ICW - NORTH CAROLINA - COINJOCK, BELHAVEN AND ORIENTAL

He Said:  Good-bye Norfolk.  About 100 yards from where we hung in Norfolk is mile 0 of the Intra-Coastal Waterway.  We left as projected after fueling up, watering up, and pumping out.  Our trip to Coinjock went very well.  We had to travel thru 1 lock and about 7 or so bridges.  Pulling into the lock for the very first time was a little strange since we had no idea what to expect.  The water movement was only about a foot or so.  Before we knew it we were done.  The very nice worker lady had treats (candy) for everyone so of course we really liked her.  We arrived in Coinjock in mid afternoon and pulled along side of a very long dock.  We love this because no backing in or pulling in at all - just pull along side of the dock just like you are fueling up.  We enjoyed our evening here and met some really nice folks.  Of course we ran into them in the bar at the dock which was the only place on our side of the water to grab a bite.

 

Going through our first lock.  We are behind the sailboat on the right.
 

 

We left Coinjock early on Tuesday AM and followed some of the boaters we talked to the prior evening down the ICW.  Our next stop was Belhaven where our plan was to anchor for the first time in several months.  As we arrived we had been reaching out for a couple we met earlier, and they had already tossed their anchor.  As we pulled into the anchor field, of course the wind was kicking up as we should have expected.  Our buds, John and Debbie, invited us to raft with them.  This term is much different in the anchoring world than jumping onto a raft and floating around with a cold beer between your legs.  Rafting is basically tying the 2 boats together and using only their anchor.  Of course, we put out 4 bumpers to protect us both.  Everything worked out great, but the next day was also windy.  Thank heaven John and Debbie said that if the winds did not let up then it was no big deal to raft with them a 2^nd nite.  Of course we took them up on the offer and everything worked out perfect.  I guess the only bad thing is we are still delaying our anchoring which we really have to figure out as we head South.

 

Sunset in Belhaven

 

I am going to lightly discuss the differences between the ocean and ICW.  The easiest way is to say it is simple, night and day! In the ocean we deal with winds, sometimes large waves, deep ass water, seeing no land, and making certain we understand our charts.  If not, no big deal, we simply get lost.  The challenges of the ICW are so very different. The average depth is about 8 feet depending on the tide and shoaling.  As we travel thru channels, rivers, and waterways that are maybe 4 or so miles wide the picture changes.  We feel in narrow and shallow areas the biggest challenge is keeping the boat floating - as in not running aground - so far so good. We follow what is called the Magenta Line on our GPS screen.  It is very, very important to stay as close to the line as possible.  No big deal if you go to one side or the other - you will then be in about 1 or 2 feet or water.  We don’t float in that, but it helps not burning any diesel while you wait for BoatUS to tow you off.

 

Traffic jam after waiting for a bridge.

 

Following our 2 nites in Belhaven, mostly hanging on the boat, we departed for a town called Oriental. The trip went just fine and we arrived on Thursday the 24^th, just in time for one of our 63^rd BD, guess who??  While in Oriental, which we loved by the way, we made an anchor change.  We had a 30# Delta and now we own that and a 45# Delta.  50% more weight is good.  We also have 200 ft. of chain.  Hopefully this will get us thru this anchorage mind game we have going on.

 

We went into the little bar about 50 ft. from the boat and celebrated my BD.  The place was slow but we meet some very nice people that we enjoyed visiting with.  We returned on Friday nite and the joint was rocking - maybe 100 people or so, but mostly locals.  The whole marina area is very cool with a Tiki Bar in the middle of the area.  You can even bring in your own cocktail, how cool is that? We may spend 2 more nites in Oriental if the free city dock opens up.  It only has room for 2 boats like ours and is free for 48 hours.  We will see what happens.  Once somebody leaves then it is first come, first serve.  We will keep our fingers crossed.  Speaking of fingers, mine are getting tired and it is 5 o’clock somewhere - actually right where we are at.

 

The Oriental Marina

Take Care, Jack

 

She Said:  We made it.  We’ve got a few days of the ICW behind us.  With the exception of the weather, I’m happy to say it’s what we hoped for.  There is real “community” of boaters.

 

We got up early, fueled up, pumped out, and hit the water around 8:30am.  As we headed down the ICW we could see a long line of boats (mostly sail) ahead of us.  It’s not bumper-to-bumper traffic – all of the boats leave quite a bit of space between – but we were definitely traveling in a pack which gave me some piece of mind.  I like being in the number four position – if three boats are safe ahead of us it must be OK.  Sailboats need deeper water than we do, so it’s usually safe to follow them

 

One of the many bridges we passed under

 

We were told that the first 12 miles would take us 2.5 hours, and that’s about what it was.  There were a lot of low bridges that we had to cross under – some are almost always up, some go up on request, and some go up on a schedule (usually on the hour and half hour).  We also had one lock.  Fortunately for us, the lock only dropped us about 2 feet so it was a very easy lock to maneuver.  The lock attendants were very helpful and it was pretty much a non-event – it was over before we even noticed that we dropped 2 feet. 

