Carolina Beach and leaving to go North

We spent an extra day in Carolina Beach just for the heck of it. We liked the view, the anchorage held well, once we reset it, and we could go for a blatt in the dinghy. Waz needed to blast the moths out of the dinghy engine...what is it with guys?? They cant go slowly...they have to blatt around all the time. To his credit, he did humor my wish to tiki-tour and actually set foot on sand and walk on the beach. I have said many times that I see a beach and wish we could just pull the beach up there and walk off. I think it is called a 'Landing Craft' or a 'Sealegs'... that wonderful NZ invention that Waz used to drive as a NZ Coast Guard Volunteer. They are RIB with wheels, and you drive the boat up onto the beach! Fantastic! We swear we will buy one here if we ever 'settle' down on the East Coast.

Where was I ?? ahhh yes..blatting and tiki touring.

Once out of the No Wake zone, Waz did what any red blooded male would do, and opened the throttle. I hung on for dear life...absolutely loving every minute of it:) ha! and he found me a beach where I could walk on sand! Bless him!
This is the ICW side of the Barrier Island.

 Looking South

I would love to know what critter makes and then lives in these holes!...or maybe not?

 Looking North

 and having walked almost to the corner of the little Island...

 That is the sand bar at the entry to the Sea. Waz found a couple of pretty shells.

 This road used to lead somewhere....

 A dead Jelly fish. Sometimes we see thousands of them. I had forgotten that until I saw this one. It was really difficult to photograph them on one of the Sounds, but I remember that we were watching some Dolphin surf our wake and they were avoiding the Jelly fish at the same time.

 At least the water is blue here...we have had mostly brown tannin waters...rivers!

This is the Beach Patrol out on the sandy point leading to the Atlantic.

We went back to the boat to collect the trash and take it to the town dock. Kitchen trash is normally kept in a sealed bucket. The Coast Guard demands that we have both a trash and recycling program (written) for the boat. We don't like to keep kitchen trash longer than we have to. Waz dumped the trash, and we decided to try a different restaurant for lunch...this time is was Gibby's Fish and Crab shack on the water. We sat outside in the sun...maybe not a good idea? Ordered Fish and Chips because other diners told us they were THE BEST! Waz ordered the regular chips and I ordered the Sweet Potato Fries (Kumara, to you kiwis!). Well, this is a classic example of why there is an obesity problem in the USA. The meal was HUGE. Seriously! Who can eat FOUR pieces of battered fish and enough chips to feed a family A HUGE plate piled high. Blech! I took all the batter off the fish and ate it that way, with a few of the fries. It was not at all appetizing. It also tasted all the same, if you know what I mean?

Waz managed to eat most of his meal, but it was a stretch!
I didn't feel so great, almost immediately. I felt tired and wanted to take a nap. I don't take naps unless I am sick, so this was a warning!
We decided, after lunch, to go back to the supermarket for some more fruit and veg, having made some plans that meant we wouldn't be shopping again for a while.
It was a real effort to walk the mile or so to the supermarket and back. It was hot too!

We got back to the boat (in the dinghy), put away the food and I badly needed to sleep. I don't know what Waz did all afternoon, but I slept! I was feeling pretty horrid, actually, but didn't want to throw up...just sleep. I believe now that I had a low grade Food poisoning! The fish! It tasted funny, and I believe it was previously frozen! I have worked as a chef in Seafood Restaurants, and know how important good food practices are, in them..as in any kitchen.
The nasties continued  through the night and into the next day...the day we moved north.

Onwards and upwards....

We were up early again (6.30am) and moved out of our anchorage at Carolina Beach, at low tide. Low tide through these shallow parts...need I say more. I actually did pretty well for the most part...not too paranoid...Im learning to take deep breaths!

The weather looked good and the sunrise was pretty. Not for long. We find these cloud fronts fascinating...this all in a place where the land is flat, so there is nowhere high to break the cloud masses up. That is a dredge, out there in the Atlantic (just off the coast, mind you)

This was pretty typical of what greeted us for the first few miles out of Carolina Beach. This photo looking back... Homes with looooong docks out into the UCW, across the marshes and mudflats.

