Shirley needs to keep reminding me that in January when the temps were in the 50s I would announce that it was plenty warm enough to play golf. Now, we don't even want to go outside it is SO cold ( in the 50s). We arrived in our slip in Little Creek on Monday (4/6) at 1745. Looking at the stuff we had to do, we decided to stay on the boat rather than go home and face the mail, lawn, repairs, etc. Following is a brief recap of the final chapter of this adventure. One of the reasons why we have not updated the blog until now is Shirley wanted me to be positive. She has had to remind me that I often say that a bad day on the boat beats mowing the lawn. Well, there may be a few exceptions. We left Charleston on 4/1 with the intent on sailing to Moorehead City (normally a 36 hour sail). It was raining and rough and after tacking into the wind for hours (and Shirley not feeling so great), we decided to head in for the night into Winyaw Sound and head back out the next day. The current was so strong ebbing out of Winyaw we were only able to make 2.8 Kts to 3 Kts over ground for over 2 hours (and the boat was running over 7 Kts in the water). How frustrating! It seemed that the time it took just to pass a buoy was enough to fix dinner, eat dinner and clean up after dinner. We anchored behind Butler Island in the Waccamaw River at 2120 (still raining). The next day (still raining) projected deteriorating weather so we again decided to run up the ICW. Current was still an issue at some inlets but our real issue Tuesday were bridges. We got held up at a bascule bridge that was supposed to open on demand causing us to miss the 1600 opening of the famous pontoon bridge at Sunset Beach. Altogether, we waited 65 minutes for 2 bridges about 3 miles apart. No fun (still raining). We stayed at a marina (Ocean Isle) for the night. Don't stay there! The wind had us pinned on the dock so I asked the dock master to give us a hand getting off the next morning. He did. As we were leaving the dock and turning into the ICW, we ran hard aground. I mean HARD AGROUND only 40 feet off the dock going into the channel. As we hit the dock master yells to us "watch for that hump". Too late. It took TowBoat US 50 minutes to extract us form the 'hump'. He told us we were not the first to hit this spot leaving this dock. I wonder if the marina and the towing guys have a little something going on? Why didn't the dock master just tell us about the 'hump' before we left the dock? The following day it didn't rain. We were stuck behind bridges for hours and can't make much progress as a result. Stayed at Harbor Village Marina that night. On Sat we took off with 2 other boats following us. Twice that day, running between the markers we ran aground (in the middle of the marked channel). Both times we got off right away and kept going. Shirley keeps telling me about the bad day and mowing the lawn, but I am starting to wonder. But, we pass Moorehead City with a favorable current and make Oriental on Sat night. It is starting to feel like we are getting home (and it is getting cooler). On Sunday, we were off at 0720 and ran 113.5 NM to Coinjock (that equates to 130.4 SM) basically with good current and wind (motor sailed when we could). Arrived in Coinjock at 2320. We made up some time lost to bridges and groundings. The only mishap on Sunday was the loss of my Smart Controller. The Smart Controller is the wireless gadget that allows us to run the boat without having to actually be at the helm. My fault. I left it on the furling line and when we let the jib out (with a lot of wind) it got thrown out of the boat. We actually had to steer from the helm. Monday was a day waiting at bridges in Chesapeake, but we were getting home and were going to miss some nasty forecast weather (that never really got bad). I WILL NOT DO THE ICW AGAIN. I WILL NOT DO THE ICW AGAIN. This is my new mantra. We will wait for the proper weather window and go outside. Sailboats are not meant to travel in a ditch.
Trip Summary: 2271 NM (equal to 2612 SM) in 2 months. A wonderful adventure (except for the ICW stuff and even that beats mowing the lawn). Since we have had Persystence (a little over 4.5 years) we have put 15718 NM under her keel (18076 SM) and have enjoyed every minute of it. We have had no major issues. The boat continues to exceed our expectations and we look forward to the next adventure (soon!).
