Cape Fear River -- How I Loathe Thee

The Cape Fear area has smitten me again..

I've made I think 5 trips along the Cape Fear River thus 10 legs. Of those 10 legs only 2 can be called enjoyable.

We had a great run on Wednesday from Osprey MArina to Pipeline Canal near Southport, NC. We had the current with us most of the day. A great feeling after that SLOW passage from Georgetown to OSprey the day before. We left Osprey early and had the hook down in Pipeline just 6 hours later. It was nice there in spite of the small boat traffic to the public launch ramp. The evening was fine and settled and we got off before 6:30am the following day to run the Cape FEar. Forecast was for wind 10 - 15NE and 2 hours of a favorable current. NOT! As we approached the Cape FEar near Southport we felt the wind gusts. We entered the Cape FEar and had 20-25 kts of wind on the nose and the current had already changed. We were doing about 4.2kts and taking spray over the bow. I put up with that for about 10 minutes then turned around and went back to Pipeline Canal to wait for the current to change and the wind to lie down. Low tide was about 11:15am so we waited to nearly 1pm to leave on the rising tide with about 2 feet of tide up. The Canal looked fine with 8 - 10 feet of water. I expected no problem leaving the shallow mouth when suddenly we hit hard on I suspect the submerged dam which should have had 2 feet of water over it. Man we were stuck. We tried to power forward and back to no avail. Seatow went by with grins on their face -- I suspect they were awaiting an assistance call. I put out some sail but could not move the rudder. Why was it stuck!! I horsed it and then set the autopilot and we both went to the bow of the boat to take pressured off the rudder. We had some passing boat wake and then after 10 m minutes we got off. However -- the autopilot would no longer lock down.. Damn.. Something must have stripped in it.

I checked the bilge and it was dry. I checked the bilge cycle counter than rechecked several times and it had not run. Fortunately we were not taking on water. We finally entered the Cape Fear River with the wind blowing 15 - 20kts and some robust waves but our speed over ground was 6.8 kts with the current. We sailed on and arrived tired and broken in Wrightsville around 5:30pm. Man it was packed but we found a nice anchor spot.

Friday we just stayed put and relaxed some. I checked over the steering gear and the Autopilot. The linear drive was definitely free wheeling now. It will have to be disassembled to determine the extend of the damage. Damn...

We enjoyed Wrightsville and walked the beach. It was crowded for a Friday afternoon with mostly 20 something students. A far cry for all the old folks we have been rubbing elbows with these last 7 months.

I bought some fresh shrimp from Motts Sea Food and had a great snack.

This morning we left early like 6:20am to make the Wrightsville BEach Bascule bridge and catch the current to Figure Eight Island Bridge. Boy that worked nicely. The Wrightsville open on demand and we hit the Figure Eight with only 10 minutes to kill. We then had the current with us all day probably averaging 7kts over ground. We hit the Surf City bridge with 25 minutes to kill but a barge came along and they opened early. Then on to mile Hammock Bay but we were going to cross the NEw River Inlet near Low Tide -- not good. Especially since we were having a spring tide due to New Moon and the tide was going to be nearly a foot under the Mean Lower Low Water. We arrived about 1 hour before low tide. Two trawlers had gone through about 20 minutes before us and I called them to see what they had seen. They saw the shallowest was 7 feet. I thought about stopping at the Swan Point Marin but it looked really run down. We ran the Inlet. And to my surprise by staying about 60 - 80 feet to the green side of the red can buoys I saw nothing less that 8.9 feet.

We entered Mile Hammock Bay early like 12 noon but that was due to the favorable current and hitting the bridges just right.

We are the first boat in the anchorage today and will enjoy this. Tomorrow we leave about high tide and will run the troublesome Browns Inlet with nearly high tide water -- hope it is enough.

As a note -- I wanted to dive on the keel of the boat at Wrightsville but the water was too opaque to make it worth while. Since we are not taking on water it will hold to we haul the boat in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow we hope to make Cedar Creek Anchorage and Northwest Creek Marina -- home port -- Monday morning.

Wish us luck.