RE Mayo - at their docks

The RE Mayo docks are not for everyone, they are rustic to say the least but sturdy and the price is right

Backing out of our slip at Homer Smith's Docks and Marina was an exercise in caution. We had the dinghy tied off on our stern but with two sets of piling right behind us on either side of the boat, it was a sure thing that we would catch the dinghy between us and the piling. So you plan ahead and rehearse what could go wrong and try to increase your chances of success. I took the dinghy off the aft of the boat and towed it along to the next dock over and tied it off out of the way.

The concern was the 15 kt wind blowing us into the slip at an angle that would take us into one of the two aft pilings. I had one dock hand that could guide the bow but no one to guide the aft section. I went next door to knock on our neighbor's boat at 8:30am thinking that was a safe time that everyone would be up. Well, that was not the case.

The Women's bathroom, rather basic

It turns out that Steve had been out until 3:00 am with a friend and was sleeping in, at least until I knocked on the hull! Nevertheless, good neighbor that he was, he volunteered to help. With Steve handling the bow line and Tom on the stern, Ann powered Fleetwing out of the slip without a problem while I handled the lines.

We docked two slips over for fuel and a pumpout and we took off shortly thereafter. On the way north there were a dozen boats, everyone had the same idea after three days of high winds. Today was the day to get out of town!

We are now docked at RE Mayo with two other boats even though they are closed today. We hope to pay our dockage Monday morning and pick up some frozen shrimp and scallops, they are the best. They are frozen in a flat package so they are fit in the freezer very well and don't take up much space. Meanwhile, RE Mayo is not a marina, it's just a dock and a place to get outstanding, frozen seafood for your freezer. We'll stock up.

On the other hand, they had very large shrimp boats and lots of shrimp

On Monday we're headed for the Pungo River anchorage to stage us for arrival in Hampton on Friday for a three day stay. .

Beaufort, NC - at Home Smith's Docks and Marina at their dock

Ann found her wooden dinghy after all these years! On the other hand, it's really not practical for the ICW. 

We've spent two days at our dock with gale force winds, the peak gust being 36.5 kts (42 mph).The winds have finally abated around 6:00 pm this afternoon and when the winds dropped to only 15 kts, it felt like there was no wind at all. With such a small wind, we'll certainly leave Sunday for points north. We hope to make RE Mayo but they are closed on Sunday so we'll refuel here.

No, a wooden canoe is not practical either but it's very pretty

Meanwhile, we made good use of the free laundry this morning and in the afternoon we walked to downtown Beaufort for the wooden boat festival. It was like attending an art exhibit, the boats were so beautiful. Ann fell in love with one particular wooden dinghy that resembled one that our son started about 20 years ago. We at first had hopes that his son, Matthew, would finish it but now we're hoping for Matthew's son or daughter to pick up the challenge. However, it's mostly for show since a wooden dinghy is really not practical on the ICW. You need transportation to and from shore for Hoolie that's not tippy and wards off waves created by 15 to 20 kts winds at times in an anchorage.

Incredible detail, never enough patience for me

We didn't get to see all of downtown Beaufort, maybe next time. It looks like a great town to explore. We hope the weather behaves tonight for a change. It was turned colder for sure.

Beaufort, NC at Homer Smith Docks and Marina - Rain and high winds, a day in the barn

There was no going outside today with pouring rain all day long and wind gusts to 36 kt (41 mph) rocking the boat. We are protected from wave action but not the wind in the marina. With that I spent the time updating the news on trouble spots on the ICW and posted the article on the internet. It may be of interest to my readers so I reproduced it below but I still found the time to take a sunset photo.

Looking from the cockpit 

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5/5/2017, more updates due to recent dredging and Charleston ACOE charts are included.

by Bob423, follow my progress at fleetwing. blogspot.com

There is great news for the spring migration! All of the problem inlets have been dredged, allowing a straight shot through in most cases. I'll cover the major ones  below in north to south order;

In the listing of problem areas below, the links given will always show the latest ACOE depth survey. The Wilmington District ACOE keeps the same URL for each problem area chart so when clicking on the link, you may bring up a more recent chart than the one I display in this article. You can check on the date of the survey along the right edge of the chart and compare it to the listed date in my article. At any rate, follow the latest chart for navigation help.

