St James Plantation - We sound out Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte inlets.

Hank Pomeranz met us at St James and we took a ride to the two inlets south of here with Jim McKay helping out too. We wanted to test the depths found if we followed the ACOE waypoints for the inlets. Along the way we noted that the ICW was clear, we didn't see any floating debris. Even by the side streams and rivers between here and Shallotte Inlet, all was clear.

Approaching Lockwoods Folly we had the Garmin Mobile app displayed on the iPad mounted on the pedestal. I brought up the ACOE waypoints for the inlet and Hank followed them exactly with the lowest reading being 6.7 MLW. We doubled back several times to be sure the reading was accurate. Here's the ACOE chart for Lockwoods Folly.

There is a path through but you ought to follow the ACOE waypoints

Then it was on to Shallotte Inlet which proved to be more difficult due to a narrow stretch of shallow water right by the Active Captain hazard marker. The ACOE path through showed 5.0 MLW at the least depth, it was 12 MLW approaching the shallow spot and 12 MLW after. Going farther south it shallowed again to 6 MLW by the last red buoy, R82. We found the path through to be very narrow, perhaps 30 to 40 ft wide at the hazard marker and by R82. While doing the soundings we guided one boat through and offered to guide another one but got the reply, "We live around here" so we moved on. We could see he was too far to the green side and sure enough, we saw him suddenly stop, lean over and then twist sideways in the channel, he had gone aground. We could have guided him but he didn't want our help, "He was a local". Here's what you're up against at Shallotte Inlet from the ACOE chart.

Note especially the orange area just above G81. The ACOE waypoints will thread you through, no room for error

So in summary, if you follow the ACOE waypoints for Lockwoods Folly you're fine for 6.7 MLW. If you follow the ACOE waypoints for Shallotte Inlet you're okay for 5 MLW. We explored being just to the red side of the ACOE waypoints for Shallotte and found perhaps a foot more depth but the channel is very narrow! So how do you get the ACOE waypoints? You can access their site and enter the waypoints manually or you can download them as a GPX file from this blog site over at the left, "GPX Routes". The one GPX file BAllFiles has all of the routes in one package. Load BAllFiles and you get all the routes. For the iPad, the best application to use is the Garmin Mobile app. The surest way to load them is to send them as an attachment to an email to yourself using your laptop or desktop and then open the email and then the attached file on your iPad. You will get a choice of loading them into the Garmin app after a long press on the attached file. Of course you can load them into any program that accepts GPX files, all PC apps do but not all iPad apps. By the way, the links in ACOE Survey Routes (one of the selections under ICW Tips) will always show the latest ACOE survey for the area listed, they update automatically. You can also get the waypoints off the surveys which is what I used to create the GPX routes.

We still are looking to move south on Tuesday morning which will give us 5 ft or so of tide through the two shallow areas.

St James Plantation Marina - Updating ACOE waypoints

Morning on the ICW looking east

The Wilmington Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) is really on the ball. They've already surveyed Lockwoods Folly inlet along the ICW after Matthew. The waypoints through the inlet on the ICW did not change much and Hank Pomeranz will come by tomorrow in his Whaler and we will make a pass through Lockwoods Folly to see if the waypoints are still good. Given the recent survey by the ACOE after Matthew, I suspect everything will be fine.

To see the latest survey of any of the shallow areas, just click on "ACOE Survey Updates" at left. The links are to the ACOE website and will show the latest survey (the ACOE uses the same link for a given area so updates are automatically shown with the same link). Most recently, Lockwoods Folly was surveyed again on Oct 11, 2016 with waypoints included.

Not much progress on the unfinished house

As to the waypoints, I've put all the waypoints into one GPX file which can be downloaded to the Garmin Mobile app on the iPad in one pass. Just click on GPX Routes and then select BAllFiles, attached it to an email using your laptop or desktop and send it to yourself. When you open the email on your iPad and put a long press on the file, you will get a choice of downloading it to Garmin. Once downloaded, you will have all the separate files listed in GPX Routes. The BAllFiles GPX file just collects them into one place for easy downloading. Return periodically to GPX Routes to look for updates. An updated BAllFiles will have a suffix like "2" or "3" if there are changes.

You can try to do the download using Safari  but in my experience it only works on 1/2 of the iPads and I do not know why but the email technique always works - so far.

Today was more fine weather but we stayed put. The rivers south of us are not due to crest until Friday at the earliest so we're staying put to let the waters recede somewhat, aiming for a Tuesday departure date.

St James Plantation Marina - Beautiful Weather, many closures south

Great traveling weather, but we can't travel

I guess the weather averages out eventually since now we're having great weather although it's on the cool side with highs in the low 70's. The news south of us on the ICW is still not good. Many marinas were badly damaged. Of the places we stop at, Barefoot Landing Marina (the long face dock next to the shops) is non-operational. I can only guess that the docks must have floated off their pilings. Another place we always docked at was Charleston Maritime Center which said they would be closed until Nov 1.

