, we were boat number 5.  there were 16 total before the sun set.  it really is a lovely anchorage and there is room for many boats. 

beautiful evening at mile hammock

we got up very early the next morning and were underway by 0615h in order to catch the onslow bridge 0700h opening.  everything after that was pretty much  uneventful until we reached the neuse river and just prior to that, on the adams creek canal, we saw a shrimper coming at us with her arms open.  we had heard that these boats have edged recreational boats into running aground in the shallows and though there was plenty of room, both tom and i came out to the front deck with our cameras, just in case.  there is no reason for them to be moving along like this in a narrow channel if they don't have their nets down.  in any case, i clicked away and waved at the men in the pilothouse as they went by.  no, they did not try to edge us out of the channel, and yes, she is a beautiful boat :)

the miss kelly of beaufort, NC with her arms out

the neuse river was not particularly formidable when we entered from adams creek canal, however, as we made our way north, it started to deteriorate considerably until it got to the point where tom turned off the autopilot and actually started driving to make our ride less rough.  it had been a long day and we were beyond the point of anchoring before entering the neuse river and past ducking into oriental so we just kept going and when we made a slight turn to port at maw point, the ride got considerably better and by then, it was just a matter of time before we got to our destination - dave and sandy netting's place on ball creek off the bay river.  we missed seeing them on our way south because we were committed to the SAIL rally but they came to visit us in vero beach when they drove down in their camper and we promised to visit with them "for more than just a minute" on our way north.  dave came out in the rain and wind in a boston whaler and led us in and we tied up to their dock and here we will sit "for more than just a minute" with our friends. 

in the meantime, i'm throwing in these photos of a couple of houses we saw along the way that were painted colors that i probably wouldn't choose.  unfortunately, i failed to take a photo of the lime green house, too.