 ...and mudflats they were, at low tide. As you can see...this isn't too far from the boat!:)yep..LOW TIDE!...and why did we leave then? I will have to ask the Captain again!!:)

Our first bridge of the day was a Bascule in Surf City. We had to wait for this to open on the hour. The wind was getting strong by now, and we had trouble staying in this narrow channel without going sideways.  Sportfisher motor yachts lines the channel, in various Marina.

The bridge up, we were on our way, glad to be out of the basin, treading water, as it were. It wouldn't be the last time, today! Worse to come.

Don't you love this? A fake palm tree with a parking meter on a small Island in the channel.:)

I couldn't discern whether this was Neptune or his Missus??

Desperate measures are needed when the lot is so small, I guess....:)

 

 

You will not believe how excited I was to see this pontoon boat with Tiki Tours on it. Seriously!!

and then came the Drama with a capital D!

Waz had misread the opening times for this bridge...he thought it was an open on demand bridge. Well, it is after 5pm! So we had to wait 45 mins in a holding pattern, with winds blowing a gale, with other boats in the same holding pattern...well, the two Nordic Tugs had the good manners to wait their turn, but not this other one...so I am publicly shaming them!
The boat on the other side of the bridge is supposed to give way to us on the northbound channel...NO! he just barged on through, with a wake that caused us grief because we were holding off and the wind was making it horrid to stay in one place. Bah! See the stix in the foreground? That means the water is about 1foot! We got close a couple of times, believe me. The holding basin was not large, and it was fraught because of obstructions and shallow water...still low tide!

I am publicly Shaming this boats Captain. Not only did he have a sense of entitlement, by pushing in the line, but he also got in our way while we were trying to stay safe in the holding basin. She might be pretty, but that doesn't entitle the captain to push his way through the rest of the boats to gain an edge at bridge openings. He didn't seem to see the problem, until Waz started backing up to him. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

 

I am also going to publicly shame Miss G's Captain, here. Not only did he think his boat was special, but he also had exceptionally bad manners, as evidenced by the radio calls all day from other boaters, for him to slow down, to ask for a pass, to not be in such a hurry, etc. He didn't even have the courtesy to answer. We listened for a couple of hours before he came up behind us in a great hurry and swerved dangerously around us, causing us to rock and roll something awful. Not on! Who do they think they are, these people??

 

Rant over. We made it through the maelstrom at the holding basin...Nerves a bit worse for wear, but safe.

The wind seemed to be getting continuously worse. It wasn't fun!

There were white caps on the channel...this is a river, folks! White caps!! and the tide was against us, so we were struggling along at around 6.8 knots for the most part.

 

We were so happy to get to our anchorage for the night, along with three yachts already anchored there. It is a large deep (its relative) basin attached to Camp Lejeune Military base. We were not allowed ashore there...just for Army personnel.

 

Military RIB's came and went, and patrolled the channel outside at great knots. Further up the channel (north) was the rest of the Army base, so they had plenty to patrol. It was rather amusing watching them though.

As you can see, we arrived rather early, but the wind was wearing us out. It was gusting 30-40 knots...I know, a nice day in Wellington, NZ!

 

See the white square? That is the anchorage. and we did finally get up to 8.2 knots! in 14 feet of water!

These fellas were taking their patrols seriously...except that it looked a bit like a Monty Python skit!

One coming into the basin where we were anchored, and one going. The fellas got off the boat and went to use the many porta potties on land:)

 

 

And so we set the anchor...and then later did it again. We had the Bruce anchor on, and it just wasn't holding. As the sun set, we decided to change anchors back to the Fortress, with the muddy bottom, for holding, and she held all night!phew!

Eventually there were 8 of us sheltering where there was no shelter. It was very exposed to the Sth East winds blowing a gale. It was good to know we weren't the only ones having anchor problems...a large 60+ft hatteras which came in after dark, also had to reset anchor.

 

I have to say that all eyes were on us when we were changing the anchor...every boater in that basin had his binoculars out and were studying our every move. :) Too bad! it is right, or it isn't, and if it aint right, someone or something gets damaged! simple.

 

We were happy to have a simple meal and get some shut eye.

 

Early start in the morning!