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| Our view |
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The water at the anchorage bubbles, why??   
These pictures are last looks at the Georgetown.
Another sad deserted boat along the ICW.
These pictures are of one of our favorite places on the ICW, the Waccamaw River.
     
A big bunch of water lilies floating down the ICW.
Really, S C Public Schools, boat??
Wacha Wache\\Marina
Steel Away is usually here when we pass by. Anchored at the entrance to Cow House Creek.
We stopped at Osprey Marina for diesel. I know you've heard it before. But every time we buy diesel, we say we'll never get it this cheap again, and we always do! The first time we bought diesel, over 5 years ago we paid $3.03 and said then, it will never be this cheap again. Every time we pay less than the time before. This was $1.87 a gallon here. Shay says he thinks we've hit the bottom. I hope not. This is a pretty spot that looks like it is in the middle of nowhere, but its only a few miles away from Myrtle Beach and everything.
 
This is a picture of the reflection of the clouds in the water at the marina. It was that calm.
 Leaving the marina, it looks very narrow. You can see another boat waiting to come in. We had to wait for a boat to leave before we came in. Its not wide enough for boats to meet, unless you are two small boats. 
Swing bridge opening for us to pass thru.
Cable cars were stopped, I hope no one was in them.
 Sea Salt at it's summer home.  Silver Boots another DeFever 49 CPMY.  Pirates invade Myrtle Beach  
We have some bad weather following us.
This is why they call it "The Rockpile" on the charts. It's low tide, so you can see the rocks along the sides of the canal. This area of the ICW is a straight ditch dug out of the rock. If a boat wants to pass us in this area, he will have to move over, not us. When the tide is up, these rocks may be covered, but they are still there.
...And the rain caught up with us. We had been watching the weather and thought about speeding up to try and get to the anchorage before the rain. We decided to take it slow and let the weather pass over us and hope it would clear up.
More dredging, that's good.
  
Another swing bridge.
 Shay said it just looks fast.  Not my choice of colors.  
This shrimp boat is grounded right along the side of the ICW at the Little River Inlet. Hope they can get it off.
We have seen this boat at Morehead City.
    
That's Myrtle Beach in the distance
See, we are just over the line.
 I told you we were close to the inlet  ...But not far from civilization!
We left Georgetown at 7:10 am and got to our anchorage at 5:30. Another long day. We traveled almost 9 hours, traveled almost 52nm and went 6.1kts. Other than the rain we had a good trip with calm water. We had lot of jet skies, small fishing boats and fast boats along the way.
When we got here there was a caravan of boats anchored together. A big catamaran in the middle with a sailboat and smaller boat on each side for a total of 5. We thought they would all stay but before dark they were all gone. If we'd known that we would have anchored closer to them to be in a better spot. That's ok, this looks good.
We talked about anchoring just inside the Calabash River. We have talked to others who have anchored there and heard good and bad stories. It looks too narrow for our boat. We like a wide place where we can put out lots of chain and turn a big circle.
Up and out to the ocean at 6:10. There is a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, so we want to get to Wrightsville Beach as soon as possible. We also want to time our Cape Fear Inlet entrance to get some push from the ingoing tide.
   
Myrtle Beach has a golden glow from the sunrise.
Passage
Bald Head Island Lighthouse
 Oak Island   
Ferry taking people to Bald Head Island
Big
Bigger
 Bigger  Biggest    
This is where we exit the ICW, Shinn Creek and go to our anchorage on Banks Channel.
Looking toward Masonboro Inlet
 
