June 14, 2008.

Let’s talk about Carolina Beach a bit, the anchorage here offers great protection from pretty much every direction. The “bottom” is a different story though. After one of the big hurricanes back in the 70’s a dredge was placed here to suck sand from the bottom to replenish the oceanside beaches. As a result the anchorage was 40 feet deep when they were done. Over time the anchorage has slowly been silting in, but the water is still 20 feet deep in spots, but that’s only to the “false bottom”. When you drop your hook it settles onto the bottom but as you start to set the hook you can feel that you’re ever so slightly dragging backwards.

We usually back down hard on our anchor, but here, that’s pretty much impossible. We had to set the anchor at low RPM’s and then allow the anchor to settle through the silty bottom over a period of time. As a result when you pull the anchor at the end of your stay you’ll find your anchor chain completely covered in black, pudding-like goo. We’ve anchored in New York Harbor and had the anchor come up cleaner than this. Holy shit, what a mess.

We pulled the anchor to take a space at the dock near the Packet Inn’s. We had a guy coming to take a look at the refrigerator, as it’s giving us problems again.

Once tied up at the dock, we plugged into shore power for the first time since we were in Charleston on our way south in October. We’ve been making our own electricity for over 7 straight months now. The dock we’re tied too belongs to a guy named Dennis, he has a house here on the property. He rents out one floor of the home and has dock space for 5 boats along the waterfront. It’s a real nice setup and very convenient to the downtown area of town. We’ve spent a couple of really enjoyable nights hanging with everyone here at Dennis’s.


Back when we were looking for our cruising boat the Whitby 42 ketch was on our short list. They’re not rare, but not all too common either. As luck would have it we’re sharing a dock with one and there’s another only a couple hundred yards away.

We also saw a pretty unusual method of growing tomatoes. They’re hanging in a bucket but growing out the bottom of the bucket. Why, I dunno. Nobody seemed to have an answer and the grower wasn’t around to ask.

The other night Gary from Packet Inn was telling a story about their travels during a rainstorm. They don’t have side panels on their enclosure so when it starts to rain he gets soaked at the helm. His wife Mary is a very talented seamstress and has been promising to whip up a pair of side curtains for their cockpit but for one reason or another it just hasn’t happened. So for the better part of the evening Gary managed to include his lack of side curtains into the conversation. Any conversation, every conversation. He was just busting her balls, but it was pretty funny.

It got me thinking, so the next day I got out our sewing machine and added a pair of tiny side curtains to an old work hat I had on board. We gave the hat to Gary at dinner the other night. It won’t keep him any dryer but if he wears it enough maybe Mary will take pity on him and whip up a set of sides for their enclosure. We did have a good laugh though.