Given all the talk about cold weather coming from up north, we decided to make today a boat work day.   Having temps in the 60s, sunny skies, and light winds helped in the decision.  This morning, Captain Phil did laundry and went got a ride to the grocery store with one of the marina employees.  We began working on sail slides around 9am.  Every one of the slides on the boom had broken and 6 or 7 on the mast.  It appeared that UV in the sunlight had caused the plastic in the slides to become brittle over time.  Ollie had ordered 15 new slides for the mast from Sailrite.  A couple weeks ago, we realized the slides for the boom were a different size so he ordered 15 of those.  We used all but 2 on the boom.  Anyway, it's nice to know the mainsail is now fully attached to both the mast and boom.  Tonight we ate Ollie's Wife Ann's 2 x 4 soup, French bread and a salad.  The soup was a real hit. During and following the movie, we watch "The Wild Wild West".  Tomorrow, we plan to leave Masonborro around 8am for a short 37 mile motor up the ICW to some anchorage I'm not yet aware of.  

After almost 12 hours of sleep, it was up at the crack of dawn for a planned 65 mile day - hoping to get to the Wrightsville Beach area of NC. As I type, Captain Phil is preparing a gourmet breakfast of smoked salmon and beagles (with lots of toppings).

It's now almost 5pm.  It's been a long day of motoring.  Fighting a 3 to 4 knot current for several miles north Cape Fear didn't make it any easier.  From the Cape Fear Inlet, the ICW joins the Cape fear River for about 5 miles and we passed through at max ebb (see video).  We are approaching the Masonborro Yacht Club and Marina where we will stay overnight.  This was the location where the Pintita stayed for a week, waiting for a weather window to head offshore for the passage to St. Thomas (last November).  I think this might be a little nastalgic for Captain Phil since he has now completed a loop from which he left for his voyage.

Spent the night at Barefoot Landing Marina, along the ICW at Myrtle Beach.  The "marina" is really nothing more than a floating dock about 10' wide and about 300' long that runs parallel to the waterway on the east side.  The dock master was very helpful and even drove us to the NAPA store for oil in the morning.  Not much for amenities but right next to a large shopping center with lots of restaurants etc.  As we approached the dock, Ollie's friend Chuck was waiting.  He jumped aboard and had the problem isolated in 20 minutes and repaired in about an hour.  Then, the 5 of us went over to Ollie's house for a fantastic pasta dinner (and, for me, shower, and laundry). Thanks Ann and Ollie!!  Phil and Dan and I came back to the boat for the night.  This morning, we did boat work till around noon - changed the engine oil, cleaned, tidied up the new VHF power wiring, ate breakfast, planned our trip for today and tomorrow.  We only motored for 3 hours today. The current was with us and we made 20 miles to the Ocean Isles Marina - a very nice marina, primarily for small boats. They have inside storage for over 400 runabouts and docks for only about 20 larger boats. Very nice staff and facilities.  After an "exhausting" day, all but Dan had fallen asleep by 8pm and we were all in bed by 9:30.

One of these days, I'm going to document all the options and challenges that exist with communications and data transfer on the trip. We have an amazing number of devices and methods for both but 90% of the time, we don't have internet and only about 50% of the time, we have phone service. 

We were late getting into an anchorage last night (it was almost dark and rainy) at a little after 6pm.  We had hoped to make it to Georgetown but were 3 hours short because of the tug/barge event yesterday.  We must make it to Myrtle Beach tonight (Ollies wife is preparing a hot meal for us) so we were up at 5:30am this morning and underway in the dark at around 6am.  We expect to make it to some marina around 6pm.  The temp this morning was 37 which made hauling the anchor, and motoring for the first two hours lots of fun.  We MISS the Caribbean!  It's now almost 10am and the sun is out so it's much better.  A nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast helped a lot with morale. 

It's 5:30pm and we are at the marina in Myrtle Beach. I'm sitting in a little hut about 1/4 mile from the boat because the wifi doesn't reach there.  It turned out being a nice sunny day but cool all day. Tonight is supposed to be cold and tomorrow a high in the low 50s.   I believe we will be motoring up the waterway until we get to Norfolk. 

Had a nice motor up the ICW today.  After a nice pancake breakfast, weighed anchor around 8:30am.  Some of the rivers and cuts in this area are a little tricky but we have never touched bottom yet.  Came into Charleston and are at the Mega Marina on the south side of the historic district.  It's a huge marina with hundreds of very huge boats (in the 80 plus range).  Went out for a great dinner and am back at the boat now.  The skipper and the rest of the crew turned in at 9 so I'm up top pounding this out before calling Joan (she works tonight) and then off to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to Georgetown SC.  It's a town I've seen on the maps/charts and always wanted to go to. 

I had trouble sleeping last night.  Went to bed later than normal (10:30pm vs. 7 or 8) but woke up at 5 and was up making coffee at 5:30.  Fortunately, Dan is an early riser and didn't mind being awaken.  Soon, Captain Phil was up and dashed the plan of leaving at 10 (waiting for a favorable current) and, instead opted for weighing anchor ASAP to get out of the very narrow canal we had anchored in the night before.  So, we left the Hilton Head area before 7am.  We motored up the ICW all day and made just under 50 miles before dropping anchor somewhere in the middle of no where (Raccoon Island) about 30 miles south of Charleston.   It was a beautiful, sunny day with little wind until about 2pm when an East wind around 10 knots came in.   Tomorrow night we will be staying at a nice marina on the South side of Old Charleston.

Up at 6 this morning and weighed anchor at 7.   Motored out Doboy inlet and headed north.  Weather was mostly cloudy till about noon when it started sprinkling and getting a little foggy.  Had planned to only go about 40 miles but decided early to make it to Hilton Head (around 65 miles).  Came into the Savannah River past Tybee Point at around 5:30pm and to our anchorage around 6:45 (after dark).  So, it was a somewhat boring and dreary day.  On the bright side, Captain Phil did boat work and made good progress replacing some of the parquet flooring that had delaminated in the forward cabin.  I began work on replacing some of the broken sail slides.  Tomorrow, we plan to leave here around 10am (to be with the current) and head up the ICW.  Our current plan is to make it to Charleston Tuesday night.