Wednesday – 11 November
This day was a day of waiting.
We left Swan Point Marina as the sun was rising.
By 0715 we heard of the first grounding back at G61 – G63 on the radio (the site of yesterday’s excitement). Shortly after that we watched another boat ground ahead of us as they drifted slightly to the left of the channel (this just happened to be the same boat that rammed our dinghy in Beaufort the prior morning – we are not making any comment here – just an observation!). Many cruisers tried to offer assistance but as we listened for the next hour or so, every effort was to no avail and we think they ended up calling the towboat for help. We never heard from or saw him again that day.
This was a day where timing was everything. We had to pass through 3 different bridges, 2 that opened only on the hour and 1 that opened on the hour and half hour. As is our way, we kept down our speed so as to arrive at the bridge(s) close to the scheduled opening times so as to reduce the amount of time we have to wait and mill around with all the other boats.
But with a strong current pushing us along, we inevitably arrived at each of the bridges with 20 – 30 minutes to wait. As we would putz along the Waterway at a slower rate, all the other boats powered past us, and we wondered why they would want to do this – but to each their own. It is much less stressful for us to come up at the rear of the parade of the boats waiting for the bridges to open. We always radioed the bridge tender to let them know we were there, telling them we were at the back, and then again once we cleared the bridge so they would know to keep an eye out for us before closing the bridge again.
At the 2nd bridge one of the sailboats that had powered past us, was drifting, waiting for the bridge and apparently drifted onto mud on the green side. (We had read to stay toward the red side of the channel and had no problems.) As the bridge opened and all the boats started to move forward we saw him just sitting there – he was grounded. We motored past him as he scrambled to get off the shoal. If he didn’t make this bridge opening he would have to wait another half hour for the next one and then another hour for the bridge following this. As we said….timing is everything. Somehow he was able to get off the shoal in time to clear the bridge before it closed.
The channel was narrow at times and there were a few shoaling spots where we had to navigate through small markers that appeared to be off to the side of the channel. Thanks to Active Captain we were prepared for these, and also aware of when it was best to favor the red side versus the green in a few more spots.
We are also are relying on a cruising book which highlights some of the unique landmarks. This was the Dead Reckoning Landmark mentioned at the 2nd bridge of the day…. a sculpture of a giraffe.
We don’t know why they didn’t also mention the metal sculpture of the buddha holding an American flag at the same location.
You never know what navigational aids, if any you will see indicating a shallow area — but this “palm tree island” was mentioned as a place to avoid near the 3rd bridge.
We were told the channel to the Seapath Yact Center was shallow and instructed to keep the green marker to starboard. Shallow indeed as our depth reader showed 5.9’ at one point.
We were given misinformation by the marina and told to leave the next marker to port. That meant again very shallow water, and we later learned that leaving that marker to starboard provides much more depth….we will remember that for our departure in two days.
We enjoyed two nights in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, which seems like a lovely place to live.
