Myrtle Beach, SC, to New Bern, NC

Docked in front of us at Myrtle Beach was an old, steel trawler that was rather interesting. The gold looper flag was flying on the front of the boat, indicating that the owner(s) had completed the loop. The owner told us that it is an old army boat that had been purchased several years ago and converted to a trawler. The current owner, also named Mike, purchased Mi-T-Mo three years ago from the previous owner. In addition to the looper flag catching our eye, the small SUV that was on the front of the trawler got our attention. They are never without transportation, whether by water or land.

We departed Myrtle Beach at about 8 am, and arrived in Holden Beach, NC, around noon on Friday, 27 April. We were looking forward to spending some time with our old friends, Nick and Maggie Nicholson. Nick and Maggie have a beautiful home in SeaScape, and it is a place that we are considering moving to once we get this boat cruising out of our systems. After all, you have to live somewhere, right? We have known and been friends with the Nicholson’s for over 20 years, and we always enjoy spending time with them.

We stayed in a slip at SeaScape Marina thanks to friends of Nick and Maggie (and now us), who own a home in the SeaScape community, Jim and LaDonna, who graciously allowed us to put IRISH AYES in their slip for a few days.

On Sunday (29 April), we and the Nicholsons loaded the bicycles in their van and headed to Southport, NC. We took the ferry from Southport to Fort Fisher, located on Kure Beach, NC. While traveling on the ferry across to Fort Fisher, we watched passengers feed the birds from the bow of the boat. The birds would take the food right out of the hand of the guy feeding them. Fort Fisher was an important military fort during the Civil War, and is a very interesting place to visit. We toured the Aquarium located on the island, and then took a short bike ride to the Fort Fisher Civil War Museum.

On Monday evening we had dinner with Jim Dulaney, who is a member of our Yacht Club in Knoxville who now lives in Raleigh. He and his wife Lori and their two boys have a house on a canal in Holden Beach, and Jim gave us a tour of their house before going to dinner. They have a good view of the ICW and can watch the “snowbirds” come and go on the ICW. Unfortunately, Lori and the boys were not able to make it to Holden Beach, so we hope to see them, as well as Jim, the next time we are in the area.

On Tuesday, 1 May, we left SeaScape Marina at 7:20 a.m., with Nick and Maggie joining us on this leg of the trip. We had a beautiful day for cruising, but it was a long day, about 80 miles. Along the way, we kept hearing on the radio that military exercises were going to be conducted in the vicinity of Camp Lejeune, NC., a massive Marine Corps Base that straddles the ICW. The exercises were scheduled for the next several days, and the only time we would be able to pass through the exercise area would be from noon to 1:00pm, so we traveled as far as we could on Tuesday before anchoring for the night close enough to the exercise area that we could get through it before 8am in the morning when they closed down the ICW for the exercise.

We anchored at a place called Mile Hammock Bay, which is an anchorage in a harbor located within the military boundaries of the Marine Base, which made for an interesting night with Marines on amphibious war machines (that came and went right behind our boat), helicopters and other aircraft operating through the night. As usual, it was VERY windy while trying to anchor, plus the anchorage was almost full when we arrived about 4:30 p.m. Once we finally got the anchor set, an engine room check was conducted and Mike realized that we had a problem with the starboard engine water pump. Salt water was spewing from the water pump into the bilge, and that is NEVER a good thing. In addition to having salt water by the tens of gallons in the bilge, Mike discovered that the salt water had gotten on, and inside his tool box, so he removed all the tools and Nick and Maggie rinsed, cleaned and dried all the tools, and he has a bunch! Now are they good friends, or what !!

Now comes the fun, or exciting part. We were anchored in the back part of a small cove with a very narrow, and shallow, opening. Getting out of a crowded anchorage early in the morning is always a challenge, but trying to do it with one engine at idle speed is not an option. Why you ask, when at least half the boats in the world only have one engine and they do just fine? Well grasshopper, it has to do with the fact that twin engines on a boat are not in the center of the boat, as are single engines. They are offset, one on the port side and one on the starboard side, hence their names, port or starboard engine. Running a twin engine boat with only the port engine (that’s the one on the left side of the boat) makes the boat turn right-hand circles, and at idle speed the rudders won’t steer the boat, so you just go in circles. I won’t go into the physics of that, but, suffice it to say, we were not getting out of that anchorage with only the port engine. Well, after much thought, Mike and Nick came up with a temporary fix that would allow us to use both engines to exit the anchorage. Once in the ICW channel we could then shut down the starboard engine. And yes, it worked just fine.

Once out of the anchorage we made our way to Beaufort (pronounced Boofort), NC, about a 45 mile trip, on one engine. We cranked up the starboard engine just long enough to land the boat on the Beaufort Dock, and tied up for the night. Wouldn’t you believe it, of all the spare parts Mike has on the boat, he didn’t have the parts he needed to fix the water pump, so he called the local Caterpillar repair shop, and literally within 10 minutes the repairman was there to fix it. They overnight shipped the parts in, and the next morning the pump was fixed and we were on our way to New Bern, NC, by noon on Thursday, 3 May.

Brian and Frannie on ENDEAVOR and Tom and Paula on HOME AWEIGH were at Beaufort Docks while we there. Brian and Frannie joined us Wednesday evening for drinks and dinner in historic Beaufort. We had a delicious meal and an enjoyable evening.

We arrived at the Sheraton Sky Sail Marina, in New Bern, at about 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 3 May. Nick and Maggie were heading to the airport to pick up a rental car they had prearranged, and we were hoping to see our friends Jim and Mary Milner, who were meeting us in New Bern on their boat, which is a “Sister Ship” to IRISH AYES, a 1986 Gulfstar 44 named ALTAIR. As we were tying up our boat, who should walk down the dock toward their boat? Yep, it was Jim and Mary, who had just returned from their home in Maryland. By coincidence, they had a rental car from Hertz that needed to be returned to the airport, and since Nick and Maggie were going to Hertz at the airport too, it all worked out just fine. So, we said goodbye to Nick and Maggie, and hello to Jim and Mary.

We didn’t intend to spend and entire week in New Bern, but after a couple of days here, the winds on the Atlantic Coast kicked up to dangerous velocities, over 80 knots off the NC coast and blowing over 50 knots here at the marina, we decided to stay put until the weather system blew itself out, which took about three days. We spent the time resting, visiting with Jim and Mary, and looking at homes in the area that are for sale. One of our objectives of this trip is to decide where we want to live in retirement, so looking at homes, and prices, in various places will give us a better perspective. New Bern is certainly a possibility. It’s a beautiful area, housing prices are pretty reasonable, and the people we have met are very friendly. We could live here. We have had a great time here, especially visiting with our friends Jim and Mary. Thursday (10 May), we move on up the coast toward the Chesapeake. Stay tuned.