35°2′3″ N 76°37′28″ W
Photo Below: Ed at the helm on the Neuse River, NC – 10:30am

We left Morehead City this morning at 7:00am & headed north on the ICW. Our route today took us inland away from Cape Hatteras. We followed a canal (photo below) for about 10 miles before entering the Neuse River.

The canal was a mixture of wilderness shoreline & then a mile or two of side by side houses & cottages. We did not meet any boats at all for the entire trip through the canal.

Today our destination is Belhaven, NC. The Waterway Guide Book says that this community is considered by many to be the origin of the ICW.

While we are on the Neuse River we are headed directly towards the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river. However, we will “hang a left turn” at another river outlet before we reach the ocean. Then we will start heading inland again. I took the screenshot below with my iPhone & Google Maps to give you an idea of where we are at the time of this posting.

The blue dot on the map near Oriental, NC is our current location

You can see Morehead City in the bottom left corner & Belhaven, our destination up near the top of the map on the left side.

Cheers!

34°43′10″ N 76°42′12″ W

We arrived at Morehead City at 4:15pm. Our journey today took 9 1/2 hours to travel about 59 nautical miles.

We are now 209 nm from ICW mile “0”, which is in Norfolk VA.

Today was a pretty easy day with great weather & mostly sunny skies.

The waterways have widened out a lot (photo above) but the channels are still very narrow & the water is only a few feet deep after you leave the channel (photo below).

It’s not uncommon for us to see someone standing in the water only a hundred meters away from us & that person had to walk about 300-400 meters from the shore to get there.

The temperature & humidity have dropped so it is much more comfortable through the day while we are traveling & for sleeping in the night as well.

Ed & I celebrated our accomplishment today by going out for supper to a local seafood restaurant called “Sanitary Seafood” & then we stopped at the local ice cream shop for dessert.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get to Belhaven NC, which is about 61 nm from Morehead City.

Cheers!

34°23′10″ N 77°38′16″ W

At 4:30 yesterday afternoon we arrived at Harbor Village Marina, our destination for the day.

We lost almost an hour on the way because two of the bridges that we had to pass under only opened on the hour & we arrived at each one at about 25 minutes too early. All we could do was go into a holding position until the bridge was ready to open.

Oh well, this is life in the slow lane – need to remember to spontaneously chill in order to stay sane.

During the last 90 minutes of our journey we were being chased by a rainstorm that was just off the coast. Fortunately we made it to the marina before any rain came & by the time we were tied up securely to the dock the sun came out & it got hot!

We checked with the marina manager about nearby shopping & restaurants but the closest place was 6 miles away. So, home cooking again tonight!

I put Ed in charge of the BBQ while I made potato salad. It’s amazing how you can work up an appetite while just sitting down & watching the world go by for 6-8 hours at a time.

Last night was the first night we were able to leave the air conditioner turned off & sleep with all the windows open. It was very refreshing after so many days of hot, muggy weather.

We have also noticed that the vegetation along the shoreline looks much more like what we see at home. There are no more “wild” palm trees & lots more low scrub brushes & deciduous trees.

This morning when I went up to the flybridge to get ready for the day’s journey I discovered that we had another passenger on board.

That has got to be THE biggest fly I have ever seen! He must have just flew in from Texas!

I put the tablespoon down beside him so you could get some perspective. I don’t know if this kind bites & I sure don’t want to find out.

We left the dock at 6:45am this morning & headed north east on the ICW towards a beautiful sunrise. Our course today will be another 59 nautical miles & the chart plotter tells me that we will arrive at our destination around 4:00pm this afternoon.

This morning we saw several Ospreys nesting on the channel markers. The birds build their nests in between the sign board on each side of the post – so you can’t really tell if there’s a nest until you are right beside the marker. We missed several opportunities for great photos with 2-3 birds on the nest. I finally managed to get a photo of one with my iPhone but could not zoom in very close.

Cheers everyone!

33°55′2″ N 78°1′41″ W

Southport Marina, NC

We left Southport at 8:30am this morning & are headed to a marina near Topsail Island.

The first portion of our journey today is heading up the Cape Fear River. We picked the “wrong” time to start because the tide was going out & we were “climbing the hill” with both the river current & the tide working against us. Our speed was limited to 2 knots or less for over an hour. Thankfully the tide is now entering slack period so we only have the river current to contend with. Our speed has now doubled to 4 knots!

Ed & I have been taking turns at the helm. Traveling at slow speed for hours in end is not physically hard but it can be tiring, always on the watch to make sure we stay on course & avoid other traffic-especially big guys like this!

This barge was being pushed by a tug that had New York City as its home port.

Traveling in busy boating parts of the ICW can also be frustrating at times. Earlier today a big tourist sightseeing boat went past us without cutting his speed & the wake he pushed on our little boat made us rock ‘n roll pretty heavily. The photo below of the galley afterwards shows the results of our bumpy ride. Thankfully we were not hurt & nothing was broken.

We are now about 90 minutes away from our next destination & approaching a swing bridge. Better go for now.

Cheers!

On Monday we departed North Myrtle Beach & headed for Southport. This would be a 5-6 hour journey, depending upon the tides & river currents.

The weather was overcast & some light rain was predicted but conditions were fine for traveling on the ICW.

The LCD TV monitor that I have at the helm station on the fly bridge works great with my TIKI Navigation system but it is not weatherproof. My solution for that was to purchase a clear plastic table covering from Walmart & fashion it into an envelope that covers the entire unit & protects it from the rain. We sealed the edges with clear Gorilla tape. It worked out great & we can see the charts on the monitor with no problem at all.

This setup may not look very elegant but it gets the job done & it should get us home to Ontario. I’ll have lots of time this winter to come up with a more permanent & better looking solution.

This was Ed’s first day on the water with me so I spent time getting him familiar with the boat & it’s systems. Ed has been boating & sailing for many years so he was right up to speed in no time at all & he looked after the helm for most of the day.

A lot of the ICW on this part of our journey is heavily developed so we spent a lot of time admiring the homes & boats along the shorelines.

Some of the homeowners are very creative in personalizing their properties. The home in the photo above has a “picnic” shelter on its dock that is made to look like the back deck of a large sport fishing boat. Very nicely done!

We also saw a few fixer-uppers along the way…. wonder what their story is?

We arrived at the marina in Southport in mid afternoon & immediately saw that we were in high-roller country & we tied up just behind one of the big boys. I took the photo below just after sunset.

She’s a beauty! I was thinking about inviting her captain owner to my boat to show him my upper helm monitor innovation but they seemed to be pretty busy scrubbing & polishing so Ed & I focused on our plans for the next day.

Cheers!