Entries about pink house

Thursday 8 November 2001 continued

Bogue Sound is very shallow, so in order for there to be 12 feet (the controlling depth), they have dredged the Bogue Inlet Canal and put the spoil over on the port side forming some little islands.

Early morning reflections near Swansboro

Spoil Islands in Bogue Sound

It is very peaceful here in the morning. We are headed for Hampstead which is about the only place we can stop between the Swansboro/Morehead/Beaufort area and Southport. On these winter days, the sun is setting early in the SW - that means the sun is in our eyes from about 3:00 on. So we like to start early and stop early.

We pass the Pink House.

The Pink House

There are fishermen with little skiffs like this shrimping (casting nets) in the sounds and rivers. We can hear the shrimp clicking through the hull at night.

Shrimp fisherman

From MM 235 to 245 - the ICW runs through the Camp LeJeune Marine Corps base, and they occasionally conduct drills on the firing range which will close the ICW to traffic when they are using live ammunition. Listen to AM radio for information. There is also a sign at the beginning of the stretch that goes through the base. There were no drills today

The website says:

"Camp Lejeune occupies 170 square miles, (111,000 acres), including 14 miles of beach front along the Atlantic Ocean. With 54 live firing ranges, 15 major training/maneuvering areas subdivided into 56 individual training and maneuvering sections with 34 gun positions, 23 tactical landing zones, 26 administrative landing zones, 12 parachute drop zones and a "Military Operations in Urban Terrain" or MOUT training complex.

S/V Rosalie from S/V RosalieAnn

At MM 240 is the the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge. The bridge is run by the Marines. We reached here by 9:30.

Going through the Onslow Beach bridge

Looking back at the Onslow Beach bridge

BEAU caught up to us by the time we were going through the Surf City Swing Bridge.

Surf City Bridge

The bridge tender’s house is on the shore side instead of in the middle of this bridge as some of them are.

Surf City Bridge

BEAU was the last boat through the bridge as it was swinging shut.

Surf City bridge swinging shut

Fixed bridge

Beau catching up

Beau passing us

We went to Harbor Village Marina (MM 266), after playing leapfrog with BEAU and ROSALIE all day. This marina was dredged out of existing land fairly recently, so the chart doesn't show the location yet.

Marina location on the chart

it is a flat $1.20/ft. They have laundry (closed and locked after 7 pm) and shower facilities, and email in a boaters lounge (also locked at 7 pm) but it is a long walk (about a quarter mile) around to the boaters lounge building with the bathrooms.

The only problem we've had with this marina in the past is the fact that it is a LONG walk to the bathrooms from the transient slips. They don't want you to do any discharge into the marina, but it's impossible to get up and walk to their bathroom in the middle of the night.

Today however was NOT GOOD.

We got there while the manager was not there. He promised that someone would be there to help us dock, but while the manager is away, the dock hands slack off. It is difficult to get into the transient slips in a south wind (which we often have), and the marina manager keeps his boat on the gas dock where it is in the way if your boat is blown around.

They assigned us slip A14. Unfortunately A14 had been almost completely wiped out yesterday or the day before by some incompetent, and the float at the end of the floating dock was knocked into the A14 slip. There was no dock help and the piece of float sticking out apparently took a large gouge out of our boat. Bob was upset particularly because when he told the marina employee about the dock that was damaged, the marina boy acted as though it was an over-reaction. And the marina manager was more upset because there was no one there to handle the dock lines. He refunded our dockage fees

This is a very isolated marina and there is nothing around to walk to. They used to let you have the marina truck after hours to go to get food. Otherwise you have to eat on the boat or get take-out and have it delivered. We nearly always get Chinese delivered from Panda when we are there. I got General Tsu's Chicken ($7.25 with white rice as a single entree) and Bob usually gets Sweet and Sour Pork.

After looking at it, Bob says the 'gash' in the boat was just rubber off the dock pressed into the side of the boat. He used a scotchbrite pad and scrubbed it off. The only damage was that some of the protective polymer that we put on the boat to make the fiberglass shiney (sort of like a wax) was removed.

Cleaned off gash - light line on the side of the boat

It did look real bad. Like about 5 feet cut along the side of the boat. But it wasn't really that bad.

Friday 9 Nov 2001

Today we expect to be south of Southport. We got underway before 7. We left early to get through two bridges and get to Snow's Cut when the current won't be against us.

The two bridges that are about 5 miles apart. We normally travel about 5 knots or 6 mph. The first bridge - the Figure 8 bridge opens on the hour and half hour. The second bridge - the Wrightsville bridge - opens only on the hour. Last year we got from the Figure 8 bridge (which is a private bridge and only people who have passes to that island can go over it by car) to the Wrightsville Bridge in 1/2 hour. Therefore, I was convinced that the distance was mis-measured.

