May 24

May 24. Greetings from North Carolina. We awoke to a beautiful morning with very little apparent wind. We didn’t have any internet connection here so we had to rely on a 2 day old forecast along with NOAA Weather Radio. NOAA tells us that there are small craft warnings until this evening with winds building to 20 knots with 8 foot seas by late afternoon. This coincides with our old internet forecast so up the ICW we go.

Time for a quick rant. On our way north we were traveling a couple of miles behind 2 other sailboats, Starshine and Windfall. They were the most obnoxious, ignorant people we’ve encountered in a long time. They were on the radio all day long critiquing every home on the ICW. “Did you see the mustard colored house with the teal shutters?” “All day long and not a handful of houses I’d even consider owning” Everybody for miles is listening.

At Folly’s Inlet there is usually bad shoaling across the ICW. A guy headed south hailed them on the VHF and forewarned them about a shallow patch he had seen near marker #39. After transiting the area safely the 2 of them discussed the fact that since the good samaritan was a powerboater he probably was out of the channel when he came upon the shallow spot. They were just pompous assholes.

I even listened to them tear apart the “friends” they had just spent the entire winter with in the Bahamas. Everybody for 25 miles heard these 2 boatloads of idiots all day long; they didn’t even have the brains to use low power or their cell phones. End of Rant.

Anyhow, we transited the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge again. It’s bizarre to just watch the entire center span of the roadway just float away.


When we got into the Cape Fear River we were riding a strong tide up into the river. Unfortunately though we were heading dead into the wind. So what we got was kind of a high speed ass kicking. We were traveling between 7 and 8 knots straight into 20 to 24 knots of wind.



This is our friends on Bedazzle burying both bows. The discomfort only lasted for an hour or so until we were protected by the opposite shore. It was pretty intense while it lasted though.

Friends of ours, Jim & Deb tell the story of going offshore with one of their relatives as crew. During the cousin’s night watch he was confronted by a large bulk carrier and in his panic he woke them with the cry of “Dumpster!”. He was kind of tongue tied in his panic and threw out the name of the biggest all metal thing that came to mind. So now whenever a very large ship becomes an issue we all use the warning “Dumpster”.



Dumpster!!! On our way up the Cape Fear River we managed to squeek past this dumpster as we crossed the channel in front of him. Our buddy boat was 200 yards behind us and had to turn up and go around his stern as he was bearing down on us so quickly. I had opportunity to snap a picture as we were directly in front of him but decided to wait until I was sure we would survive before taking pictures.

We stopped for the night in Carolina Beach, N.C. There is a really nice anchorage behind a barrier island that offers plenty of protection but still allows you to hear the roar of the ocean at night.