Hampstead, NC to Swansboro, NC

Thanks to a fellow Looper, here we are underway on the ICW in Pender County, North Carolina.

We cruised four and a half hours to Swansboro. We saw a lot of marshes, and the houses we saw were different than those on the rest of the trip. 

And look at the white sand dunes!

Part of the route took us through Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps basic training camp. A few days ago I saw on Facebook that they were doing live fire training across the ICW. Of course, this had all the Loopers in a tizzy. But it turned out they closed the ICW that goes through Camp Lejeune for four hours. Not a huge deal. However it didn’t affect us today. 

What we did have to plan for was the Onslow Beach Bridge opening on the half hour. This is a swing bridge operated by the Marine Corps. With that said, this bridge operator was very courteous and prompt, which has not been the case with some of the multiple operators we have contacted in the last 9 months.




An interesting sign

After the bridge, we entered the area that closes for live fire.  It looks like some of the targets were still out there.

A live fire target?




Warning sign letting you know if there's live fire.
And did you see the watch tower just behind the sign? 😬 

And check this out - the sign says “DANGER, Do Not Enter”.  Evidently fishing takes precedence over safety, as boats in the background went ahead anyway.

Boats fishing behind "Danger" sign

And would someone please tell me what this is?


The wind picked up about a half hour before we arrived at Swansboro.  They put us on the face dock which makes it easier to dock a boat in less than perfect weather.  Normally, we would just glide up, I’d hand them the lines and we’d be tied and ready.  However, the wind was pushing us onto the dock.  The Captain had to maneuver the boat away from the dock as the wind pushed us on the dock.  So we didn’t slam into it, but it was a harder landing than usual.  



We walked into town and it was different than most of the towns we’ve seen.  





The houses around the marina are different too

When we were docking, an elderly gentleman came on the dock with the dock hands.  So I started talking with him.  It turns out he’s the owner of this marina, Casper, that was started by his grandfather. And he was “born in the house just up the hill there”.  But somehow we started talking about knots used for boating (probably due to the crazy wind).  And he very graciously showed me how to tie a bowline. 

Casper also told me about Blackbeard sailing these waters.  Blackbeard was always able to escape because he knew where it was deep/shallow and where little canals led.  It was fun talking with him for over a half hour.  ðŸ˜‚ 










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taurus Great Loop Statistics

Image
Days on the Great Loop ~ 335 Days at Marinas ~ 329 Numbers of Marinas ~ 101 Lock Walls ~ 3 Barge tie-up ~ 1 Convention Center Wall ~ 1 At Anchor ~ 1 Diesel Fuel Used ~ 6,597.6 Gallons Nautical Miles ~ 4,875 Statute Miles ~ 5,610
Read more

Melbourne, Florida - Our Winter Home

Image
We made it to Melbourne, FL, Taurus’s home for the next three and a half months!  Melbourne is also where our son lives, so we are going to get some good time in seeing him this winter. So great!!  We saw him after work and for dinner today.  It’s been too long. We need Covid-19 to be done please! We left Fort Pierce this morning and had an uneventful cruise.  We saw an old favorite - a tug pushing a barge! We saw some more electric wires crossing the bay for those in the barrier islands. Once we were settled in our new marina, Fred and I took a walk to the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD). We walked through an older residential neighborhood. There were Aloe Vera plants that are humongous! Aloe Vera plants in the neighborhood near our marina Plus there were cactus There were a couple of historic signs And at the end of the night - Christmas lights!
Read more

Georgetown, SC and Rice!

Image
We spent today in Georgetown, because for the next few days there won’t be much to go see.  We went to the Rice Museum where the  Brown’s Ferry Vessel remnants are located.  It sank in the 18th century in Black River carrying 25 tons of bricks made on a plantation. Artifacts, including green glass English wine bottles, oars, millstones, iron pots, a straight razor and smoking pipes made of gourds.  The items enabled historians to date the time of its sinking to between 1730 and 1740. This period is about 50 years earlier than previous American shipbuilding discoveries. Model of Brown’s Ferry Vessel  The ribs are made from cypress trees  by the water  that were plentiful here in South Carolina.  The planks on the sides were hewn by ax and are all the same thickness.  I’m not sure how you do that with an ax.  Remnants of Brown's Ferry Vessel We also learned about rice growing in South Carolina.  The planters bought 40,000 acres of lan...
Read more