In the newly dredged inlets, it's a straight shot through. The only inlet where waypoints are needed is New River due to shoaling in the ICW channel. It's been referred to as the "Dip Route" in comments as it looks like a zigzag course where the ICW crosses the inlet. I've passed through all the inlets south of Beaufort, NC and they are now easy passages but stay in the middle. Only the charted channel was dredged, not the edges.

Browns Inlet surveyed 12/8/2016

- Browns Inlet surveyed 12/8/2016 at MM 238.2 and page 75 in 2106 ICW Cruising Guide. This was the home of the famous "S" curve but it was dredged 12/8/2016 so now it's a straight path through. The buoys have been moved, just split the red/greens

New River surveyed 3/15/2017

- New River Inlet surveyed 3/15/2017 at MM 244 and page 76 of the Guide. It's been dredged in the past but it's filling in again near 72A. Look closely at the ACOE waypoints, they show a zig-zag course to avoid the shoaling near 72A. Follow WP 3, 4, 5,and 6. They are the critical waypoints. The others just follow the channel. It's also referred to as "The Dip Route".

New River ACOE waypoints as of  3/15/2017

WP3 77 º 20.886 ' W  34 º 33.203 ' N
WP4 77 º 20.988 ' W  34 º 33.150 ' N
WP5 77 º 21.063 ' W  34 º 33.176 ' N
WP6 77 º 21.157 ' W  34 º 33.208 ' N

- Topsail Inlet surveyed 4/26/2017 at MM 270.5 and page 79 of the Guide. The inlet crossing has been dredged but only the three red buoys remain. Just go down the center of the channel, don't hug the reds.

- Masons Inlet surveyed 4/24/2017 at MM 280.2 and page 80 of the Guide. In the Guide it's referred to as Howe Point, the nearest landmark, but the ACOE calls it Masons Inlet. This is the passage where you used to hug the dockhouse, it's now been dredged. Just split the red/greens.

-Carolina Beach Inlet surveyed 4/22/2017 at MM 293.7 and page 83 of the Guide. In the Guide it's called Myrtle Grove Shoaling. Just follow the charted channel. Note that you do not want to hug G155! It was moved in the past to account for shoaling and has not yet been moved back as of 5/5/2017 to its correct position on the edge of the channel. There have been reports of groundings by sailboats getting too close to G155.

Western end of Snow's Cut, survey 11/8-9/2016

- Snows Cut at MM 296. Snows Cut isn't even in the Guide, it was fine in May of last year. However, it looks like there's been active shoaling down to 3 MLW in southern end of the cut in the middle of the channel. The ACOE waypoints have you doing a zigzag course through the southern part of the cut going outside of the charted channel south of the bridge for the deepest water. The turn into Snows Cut from the north is not routine either, you have to swing wide to the green side, there's shoaling at the turn.

Snows cut ACOE waypoints as of 11/8-10/2016
WP1  77° 53' 21 .183" W   34° 3' 38.277" N
WP2  77° 53' 24.777” W    34° 3' 31.232" N
WP3  77° 54' 38.333" W    34° 3' 8.476“ N
WP4  77° 54' 58.817" W    34° 3' 7.587“ N
WP5  77° 55' 3.851” W      34° 3' 6.076" N
WP6  77° 55' 6.429" W      34° 3' 6.864" N

Lockwoods Folly surveyed 3/14/2017

- Lockwoods Folly Inlet at MM321 and page 88 in the Guide. The passage has been dredged. The buoys have been moved to correspond to the dredged channel, just follow the buoys.

Shallotte surveyed 3/27/2017

- Shallotte Inlet Crossing survey of  3/27/2017 at MM 330.5. It's been dredged, just follow the newly placed buoys (not on the survey chart but they are there now).

Florida and North Carolina have been doing most of the dredging. In Florida the shallows on the ICW opposite Ft Pierce were being dredged. There were two dredgers on site, one for mud and one with a huge drill that looked like it could go through rock. Dredging has also been completed at Ft Matanzas, it's a straight shot through and it's so wide it looks like the buoys have drifted. Just follow the buoys. Note that there are fewer green buoys now, G81D and C have been removed, no longer needed.

