May 27th Memorial Day- Carolina Beach, NC

In the beginning of May we quickly made it down the Florida coast to St Augustine. We stayed an extra day in St Augustine due to weather. We used the facilities at the marina but didn’t go into town. I’ll have to get my Minorcan chowder next time.

We found out that our friends on S/V Shanks Mare were also moored in St Augustine so we made loose plans to cruise along together up the coast.

After St Augustine we made a long run down to Georgia. Evergreen then made quick stops at Cumberland Island and the Duplin River. These were just overnight stops to get Ollie a little exercise.

We found out that we were about to have some more adverse weather moving in. Shanks Mare was planning on holing up in Kilkenny Creek and Evergreen decided to do the same. We hadn’t been into Kilkenny Creek since our first trip in 2019. It’s very rustic with big beautiful live oak trees. The additional benefit is that those same trees block the worst of the wind.

We spent an extra day on Kilkenny Creek to wait out the weather. There were breaks in the rain so we were able to dinghy over to the marina and fill up some diesel cans.

Next we crossed into South Carolina. We anchored in Bull Creek for a night then finished the run up to Beaufort SC. Beaufort is one of our favorite stops on the trip so regardless of weather we were planning on staying an extra day. Luckily, this turned into three extra days due to another round of storms rolling through. If you are going to be stuck somewhere it might as well be a great city like Beaufort!

We stocked up on groceries, fuel, booze, and water. There is an excellent Olive Oil store in town so we got refills of some favorites. They didn’t have our Coratina but we did get an excellent Portuguese oil. We found out that there is a local distillery that makes an award winning gin so we added that to our liquor cabinet. The Admiral is a fan of gin and I get extra points for walking a mile or two to get the gin. Shanks Mare had us over for tomato pie and we had a great evening with excellent food (gin) and conversation. We also picked up a tomato pie so had pie for several meals. Do I get tired of Tomato pie after a few days of it? No!

Also while in Beaufort Shanks Mare got in touch with the crew of S/V Pegu Club who are currently living on Lady’s Island. We all got together for tacos at a restaurant called Lost Local. They have a unique and creative take on tacos. What a good restaurant! It’s now on THE LIST. It was great to see the crew of Pegu Club. We met them on our first trip and occasionally have shared a harbor together.

Beaufort was a fun and relaxing stop. We needed to recharge our batteries (not the big boat batteries – they are fine). It was good for morale and kept the specter of mutiny at bay.

 

After Beaufort we anchored on Steamboat Creek. The next day we were up before dawn for the long run down to Awendaw Creek.

At Awendaw, the next morning, we woke to dense fog so waited for it to burn off. We were under way by 8:30 and hit the shallows of McClellanVille around high tide. It seems like it’s always low tide when I go through there so it was a nice change. Eventually we pointed up the Waccamaw River and ended our day anchored in Thorofare Creek.

 

This day was an odd one. We had different plans than Shanks Mare but our plans merged together and then everything was upended. To start the day the swing bridge at Socastee was broken. This was a big problem as we were stuck on the river and couldn’t continue north without backtracking down Winyah bay and taking the ocean route. Eventually a mechanic got the bridge open and we were able to pass through. At that point I was planning on stopping at Bird Island on Little River. The problem with that plan was I wouldn’t make the flood tide up the Cape Fear river the next day. When we got to the area around Bird Island we all decided to just keep going. We were using the favorable current we had along with engine and sails to move Evergreen at flank speed. We needed to cover 70 nautical miles to get to the anchorage I was looking at, the Pipeline Basin in Southport. We’ve been in there a few times and need daylight and a rising tide to get in. Soon after passing Bird Island Shanks Mare’s transmission gave out! The engine was still running but it couldn’t turn the propeller. They drifted on under sail. We dropped our sail and stayed behind them to divert traffic and assist if needed. They were able to get everything under control and contacted a towing service to get them to a yard for repairs. We charged off toward Southport and dropped the anchor just before sunset.

This brings us to Carolina Beach and Memorial Day weekend. On Friday we made the short run from Southport to Carolina Beach. We were able to get a mooring reservation and the entire harbor is a no wake zone. The rule is enforced and most people go slow. Just north of here is Wrightsville Beach which is always a little crazy at the best of times. Many, many, small boats are always zipping along and few seem to know anything about safe navigation. Well, it’s Memorial Day weekend. The big start of summer. We are actually hiding in Carolina Beach. This is another good stop for us anyway. Ollie loves the beach. We like the North End Cafe and Blackburn Brothers seafood. We’ve been having shrimp or fish every night. We tried to get some donuts from Britt’s. Apparently they have the best donuts around and are famous. Famous enough that there was a line of about 100 people outside the donut shop when we stopped by. We’ll have to get our donuts another day.

Tomorrow we’ll be sailing north again.