Carolina Bound!

V

Valkyrie

New member
Hi Brats,

Early tomorrow, Marcia, Boomer (Airedale) and I will head for NC with Valkyrie in tow! We'll stop at Mobile East for Gene to do some routine maintenance and then splash the boat in Oriental. Then it's points south with our final destination of Beaufort, SC where Marcia's folks live. I'll then (GROAN) take a Greyhound back to Mobile East to get the tow rig and head for home a few days after that.

Our plans are not to have any and just mosey south and spend time where it feels right along the 400 mile trip. I've done the ICW before, but Marcia hasn't and I'm eager to share it with her. We hope to spend a days in Topsail (great beach town), Georgetown and Charleston (great historic towns).

The weather is changing for the better with temps in the 70's and 80's forecast at this time. We've also made arrangements to visit a few C-Brats along the route. I plan on posting some pics along the way and hope the new camera cooperates with the 'puter and the internet!

Regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Nick, we made that trip from Oriental to Beaufort last summer/fall when we were at the NC gathering. It's a nice trip through that canal! Hope you and Marsha and the pup have a great time! Keep us posted.

Charlie
 
Nick sounds like a great plan. I'm partial to the Topsail area having been raised there. You probably know but just before you get to the Surf City Bridge to your port is the Beach House Marina. Great place to spend a couple days only three blocks to a beautiful beach and plenty of resturants and a grocery store. Ocean fishing pier also. Little Topail Inlet is pretty much a must see also. Have a great trip.
 
We were delighted to meet Nick, Marcia & Boomer today in Southport. Hopefully the weather stays nice for the rest of your trip! It was especially nice to have another C-Dory in the marina!

Jack & Julie
 
Hi Brats,

Jack and Julie: we enjoyed our visit, as well, and look forward to seeing how you modify your 25 to "make it yours".

Marvin: we did stay at Beach House Marina for two nights and, once again, enjoyed walking the beach at Surf City and some fresh seafood.

We are in full, relaxed cruise mode right now, which means that I have actually gone 24 hours without turning on the PC! I just wrote up the last three days to post on this thread (TWICE!) only to have it disappear into cyberspace when I was on the last paragraph. ARRGH!

Anyhow, we have a 60+ mile day tomorrow and I will try to do an update when we drop the hook.

Regards,

Nick, Marcia and Boomer
"Valkyrie"
 
Mark, Just for the record I got the wahoo -- at the fish market across from the marina! We just got into SC and will buy licenses tomorrow and fish around the Beaufort area once we get there.

We are really enjoying ourselves and the scenery is fantastic, everything from salt marshes, forests, great views of homes, upscale to working marinas, beautiful inlets, old revolutionary towns, working boats and the parade of cruisers heading north after a winter of hiding out in the sun and warmth of FL and the Bahamas.

Our days have been relatively short, with runs from 40 to 70 miles. We like to get in early and have time to wander the area and enjoy the small-town American atmosphere. Right now we are at Osprey Marina north of Georgetown, SC. This a great marina with dockage at $1 a foot, the cheapest gas we've seen so far ($4.08) and they gave every cruiser a goody bag with a pound of cheese, crackers, cinnamon buns, can coolers, key floats and more. We were at our dock and they came down to our dock with snacks for Boomer, apologizing for not giving them to us when we checked in!

Will continue--

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Continued--

From previous post- gas is $4.08 at this marina.

Things that work category: There have been a number of posts dealing with the removal of foam from the v-berth and the addition of access hatches. From our experiences on this cruise - do it if you haven't done so!

Last month I spent one day making the mods. The foam came out easily and I added three 10x20" hatches from Defender. I sanded the inside of the hull and painted it with epoxy garage floor paint. In the bow I put a rubber "anti-fatigue" mat and placed my second anchor, chain and rode on that. Twelve packs of pop and beer go all the way aft and cannned goods go on the floor against the "well" created by the area between the berths. This keeps weight forward and low in the boat.

The size of the hatches allows us to stuff in duffles with our clothes. This prevents the "duffle shuffle" every night and morning. Each night before we go to bed we take out what clothes we'll need for the next day and put them in our v-berth storage hammocks. I wish we had done this years ago.

Will continue,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Hi Brats,

We're in Charleston right now, at the City Marina, which has a MegaDock that sems at least a quarter mile long. That is where they dock the BIG BOYS, with some look to be 200 plus feet long. They cater to the gold-platers here and don't even sell gas! However, we had reservations and they found us a nice 30 foot dock and treated us like royalty, but seemed a bit surprised when we didn't want to hook up our cable TV!

Before that we stayed in Georgetown, a delightful, old town where we saw some homes dating back to 1730. Got some fresh flounder and shrimp there, too. Great grill fare!