The Charleston ACOE has been busy updating their service and now show depth buckets other than just the one 3 ft to 12 ft bucket of years past. Now they look like a regular survey. They are divided into three PDF files. If you have an iPad, you can load the PDF file into one app and chart your course with another and use the dual window function of the iPad to see both apps at the same time (your navigation app and your PDF display app). The charts are all in order from north to south so as you progress you can scroll the PDF display app pages to keep up with where you're at and look ahead for the best route through a shallow spot. Unfortunately, they only surveyed the exact channel in most cases so you can't see if there's a better route outside the charted channel.

Little River to Buckport (as of 11/2016)
It shows severe shoaling by R22A that everyone, including me, didn't mark. Take a look. Other than that, there are no issues along this route.

Winyah Bay to Charleston (as of 11/2016)
This section includes the famous Isle of Shoals, aptly named. You can see the shoals on the chart as you run into them! It's just flat-out shallow around McClellanville. The surveys can help some but there's no deep path. Although the area just north of the Ben Sawyer bridge was dredged, the part from the previous shoal to the 65 ft bridge was not dredged and it's become very narrow and continues to shallow. You can see that on the surveys here.

Charleston to Port Royal (as of 11/2016)
Of interest are the sections through the shallows of the Dawho River, Watts Cut, Fenwick Cut, Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff, and Brickyard Creek.

I would love to include the ICW south of Port Royal (think, Hells Gate, Mud River, etc.) but the responsible ACOE for that area is not up to snuff. Maybe next year.  So the general advice is that you may find the charts useful in plotting the best courses through the shallow (I certainly used them for my trip of the ICW in the last two months) you also must pay attention to the latest Active Captain postings. My posts will appear as Bob423 with a very large number next to my handle reflecting all the posts I've made. Even so, nothing is absolute on the ICW - things change and remember - the captain is always responsible for the boat. Infallibility has not yet been invented for cruising or guidebooks no matter what anyone else says.

Permanent link to article:  http://fleetwing.blogspot.com/p/acoe.html

Beaufort - at Homer Smith Docks and Marina

Tony welcomes all visitors

We met a nice couple at Swan Point Marina that told us of a marina that we didn't know existed, Homer Smith Docks and Marina in Beaufort, NC. It used to be a shrimp fleet location and shrimp boats do come in but the owner decided to branch out and installed docks for transients. Normally when this happens you get docks that are the same as what the shrimp boats use like at RE Mayo or Swan Point Marina but that's not the situation here! The owner went absolutely first class with docks made by a leading supplier and surfaced with ipe Brazilian hardwood, a top of the line dock surface.

Not notch docks, ipe hardword covered

He also installed top notch amenities such as a spin washer and dryer that are free and a tiled shower, all in an air conditioned couple of rooms with a flat panel TV for entertainment. Transportation is provided free of charge for nearby provisioning. Since the marina retains shrimp boat docks, there is always fresh shrimp to be had.

Downtown Beaufort is  6 blocks away

The marina is on the north side of Beaufort and is protected from south, east, and west winds. There are shallows to the north that should offer wave protection from that quadrant. The way in is well marked and I have 5.8 MLW at my slip, it averaged 10 MLW on the route in. The rate is $1.50/ft.

We were certainly glad to get in. We endured 20 to 30 kt winds on the nose and an adverse current most of the way, it was a long day. We were grateful for the full enclosure which shielded us from the occasional splash from a passing wave and the constant wind. A major storm is predicted for Friday with winds of 25 to 35 kts and rain with thunderstorms. Naturally, we'll be staying snug in here on Friday and may even stay over for Saturday to let the left over high winds subside. It's nice and quiet now but I can see storms approaching on radar!

Swan Point Marina - at a dock

We see this house every year, a pink house and a pink boat

We passed through many areas that gave us fits on the way south in the fall for today they were no problem, they've all been dredged! Included in the dredged list is Carolina Beach inlet at the ICW, Mason inlet and Topsail inlet. They all had 12 to 15 ft at low tide, what a relief to pass through without high tide.

