Monday, October 14, 2019

Topsail Island Marina at Surf City - at a dock

The fishing pier survived all the hurricanes
Heavy rain was predicted for Monday morning but it apparently came earlier than expected. We had lightning and thunder all night long with heavy rain. Hoolie, our Brittany, did not want to be alone and climbed into bed with us. He usually sleeps on the floor but with thunder and lightning, he did not want to be alone.

This is the new cut to the ocean on the approach to New River by G65A
By 7:00 am Monday morning, it had moved out to sea and we took off for Surf City. Along the way we had to pass through the shallows by Spooner Creek (8 MLLW) on the GPX line, Browns inlet (8 MLLW minimum on the GPX line), and New River (9 MLLW on the GPX line). The challenge at New River was the 2 kts of current pushing you sideways so you had to crab through although I kept the speed at 7 kts to minimize that effect. The GPX routes are good, it's very easy to find shallower water!

"I'll have that fillet"
Surf City has recovered from the hurricane of last year. Everything looks new and fully functional. The marina here, Topsail Island Marina is not very big, there's only room for 3 or four boats. However, the ice is free and so is the electric. It's $2/ft including tax but everything else is included. I did not look at showers or heads, we don't use them anyway. The free WiFi topped out at 100Mbps!

Nice docks
One of the attractions is the fish market right next door to the marina. We walked over and bought a pound of grouper and Ann fixed it up for dinner. We would rather have fresh grouper than walking over to the restaurant although they do have an excellent one here, Daddy Mac's .

On Tuesday, we're headed for Southport and, hopefully, to get our outboard repaired. Fingers are crossed.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Bob, enroute beaufort to surf city, 14 October,19, you refer to following the GPX line. By that term are you referring to your new track line of that name, the GPX “Route” from your blog page, or the ACE route from last June?
Rex

Bob423 said...

Rex, I publish two paths on the ICW: tracks and routes. A track is my path down the ICW on a given day as indicated in the track name (mmddyy). All the tracks for a cruising season will cover the entire ICW with no gaps. A route is a path through a small section of the ICW that’s subject to frequent shoaling, there’s about 30 of them and they also have a time stamp in the name.

In my blog, I referred to the GPX route I published in “GPX Routes” page on my blog. I had not passed through that area yet, so I followed the GPX route. Now, however, you can just follow my blue line track dated 10/14/19.

A track will be good to follow for a migration season but things change on the ICW due to shoaling - that’s the reason I publish GPX routes - so I can show the best path through areas like Lockwoods Folly which has changing shoals. Last spring's track would not work through Lockwoods Folly now but the GPX route would work since I keep all GPX routes updated to current shoaling conditions.

So if you follow my October 2019 tracks now, they will work for the fall migration, I add new tracks each day as I head south this season. In the spring of 2020, parts of those track will be out of date due to shoaling but the GPX routes will continue to be updated throughout the year.

In summary, if you go south this fall, the tracks should be fine. In the spring of 2020, sections of the tracks will be out of date due to shoaling - that’s where GPX routes come in, they show the way only through those areas that change rapidly. Alternatively, you can wait until I return in the spring and use the updated tracks then.

If this is not explained well enough, please ask questions.