 

This is a single pivot bridge which opened on the half hour and hour

 

We met some boaters in the locks and played follow-the-leader with them for the rest of day.  At one point we were in the number 3 spot.  Boat 1 went in one direction and Boat 2 went in a different direction.  For some reason Jack started to blindly follow Boat 2, but then corrected and got back on course.  Good thing, because we saw Boat 2 head toward the shore, bump bottom, and bounce back into the waterway.  (Everything was OK.)  The total trip was 50 miles from Norfolk to Coinjock, NC.  There are 2 marinas in Coinjock (across the river from one another) and nothing else.  Just about everyone stops at one of the two.  We stayed at Midway Marina and had dinner at Crabby’s.  It was a great place to visit with the other boaters, share stories, and learn from the veterans.

 

Our plan was to anchor out on night two.  We met a couple, John and Debbie, who also planned on anchoring and they invited us to join them.  We were apprehensive about anchoring because we have very little anchoring experience and none of it has been very good.  So anchoring with someone was the perfect solution for us.  The next morning John and Debbie left about an hour before us.  It was a good travel day and they decided to travel farther than we originally planned.  Although it meant a longer travel day than we’re comfortable with, we decided to bite the bullet and travel 85 miles in about 10.5 hours to join them.  As we approached the anchorage area, John and Debbie invited us “raft” with them.  “Rafting” is when one boat anchors and the other boat ties up to the anchored boat.  They joined us for happy hour aboard MTB.  We had a really nice evening with them.

 

We got up early the next morning planning to travel about 50 miles to Oriental.  After checking the weather we decided that we should stay anchored for another night and not deal with the windy conditions.  John and Debbie made the same decision so we stayed rafted with them another day.  After taking care of boat stuff we spent a quiet afternoon on MTB.  That evening we joined John and Debbie for a delicious dinner of homemade soup and fresh baked bread.  Both the food and the evening were excellent.  We did finally depart the next morning for Oriental. 

 

The shore line changed a lot.  This is a marsh area with cypress trees.

 

The ICW is a combination of natural waterways (rivers and sounds) and man-made “cuts.”  So far, the cuts have been the easiest to navigate, the sounds the roughest, and the rivers the most challenging.  The cuts are typically long, straight bodies of water and the depths are pretty consistent so there’s little concern about staying in a particular path.  The natural waterways have fluctuating depths and you really have to pay attention to where you’re going.  The water in the North Carolina ICW looks like tea because of the tannins that are emitted by the cypress trees that line the shores.  (I prefer my tannins in my red wine, thank you.)  The front of the boat has a brown “moustache” stain from the tannins in the water.  Jack cleaned it one day and the guys at the marina told him he was wasting his time; I guess we’ll have to wait until we get into South Carolina before MTB is shiny white again.

 

This is our wake.  Check out the brown color.  This is caused by the tannins.

 

As I’ve said, we like to follow other boats – there’s a sense of security and confidence that comes when traveling with others.  But we have found that if we travel too closely our depth finder signals an alert – which doesn’t instill a sense of security or confidence.  It took us a few unnerving alerts until we figured it out.  Other than those few scares, we arrived in Oriental without incident.  Unfortunately, our docking wasn’t our best effort.  The wind caught us on our first approach and held us against the pilings.  But we didn’t panic and on our second approach we were in like champs.   In our defense, we didn’t see anyone make it in on their first try that day. 

 

Oriental is a small, quaint town and the marina was in the heart of things.  One of our goals while in town was to find a new anchor since we were pretty sure that our anchor was too small for the boat.  After a couple of trips to the marine consignment store we ended up with the perfect anchor.  Not only that, but a couple of fellow boaters helped Jack install the anchor (OK – they did all the work while Jack watched).  So now we not only have a working windlass, but we have an appropriately sized anchor.  Look out anchorages – here we come!

Our first night in Oriental was Jack’s birthday.  There was a cute little Tiki Bar right in front of our boat, but we were so busy working on the anchor that we never got over there for any Birthday Cheer.  We did, however, get to Toucan’s Restaurant.  It didn’t look like much, but we had a fantastic shrimp and scallops dinner.  The scallops were so sweet – awesome!  We met a couple that was in town celebrating their wedding anniversary.  They had never been on a live aboard boat so we invited them back to MTB for a nightcap.  We visited with them until well after midnight.  It was a fun evening and nice celebration for Jack’s birthday.   The next day we finished up chores, bought some shrimp from a local shrimper (we are now in shrimp country – think Forest Gump), provisioned-up for our departure and before we knew it, it was time for dinner.  We stopped in Toucan’s for a quick drink before heading back to MTB for dinner.  The restaurant was full of locals and they all told us about the Halloween party and pig roast the next day.  It was strongly suggested that we stay for the festivities.  If we can get the free dock – we will stay.  Wish us luck!