Monday, October 10, 2016

St James Plantation - The ICW is closed!

Ann took a much better photo than I did yesterday at the butterfly garden
The news on the ICW was all bad today. North of us the routes south were both closed. The Dismal Swamp and the Virginia Cut were both closed. On the Virginia Cut side it was the bridges that were not operational. On the Dismal Swamp it was high water. Farther down the ICW there was a closure between the North Carolina border and the Albemarle Sound. Adding to that problem was a closure from the Alligator River to the Pungo River as was Goose Creek to Bay River. Bogue Sound and inlet were also closed.

Pampas grass
South of us the North Myrtle Beach Little River swing bridge was non-operational as was the Socastee swing bridge. Even going outside to Georgetown was not an option since the Winyah Bay port and approach was closed to navigation. All this was due to hurricane Matthew.

Well that puts a damper on plans for going south! We are all paid up for a month's stay here but we only wanted to stay two weeks. Adding to the problem is the marina's rule that you can only stay on your boat for two weeks. After that, your boat can stay but you cannot. I don't quite know what we'll do in case the ICW is still not open by Tuesday of next week, our last day of a two week stay. We can hope they will fix the bridges by then which is the reason for the closures in our area. We'll take it day by day.

Meanwhile the weather has turned much cooler with a high today of 68 although it's comfy in the cockpit with our full enclosure. Hopefully we are nearing the end of the hurricane season. We haven't put on the jib yet, we're waiting for calmer winds and warmer weather.

4 comments:

Captain Bob said...

We are on a boat in New Bern waiting also to head south. Your update was very helpful.
Bob
Carpe Diem
lifeaboardcarpediem.wordpress.com

Thehoc1 said...

Bob and Ann

I suggest you buy a case of Pinot Grigio with a bucket of ice and just chill out.

Stay safe and enjoy. Best wishes,Marty and Marcia

Bob423 said...

Thehoc1, you're the one that got us started on Pinot Grigio! We won't leave at least until Tuesday and maybe later than that.

Bob, I'll keep summarizing what we hear. We're getting info from all directions. For now a bridge south of here is still closed and the Coast Guard has not yet completed a sweep of the ICW.

Anonymous said...

I would like to believe that because of extenuating circumstances they will make an exception to the two-week rule if the closures continue. Please let us know if they do.