Swan Point Marina is not for everyone, it's rustic but location is everything

However, money being what it is, they only dredged the channel charted on your chartplotter so don't venture outside that channel. This feature gave a few strange situations. For example, at Carolina Beach inlet there's G155 which had been moved several times to direct boaters away from active shoaling. Once they dredged, they left G155 where it wound up and didn't move it back to the edge of the dredged channel, at least not yet. So if you hug G155 you'll run aground since it now sits in a shoaling area (which is why they dredged in the first place). I made an entry in Active Captain to that effect.

Many "rustic" boats too

A similar situation happened at Mason Inlet by the ICW. After it was dredged, they apparently didn't move the red markers which were on top of a shoal. If you hug R122A you will go aground. All you have to do is split the red/green markers for deep water, a straight shot.

We took an outside face dock, it's too shallow inside

We arrived at Swan Point Marina to find no one around to help us dock. It seems the mother and daughter team that used to run the marina did not renew their lease and they are gone. The one covering person was not around so we managed to dock by ourselves. I supposed that also means no fresh bread in the morning too. We used to get a delivery of baked bread before we left, a nice touch.

There's some bad weather coming Friday and Saturday so I made reservations in Beaufort at Homer Smith Docks and Marina. We've never been to Beaufort and we're looking forward to it.

Carolina Beach State Park - At their dock

The entrance is just beyond the tree in the foreground

We didn't go very far today. The current didn't change in our favor until 10:00 am going up the Cape Fear river so we didn't get an early start. Then again, we're in no rush so we made our way north to the Carolina Beach State Park and their $30/night dockage fee which also includes electricity. On the way in we did see the depth come up to 4.7 MLW, a little less water than last year but still okay, especially since we didn't go in at low tide and even then we only draw 4' 9". Once inside, the depths remained in the 5.5 MLW range at "A" dock.

The hiking trails will even take you through a swamp as you see here;

The marina here is really a camping park with lots for tent camping and small RV's. With that, the marina is manned by park rangers that know nothing about boats. You will probably not get help docking. We didn't but the boat after us did get help so it happens sometimes.

We are docked at the extreme right on "A" dock

The park has many hiking trails which are always fun to explore and they also have a sandy beach with fishing piers and kayaks to rent. They have a viewing area for painted buntings and a trail that features venus flytraps.

If that's not enough, there's all of Carolina Beach to explore with a rented car from a nearby Enterprise. We will just be here for one day so we're content to hike the trails and set out Wednesday for Swan's Point Marina. We'll have three bridges to pass through and two only open once an hour on top of the hour. They are real pains since they are not spaced for sailboat speeds to make without waiting, unlike the ones in Florida just north of Ft Lauderdale. So we expect it will be a long day before we arrived at our dock.

St James Plantation Marina - We dine with Eileen and Jim McKay

A view of Eileen and Jim's house from the ICW

With both the Shallotte and Lockwoods Folly inlets being dredged, the trip was uneventful. Now it's just a straight path through both inlets and they are well marked. I'm sure that they will shoal up again sometime in the future like they always have, but I'll enjoy the lowering of tensions with the extra water while I can.

We had intended inviting Eileen and Jim over for dinner on the boat but did accept their counter invitation which also included touring their new house. They just had it completed over the last month or so, everything was new. The house sits right on the ICW and the view off the front porch oversees the ICW right outside. When Matthew came through last fall, they graciously invited us to spend the night of the hurricane with them. We took them up on the offer and spent a relatively quiet night on land. The eye passed directly over the marina and we went outside during the calm of the eye passing, eerie.

Just a great view off the porch, good for relaxing

We arrived late but declined the offer to ride their elevator up to the dining area. The house is four stories high and the elevator comes in very handy for carting supplies up to the kitchen. Later, we enjoyed dinner with two of their friends, Harry and Brenda, As I've said before, a big attraction of touring the ICW are the people you meet along the way. On Tuesday we're headed for Carolina Beach State Park Marina for one night.