Finally leaving Charleston - to Morehead City May 20 to 23, 2016

We traveled from Charleston to NYC in 7 days, a total of about 700 miles in one week! We were really moving. Although we were not sightseeing we did get a chance to see some of our favorite people, my sister Martha in Morehead City and Michael and Judy from Virginia Beach. We are still about 2 weeks behind schedule but we aren’t talking about a schedule any more!

Saturday May 21, 2016  Left Charleston City Boatyard

Beautiful metal work from Domeni Metal in Brunswick GA

Cool 63 Jaguar XKE in Jim's facility

On Thursday morning, as predicted, we left early in the morning for the long drive to Brunswick GA to pick up the new shafts. On the way back from Brunswick we dropped off our old shafts at Jim and Joy's storage facility in Savannah. 

The new shafts!

We climbed up and down this
ladder for 2 weeks!

We arranged to turn the truck back in on Thursday after arriving back from Brunswick and unloading the new shafts. I loaded it up with laundry that I did at a laundromat down the street from the Enterprise Office. They drove me back to the marina on Thursday afternoon.

Aren't they beautiful?

On Friday morning Alex installed the shaft seals, shafts and propellers on Friday – everything went on smoothly – turns like butter now. He was pleased at how quickly everything went together. 

Alex - super mechanic!!

We have no cutters now so we have to be careful how we treat crab pots. If we get caught in a crab pot we will be stuck.

The boat yard made a last minute decision to put us in the water late Friday afternoon. One manager said no, that we would have to wait until Monday; another manager overruled him and said to put us in the water Friday. 

I looked up and there was the travel lift!

These guys know what they are doing!

the boss wants us OUT

Kermit watches Good Karma move out

The new shafts get ready for action

In a twinkle, I saw the lift surround our boat while I was working at the dining table and we were in the water, tied up at the guest dock. It felt good to be back in the water!

Hauling her around a corner

Finally plugged in to shore power, we turned on the AC. It didn’t work. Water drains from the AC system in dry dock so it take some time to re-prime it. It was cool anyway so we didn’t need it. In fact, there were storms predicted all weekend.

Butler Island anchorage

Saturday morning Alex came on board to double check his work to make sure the seals held and we didn’t leak. We didn’t. Yippee!! We were free again!

We took off at about noon, headed down the river into Charleston, around the corner, past Isle of Palms and up the ICW headed for Georgetown to make up some time. We originally intended to run outside but the weather was bad so we had to run inside. That is slower.

Butler Island anchorage before dark

Butler Island anchorage after Georgetown – anchored out in a beautiful wide bay behind an island. Great sunset. We were exhausted. We went to bed without dinner. Left at dawn.

Beautiful but crazy water - hard to know where to go

At Osprey for fuel

 Sunday May 22, 2016 to Southport. We intended to run outside again but we needed fuel so we went inside to get fuel at Osprey Marina. Weather was bad anyway. Raining or drizzling the first and second days.

Fuel made Good Karma cough. Not sure why.

These guys are stuck in 2 feet of water at
that crazy intersection

Water was skinny this whole way once we left the river after Osprey. We passed a sailboat that was stuck in 2' of water. Thank goodness the tow boat and police boat with flashing lights helped us find the way or we would have crossed directly through just like the sailboat.

Dredger working on the inlet

Anchored late that night in Southport at an anchorage that Kermit hated, Tina’s Pocket. It was good hold but no visible protection from wind or wake. But we didn’t get any wakes until 5am when we planned to get up anyway.

Southport

into Southport

Sundown at Tina's Pocket in Southport

This is Tina's Pocket anchorage - not much there
See the rainbow? 

Southport after the storm

Rainbow after a light rain. Anchoring at dusk after a very long travel day, 6am to about 6pm, almost 100 miles at slow speed.

 Tried to turn on the generator but nothing worked. Kermit got down into the broiling hot engine room and changed the fuel filter on the generator on the fly. Just took him about 5 minutes. Worked fine after that!

Weather starting to improve so we needed the air conditioning. We also wanted to check the weather on the tv.

Monday May 22, 2016 Again we were trying to go outside from Southport to Morehead City but the water was not good for an outside run, or so we thought.

Critter alert - this guy swam in front of the boat -
about 6 to 7 feet long at least

Isn't he gorgeous?

Our target was Morehead City to spend the night with Martha and her friend Liz. Everything was on target for a 4pm arrival. We started to hear radio noise about firing at Camp Lejeune at the last portion of our trip on the ICW to Morehead City.

Critter alert!! Osprey

We had to anchor out one more night before Morehead

We called Martha to have her access Internet to find out. She couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone so she called the bridge operator directly. He said the bridge would be closed at 3pm for the rest of the day to accommodate the firing practice. No way could we get passed! So we decided to anchor at a special place right off the military base at about 2:30pm, about 20 miles short of Morehead City, Mile Hammock Bay.

We caught up to these boats in Morehead City!

Tuesday May 23, 2016 Morehead City. We left early the next morning for Morehead for a great day with Martha. We reprovisioned while Kermit changed the fuel filters on the engines. He arranged to have some replacement filters shipped to Michael in Virginia Beach.

These guys passed us on the river - Kermit wanted to race!

We fueled up for the big day ahead.

Dieter was well behaved. Lunch on the back of the deck. Martha gave me a huge bag of clothes since she is now 2 sizes smaller. Everything fit me!! A bundle of riches including skorts, shorts, pants, and tops. I wore some shorts and skorts already!!!