And more dredging...that's good.
 We are anchored a little farther down the channel than usual. We have more room here, but it will be a longer dingy ride. Hope we don't have rain.   
Here we are. We left the ICW, headed toward the inlet then made a sharp left turn.
 We will take the dingy to the bridge you see and dock to go to dinner with Lauren. 
You can see the ICW to the left.
You know why we stop in Wrightsville Beach. Yes, our daughter, Lauren lives nearby in Wilmington! Well, we would probably stop if she wasn't here, but not go ashore.
We got here at 1:45 after traveling about 7.5 hours. We traveled over 54nm at 7.1 kts. The first part of our trip was outside in the ocean and it was a very pleasant trip. We went inside at Cape Fear and up the ICW to Wrightsville Beach. We had some push in some places, not in others. We were going 9.8kts thru Snow's Cut, but that didn't last long. We went faster than normal to try and be anchored before any possible afternoon thunderstorms. As soon as we got anchored here I could smell the jasmine. It was great.
We met Lauren at Tower 7 for dinner and a quick visit. I had a few trinkets for her. A watch with exchangeable bands, several tops, a dress and a bracelet. I thought of her as soon as I saw the bracelet in Georgetown. We were in a shop where I got several bracelets for gifts last year. The others were family or spiritual themed. This one had motivational words, like relax, reflect, calm, inspire. She had just told me she had to leave her room and stand in the hallway recently. She said if she'd stayed in the room she would have said something she would have been sorry for. I told her the next time she had to leave the room, she could read her bracelet and calm herself down. She said she needed something. Hope she likes her stash.
We enjoyed spending time with her but headed back to the boat soon, since the weather was iffy. We will leave early in the morning for our last travel day for awhile. Home to Morehead City.
Beautiful moon.
  Shay taking up the anchor, so we can get started. Last time he will do that for a while.  
Swimmers along the docks. This picture was taken at 6:00 am. What time did they get up?
Passing the Coast Guard Station at Wrightsville Beach
 Sunrise starting   
Heading out the inlet
A calm day on the water
Ken, on Tortuga, had been diving off Wrightsville Beach and was headed back to MCYB. He zoomed by at about 25kts. He will get there a lot faster than us. He plans on getting there around noon. We hope to be there by 5.
But we got to see dolphins and he probably zoomed right by them. So...there.
Dolphins
The water was very calm, until we got to the inlet. Shay said he knew it would be rough. The wind was blowing in the inlet and the current was coming out. That equals rough. Well, at least its a short inlet and didn't take long.
Coast Guard Station at Morehead City
 The view off our flybridge  
Escape has returned!
  
We don't have far to go once we get in the inlet. Just around the corner, thru the bridge, and make a hard left.
Our neighbor, the Morehead City Port.
After we got in, it took a while to get settled in. We had to get all the dock lines adjusted, get the power cord plugged in, meet all our old dockmates, the dock guys-Mike and Lee, and the new people on the dock. And then we were tired. We got here at about 5:00 after traveling almost 70nm at 6.5kts for almost 11 hours. The outside passage was a calm one until we got to the inlet.
We were glad the trip was over. We left October 20, 2015 and returned May 24, 2016. We spend almost a month traveling to Vero Beach, got there on November 19, 2015. We stayed there for about 2 months. We had Thanksgiving with the other boaters at the marina, drove back to Mt Airy, NC for Christmas, bought lots of provisions and then waited for a weather window to leave for the Bahamas.
We left Vero and went to Lake Worth to stage for crossing the Gulf Stream and going to Green Turtle Cay, our destination in the Abacos. We left Lake Worth on January 25, 2016 and got to Donny's Dock on January 26, 2016. We spent 3 months at and around Green Turtle Cay. We were with David and Emma on Five Flip Flops and had a great time. We left Green Turtle Cay on April 22, 2016 and got back to Vero Beach April 24, 2016. We spent the next month heading back to MCYB and got here May 24, 2016. We had a great time and are glad to be back so we can see family and friends.
In 7 months, we traveled 1780.42nm, at 6.16kts, getting 2.011nm/gallon. We used 885.10 gallons of diesel with an average of 3.088 gallons/hour.
Travis and Sarah are coming to visit over Memorial Day weekend. So I had to clean up the V-berth and get it ready. Then we spent a day giving Escape a good bath. We don't usually give her a bath when we are away unless we have a good shower like we did in Georgetown. We will wipe things off when we have a heavy dew to try and keep things as clean as we can. She looks good now and ready for company. We will ride back with them and see our friends and family in Mt Airy. It's time!
And don't worry. Shay is already making list of repairs/maintenance that need to be done. He's doing lots of research on his handy-dandy I Pad so he knows all the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos. Seriously we have a lot of stuff to do to get her ready for her next adventure.
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