Today one of the two bridges south of us opened, the Socastee Swing Bridge, but the other one, the Little River Swing Bridge, is still closed. So we're not moving until at least the bridges are open. Additionally, the Coast Guard has not yet completed a sweep of the ICW. Many of the buoys are off-station, especially in the inlets with the out rushing floor waters, just where you need them the most!

I met Hank Pomeranz who gives nightly talks at Southport on the hazards between here and Charleston.We were both concerned about Lockwoods Folly and Shallotte where the ICW crosses inlets. I can easily picture both areas being greatly disturbed by Matthew. There was so much rain that the flood levels are greater than ever seen before. At Conway (near the ICW)  the river is expected to reach 17 ft with the floor stage at only 9 ft. Many areas received 1 to 2 ft of rain.

So we sit and wait for the ICW to improve to passable, maybe by Tuesday, maybe later.

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.

St James Plantation - Blue Skies, full sun, what storm?

They had a butterfly garden that also  attracted moths, dozens

What a difference a day makes! Blue skies, full sun, low humidity. Did we actually have a hurricane come through? The winds did pipe up immediately after Matthew with a gust reading of 82 mph at one point. We came out in the late morning to inspect Fleetwing and everything was fine, what a relief. The boat next to us, a powerboat, left their canvass up and they suffered several tears along the zippers. We did take a walk last night around 8:00 pm when the western wall of the hurricane impacted us with the peak gust of 82 mph. The sound of the wind was incredible. With the marina being below the level of the surrounding land, most of the wind was going over us but it was still hard to walk with the pressure of the winds. We didn't stay out long and we did not walk out on the docks even though it was low tide and accessible. You would have been airborne if you ventured there. It was amazing. I have no further desire to be in a hurricane again.

A beautiful walk through the woods was nearby

We reinstalled the enclosure and we're now back to normal in the cockpit. Ann enjoyed the full sun of the afternoon. The temperatures will only be in the low 70's the rest of the week but that's fine with us as long as it's sunny as predicted. We have to wait for calmer wind before we put the jib back on. We figure we'll be here for another week waiting for the ICW to clear up south of here. I know some people down that way and I'll call for advice on ICW conditions. The main concern is the ICW just south of Barefoot Landing which usually floods with heavy rains.

End to a beautiful day, after the storm

Monday will be a day off for us, no work, no nothing relative to the boat. Time for a little R and R.

Hurricane Updates

(9:35 pm update)

The back end of the storm was worse than the front end. We walked out to check on the boat but got no closer than 10 ft from the building! Too much wind!

























(4:50 update)
We are in the eye! The winds have calmed down, at least temporarily.

There's no getting to Fleetwing at high tide!

Here's the approach to our dock

Here's a picture in the eye. The wind is calm and there's no rain

Once past the eye, we'll see 40 to 50 kt winds out of the north for the next 24 hours. We are not out of this yet.




(2:05 pm update)

It's getting a little windy!

























(1:30 pm update)

Docks at St James Plantation

The water is still rising even though high tide has passed. The hurricane is speeding up and the eye is now projected to be over us at 6:00 pm with the wind dropping to 6 kts during its passage. We plan on taking photos then. Fleetwing is fine, riding well. Wind projections remain in the 50 kt range with higher gusts as Matthew approaches although we hope we won't see that here in the marina. Stay tuned for hurricane eye photos.

We were awaken during the night by loud flapping which is sure to wake up a sailboater. It was the house under construcction in the background. 

As of 10:50 am
The winds started in earnest early this morning with gusts to 30 kts so far. We looked at the grib prediction on PocketGrib and saw the projected path of Matthew will have the eye pass directly over us! We will be in the eye 7:00 pm if the grib prediction holds true. The National Weather Service still has Matthew passing off shore but we've seen where the grib predictions have been more accurate in the past. The maximum wind is projected to be 53 kts with gusts to 64 kts just after the eye passes over us.

As for us, we've accepted the kind offer by Dan and Eileen McKay for a room for the night when the maximum winds are expected. We can see Fleetwing from their porch. I'll update the blog from time to time as the hurricane approaches.

St James Plantation - we strip the boat

Oh no! Closer still

Matthew has once again changed course and is closer than ever to our coast. With that news we decided to strip the head sail and take off the enclosure and bimini. We "sunk" the dinghy by pulling the plug and letting the dinghy partly fill with water but only to the point where the tubes supported the shallow pool of water. We figured that was better than letting it fill with 10 inches of water from the expected torrential rains.

Head sail off, bimini off, tied off with multiple lines

The worst of the wind and rains are due late Saturday with peak winds of 50 kts. We are tied off well but we did receive an invitation to spend Saturday night off the boat and we both thought that was a good idea for Saturday. The problem beyond that is waiting for the ICW to clear south of here, who knows when that will be? Many of the bridges are closed at the moment and the area just south of Barefoot Landing is certainly flooded again.




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