Figure 8 Swing Bridge

As before, we went through the Figure 8 bridge on the half hour. We reached the half mile from the Figure 8 bridge marker at 8:29. Also there with us was FAIRWIND (a clueless green ketch - probably an Irwin), trawlers OUTBOUND and GALLEY HO, JAZZEBELLE a big new sailboat from Canada and GALLIVANT (a *large* motor yacht from Palm Beach). All had been at Harbor Village last night with us. We all were through the bridge by 8:33.

We come down to the Wrightsville Beach bridge assisted by the current at 6.5 knots, but we don't get there in time for the 9:00 opening. Neither do the others in our group except for GALLIVANT which was speedier. So we slacked off.

Waiting for the Wrightsville Beach bridge

Suddenly at 9:11, the Wrightsville Beach bridge tender announced "I have a maintenance opening, and if all you sailboats get up here, you can go through". We could see a person in a Tyvek suit running around on the bridge, and then the cars stopped and the bridge raised. We were all through the bridge (in spite of FAIRWINDS getting crossways in the channel and blocking everyone) by 9:16. The distance between the bridges was actually 4.7 miles and not 5, but it wasn't as much of a difference as I thought.

FAIRWINDs went into Wrightsville Beach, and we went on down and through Snow's Cut and continued down the Cape Fear River by Sunny Point Army Munitions Depot. The Coast Guard Auxiliary boat was patrolling to see that we didn't get too close, and a sports fisher that did the CG Auxiliary apparently called the CG who went after them.

Sunny Point Army Munitions Depot

There was a boat named CORNHUSKER STATE with multiple streams of water pouring out of it at the pier apparently being loaded with explosives - we decided that the water was some type fire suppression system.

Tanker going down the river

We saw a bald eagle on a piling south of the depot, and then saw the Ft. Fisher automobile ferries and went past Southport.

Fort Fisher - Southport Ferry

[The first year we came south (2000), we stopped at Bald Head instead of Southport, and also stopped there on the way back. This time we went past Southport to South Harbor Village. We didn't actually STOP at Southport until April 2002.]

Southport shore

Pier

At about 1:40, we came into the South Harbor Marina at MM 311.4. We saw BEAU in a Southport marina as we passed.

Southport Marina

The South Harbor Village marina was not even open until June 2001, so it wasn't there when we came up last time. Their transient overnight fee is $1.00/ft, $3.00 for 30 amp and $5.00 for 50 amp. They have only ONE washer and one dryer and showers but only ONE per sex, and they also serve as bathrooms for the restaurant - there is no lock on the doors. There is a deli but the only thing they have there (according to Bob) is meat for sandwiches. There is also a *small* store and a bed and breakfast. They have a courtesy phone and an internet connection which is open only while the office is open. Cable TV is free as is water.

It was a former menhaden plant. They have a long face dock on the waterway and put transients inside and outside on the face dock. There are slips sticking out into the basin from one end of the face dock, and two sections in the basin and one section at the far end of the face dock. There is a grass lump used to be under the old menhaden boat docks where they unloaded their catch. That docks don't go out as far in that area.

Marina location on the chart

The stack on the chart is one of the old processing stacks and isn't there anymore.

They wanted us to come in and tie port side to, which necessitated getting into the dock with the port side next to the inside which should have been easy. Unfortunately the boat only backs to starboard and the wind was carrying us away from the dock.

As we tried to turn to make another pass, the current caught us and carried us sideways down the fairway. As Bob tried to regain control without running aground on the grass lump or hitting anyone else's boat, the dock master and other boaters ran up and down the piers trying to decide where we'd end up. Eventually at the end of the dock, the cross dock lessened the current, and Bob was able to back all the way back up to the entrance and make a better approach - starboard side to.

We tied up after 43.8 miles or a total of 393 nautical miles for the trip. The dockmaster's comment was - I guess I forgot to mention that we have current.

There are six various sized sailboats on the inside of the transient dock which is 500 feet I think With us were HARMONY (Denise and Jim) who keep their boat at Solomons, ROB'S JUL (Rob whose wife's name is Julie, CJ VI (Canadian), ADANACO (which is O Canada backwards) and PENELOPE JANE (also from Canada).

The fuel is not particularly cheap. They are getting it for 67 cents (diesel) and selling it for $1.09. (Lucette signed for a fuel delivery when she was up doing email.)

We ate dinner at the Fish Factory restaurant, which was the only restaurant that was open in the complex at the time and there's nothing else around there. We ate upstairs - it was too dark to see much outside. The website says:

"Family fare and waterfront dining is our trademark. Choose from prime rib or fresh shrimp, oysters, or scallops in season. Unmatched waterfront views overlooking the intracoastal waterway just one mile south of Southport."

Lucette left and went to the market with the marina manager, so she didn't get to eat any dinner before she left as the meal hadn't come yet.The dinner for the two of us was $38.14. I'm not sure what we ate - the food was OK The grocery store is 2-6 miles a way. Dockmaster said 2, but my Lucette said it was more like 6.

Lucette and I have discovered independently that if we flush the toilet at night without turning on the lights that we can see phosphorescence.