Tuesday 06/11/28

 

N 33 55.82 W 77 58.67
Cape Fear, NC

 

I was up early, at 0630, with the sun just coming up. The sky was overcast, and there was a 5-10 mph cool breeze from the NE. Eugene got up about 0700, and we took our time getting ready to go.

 

We raised anchor at 0800, and started to head out to sea. We wanted to check out the ride, we were considering going offshore instead of continuing down the ICW. There were still enough rolling waves outside the jetty to make us decide that it would be too uncomfortable for the younger boys on board, so we headed back in.

 

We saw a dredge ahead of us at marker 155, near the Cape Fear Yacht Center. We hailed him to ask about passing, and got a cryptic response back. It soon became obvious he'd run aground. We slowed down to wait for him to get clear, and were passed by a couple of other boats, including 'Mysterious Ways'. The dredge managed to get clear, and we followed the other boats through this sticky spot. We didn't make it. The dredge had made a lump in the bottom, and I managed to find it. There was only about 5 minutes of cursing with the motor in reverse at full power before we managed to break free again.

 

We were now a bit nervous about running aground again, and picked our way slowly through the south side of Snow's Cut. I noticed the outboard engine was only putting out a slow dribble of water for cooling and we pulled over and dropped anchor to investigate. I cleared the blockage quickly, and we got back under way.

 

Noonsite: N 34 02.32 W 77 55.89

 

We cruised our way down the Cape Fear River to a point down by Price Creek, where there's a ferry system dock. The anchor was dropped at 1430 just inside of 'The Rocks', a breakwater inside of Cape Fear. There's a nice hole back in there with 11 ft of water, and it's protected by the breakwater on the east and a dredge spoils island on the west.

 

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(c)Copyright 2006 by Eugene Kashpureff