Leaving Cape Fear and heading to Enterprise Creek

We had planned to leave at a time to get a push from the out going tide. And we did. The morning was overcast and breezy, with temperatures in the mid 60's. We had a great push all the way down the Cape Fear River until we passed by the inlet. We probably got an average of 2-2.5kts with a peak of over 4. The fastest speed we saw was 11.6kts and we should have been going about 7kts without the push! We loved it. But on the other side of the inlet, we were running against the outgoing tide and that slowed us down. Well, you win some and you loose some!

Big freighter loading up its cargo.

That's a lot of cargo!

Another freighter heading to Wilmington

 

We knew we had some skinny water to go thru today. Lockwood Folly and Shallotte Inlet are tricky places. We could see a sailboat that was grounded at Lockwood Folly, but he looked like he was outside the channel. We bumped a little as we passed thru but made it ok. The guy on the sailboat was out in his dingy getting water depth readings around his boat. There were several small fishing boats close by and we couldn't understand why they weren't trying to help the sailboat. Hope he got moving without problems.

Sailboat aground. See, he's outside the reds.

We see this boat here every year. Getting sadder and sadder.

We had a long day and got to our anchorage about 5:30. We are anchoring in a new anchorage behind Bird Island and are not sure about how it will go. The wind has picked up and that could complicate things. We will leave the ICW and head out the Little River Inlet toward the ocean. We had no problems getting to the anchorage and anchoring. We had a rocky night with the wind and current. There are not many anchorages along this area of the ICW and this is an ok anchorage, especially if the weather is calmer.

Not much to see here

 

 

You can see from these pictures, that we were very close to the inlet. We were also very close to the state line. We were in NC, but could see the lights of Myrtle Beach.

We left Wilmington at 10:10 and got to the anchorage at 5:30. We traveled over 7 hours at an average of 7.2kts and traveled about 52 nm.

The weather for the next few days is calling for cool and rainy. We talked about staying here for a day or two or moving farther down the ICW. We checked the weather the next day and decided we would travel today and hope the rain held off. 

We left Bird Island about 8:00. It was a very windy day and we expected we'd have problems getting the anchor up but things went smoothly. We saw lots of stuff in the water today. Logs, planks, and junk. We had to be very careful and watch the water to make sure we didn't hit anything. The water level is really up today. We have seen lots of flooding along the water. Docks under water, water in yards and even some in houses and restaurants.

The gambling boat is still there!

These docks are in bad shape

 

We saw boards from this dock floating in the water

The Coast Guard warned boaters to use idle speed to prevent more water damage to the properties.

We have seen lots of new houses since our first trip on the waterway near Myrtle Beach. When we first started traveling up and down the waterway there were a lot fewer houses. Each year we see more and more new construction.

We usually see rocks in the water here. It's known as the "Rockpile". The water had them completely covered.

 

We had a rainy day with temperatures in the mid 60's again. We got to our anchorage about 1:00. We traveled about 5 hours at 6.6kts and traveled 32 nm.

We anchored in Enterprise Creek. We have anchored here before and know its a good anchorage. The creek is part of the Waccamaw River and its beautiful. It's quiet and peaceful. Being here makes you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere, but when you look at the maps, you see we are not that far from civilization.

Anchorage gone bad!

 

I love the old trees here

And the water lilies

 

See, we look like we are in the middle of nowhere, but there's stuff around.

 

 

 

This is our trip from Little River to Enterprise.

Shay noticed our synchronizer wasn't working today. The synchronizer enable you to use one throttle to control both engines. So when we got to our anchorage he went to the engine room, messed around, and as usual got it fixed. He is a master fixer! I keep telling people, if he couldn't keep things going on the boat like he does, we would not be able to do what we do. If he wasn't a fixer, we'd have to pay for a marina to stay at while having repairs done, paid for an unknown repairmen to fix it, and paid for parts we probably didn't need. If you know Shay, you know he can fix things.

We decided we'd stay here another day since it was calling for rain. I worked on the blog, read and relaxed. Shay researched stuff on the internet.

We checked the tides and current and decided if we left around 10:00, we'd get a good push down the river.