St James Plantation Marina - at a dock

The ICW from here south is lined with communities built from the ground up, very attractive  but they don't move...

This morning was really rainy and windy. I woke up and took a shower, then we went off. I was cold this morning with my RE Mayo's sweatshirt, blanket, and I took a little nap. We did some school work and I read a lot of my book, am on page 35. We went over some waves that were really big that was fun. Then we went in a narrow channel to the marina, I helped tie the stern line to the cleat. I curled up the ropes and I had really long lines too. The cleat next to the step had the longest  line and it made a rug. We have a cord that plugs in to a post that lets us have light with out saving. It got really hot it's 83 here, there are also palm trees in North Carolina. Then Grandpa and I went on a walk, we saw really pretty houses. I really like the houses with all of the windows, and doors. I also had to get all the water out of the dink, there is a special pump. We also walked Hoolie down this type of boardwalk at the beginning of the marina. We are having chicken for dinner and am going to watch TV because am tired bye.  Sarah

Sarah's daily job when we dock

There were two bridges ahead of us this morning and one only opened on top of the hour, ugh! So to prevent too much waiting we had to leave at 15 minutes past the hour to make the first bridge which set up the timing so we could make the second bridge on top of the hour. North Carolina has the most inconvenient bridge schedule anywhere on the ICW. We delayed our departure from 8:15 to 9:15 in the hopes that the rain clouds would pass by, no such luck. We left at 9:15 in a pouring rain. Our waterproofing of the bimini proved sound and it didn't leak but the plastic window (to see the mainsail) in the bimini did leak, more work to do there. 

Sarah's favorite house, she liked the stone tower

So it rained for about two hours solid. We put the box heater in the cockpit aimed at the dodger plastic window to fend off the fog so we could see well enough. We had to run the box heater off the Prosine inverter on power supplied by the engine alternator. It all balanced out in amps swapped and it kept the view clear. 

Eventually the sun came out and the rains stopped. We raced down Cape Fear River at 10.5 kts on an outgoing tide, the fastest trips we've ever made on the river and arrived at St James Plantation Marina at 3:45. We have a docking routine that Sarah has fit into. She handles the aft lines, I handle the mid and forward lines while Ann is at the helm. She comes up to the dock, throws it in reverse and I step off to secure the lines while Sarah loops the aft dock cleat, all done. Later Sarah curls the dock lines so Fleetwing looks spiffy. 

One note about yesterday morning at Morehead City, with the 15 kt wind pushing us against the dock and nowhere to go forward, the only option was to back out after the maneuver outlined in the first paragraph of "ICW - Some Tips" in the left column on the blog. Knowing how to do this is essential on the ICW. There will always be situations where you need to leave the dock in difficult situations. It's actually easy to do but you have to practice. 

On Tuesday we're headed for Barefoot Landing Marina for a few days' rest and to let the high tides catch up with us so we can take advantage of them through the upcoming shallow spots.