Last night we walked to the Battery, across from Fort Sumter, and enjoyed the cool evening air, especially Boomer. Today we'll head south again and will probably stay on Edisto Island before reaching Marcia's folks on Saturday. Hopefully, we 'll have fresh fish by then.

Observations: When I last ran the ICW in the 80's I was on my Jeanneau Tonic sailboat, powered by a Honda 8. I typically powered at 5.9 knots and got from 4-5 mpg. Now we are running at 4200 rpm or so, and getting close to the same mileage, with speeds varying from 12.5 to 15 knots, depending on how much the tide/current is helping us. Some days we'll run for an hour or so at hull speed, just to enjoy what is around us better.

On Spirit I usually covered 50 miles per day (LONG DAY) and got to my destination pretty tired. Now we're running from 40 to 65 miles per day, getting there early and refreshed and have time to see the local sights.

We are really enjoying the grill that we got last year and use it daily. We especially like having a relaxing lunch on the hook and will kick back for an hour and watch the parade of boats going north. Also, the fact that it has been sunny with temps in the 70's and 80's helps a lot

Our little C-Dory continues to garner attention wherever we go and I have handed out all of the Triton Marine mini brochures. We have only seen one other CD, which was on a lift just south of Hampstead, NC, but we couldn't see a name due to the way the lift was made. One sailboat hailed us to see if I was "Mike", no last name, and at the Osprey Marina we were told that another CD went through the previous week.

Oh well, it looks like the coffee is done and I have to cook the grits with bacon and cheddar to breakfast. Marcia is from SC and we are in the south you know.

Valkyrie standing by 16. (Pretty hokey. Sorry.)

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Hi Rob,

Our grill is a standard size round Magma and we use the mount that slides into a 30 degree angle gunwale-mount rod holder. There are a myriad of options for mounting grills.

We actually saw another C-Dory on the ICW today. We were anchored in a small creek south of Charleston for lunch and saw a 25 with blue trim leave the ICW and head our way. We thought that they saw us and were coming over to say "Hi" (because that was what we would do), but they gave us a wave and anchored a ways down the creek. I tried hailing them (no name on the boat), but they never responded. They must not be C-Brats, but it was nice seeing another CD on the water.

Another great day on the water with light winds, sun and temps in the 80's.

Regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Nick,

One last grill question for you. Are you able to keep the grill mounted in the rod holder while running the boat? Or do you have to remove and stow it somewhere? Thanks.

Rob
 
Jim,

We just got to Marcia's folks in Beaufort and are downloading pics. Hope to have them up tomorrow.

Rob,

When running we put it forward in a corner of the v-berth. Be sure to use one of the covers if you do that! My buddy David on Alma's Only has one of the rectangular models and he fabbed up a mount for the splashwell so it is permanently mounted. If you have a transom bar that is another possible location.

El and Bill,

Thanks for the best wishes. Hope you both are doing well.

Hi Brats,

Yesterday morning we left Charleston and headed south once again and spent the night on Edisto Island and were amazed at the tide running through the marina. We kept an unusually close eye on Boomer so he wouldn't fall in and disappear under a dock before we could do anything.

We dropped out of the ICW today and snaked through some very skinny water to enter St. Helena Sound to do some cobia fishing on Combahee Flats - to no avail, unfortunately. We did catch some flounder and reds though. We hope to hit it again tomorrow if the weather holds - looks like it might not though.

On a very positive note - this was Marcia's first experience cruising the ICW and she thoroughly enjoyed it, even making the comment, "This is absolutely beautiful. How could anyone refer to it as "The Ditch?"

She has become an even better first mate, navigator, line handler and has gotten into the cruising rhythm of early nights and mornings and taking it slow and easy. The sundowners help, too!

Also, it looks like next year we will pick up where we left off this year, Beaufort, and head south from here for 2-3 weeks and see where we wind up. Marcia will fly back home (can't wait until she retires) and I'll take Valkyrie back to Beaufort.

This is our first night off the boat here at my in-laws, but the house is rocking pleasantly.

Regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Nick

We have been out of town recently and justed logged in today Sunday 15th.

We are the owners of the 1997 C-Dory Moon Doggie south of Hampstead and behind Figure 8 Island

Wish we had known you were in route and would have enjoyed meeting you and providing an overnight slip and accommodations

Perhaps on the next trip

We have made the same travel south and find Bald Head Island and the Waccamaw River delightful

Jennifer and Dan Brock Moon Doggie
 
Jennifer and Dan,

Sorry we missed you, too. Perhaps some other time.

Brats,

I finally got some pics from our trip uploaded to our album. Hope you enjoy them.

Regards,

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Hi Nick & Marcia,

I enjoyed the photos of the various boats. Ya can tell you are a boat nut! I also have a gazillion photos of boats from our travels. I particularly like regional working boats, like the shrimper.

Rick from Maine
 
Back
Top