Century Club: Eric Brinsfield

Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We spent the morning relaxing at anchor south of the Pungo River-Alligator River canal, waiting for the upcoming storm.  Winds were expected to gust to 40 knots, so we needed a good secure anchorage.  But, after thinking through the rest of the trip home, we thought it would be good to get the 20 miles of canal behind us so we could make it to Coinjock in a north wind.  So at 1:30 pm, we pulled up the anchor and headed north up the canal.  

We anchored at the top of the canal in an anchorage I refer to as Tuckahoe Point.  We have anchored here before, but it turned out not to be as protected as I remembered.  Although everything turned out fine, I did not sleep much that night as the winds did actually exceed 40 knots for about 4 hours.   We stayed here another day because the winds continued and were so strong that they closed the Alligator River Bridge.  

Monday, March 30, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We left MCYB at 9 am and headed north across the Newport River and up Adams Creek to the Neuse River.  We continued passed Oriental through the Bay River and across the Pamlico River and sailed up the Pungo River with fantastic wind.  

We anchored at the base of the Pungo-Alligator River Canal after convering about 66 nm.  

Sunday, March 29, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We left the Wrightsville Beach anchorage at 6:55 am as the sun was just rising.  Masonboro Inlet was short and easy.  We partly sailed and motorsailed at about 82 degrees with 4-5 foot seas and SW winds.  The wind was 15 knots but a bit light to move us fast enough.  We entered multiple fog banks during the trip and arrived at Beaufort Inlet at 2:35 pm

Unfortunately, the wind was blowing in and the tide was rushing out, so we had a rough ride through the inlet.  We arrived at Morehead City Yacht Basin by 4 pm.  

 

Friday, March 27, 2020 to Saturday, March 28, 2020
Number of days:
2 days

On 3/27/2020, we left Charleston in the fog at 3 pm for an offshore overnight sail into the Cape Fear.  We arrived at the Cape Fear Inlet about 8:45 am on 3/28/2020 and still felt like we had enough energy to continue on to Wrightsville Beach.  

We motored and sailed up the Cape Fear to Snow's Cut over to Carolina Beach.  We turned north up the ICW and anchored in Wrightsville Beach, NC.  

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 to Thursday, March 26, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We stayed in Charleston three days and spent two at the Charleston Harbor Marina at Patriot's Point on the other side of the harbor.  We anchored the first night, then 2 in the marina, than anchored again.  I just count this as 1 day due to the travel twice within the harbor and being on the water at anchor 2 nights.  

Monday, March 23, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

Although I had originally planned to hang out in Church's Creek, we decided to ride out the storm in Charleston, anchored south of the Charleston Downtown Marina.  The trip this day took about 3.5 hours.  Although I timed the tides and depths perfectly to get the best speed, I had to wait for the Wappoo Creek Bridge to open at 11:30 am.  

Sunday, March 22, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

Another storm was in the forecast, so we did not go all the way into Charleston from Coosaw River.  I decided to try Church's Creek just south of Charleston.  We made it through all the trouble spots such as the Ashepoo-Coosaw Cut and Fenwick Cut but the tidal currents were a challenge.  We traveled about 16 nm.  

Church's Creek was a beautiful and protected anchorage.  

Saturday, March 21, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We did not leave Skull Creek Marina until 10:45 am because we wanted to make a run to Publix.  We sailed up the Beaufort River and continued on passed Beaufort.  We love Beaufort, but because of COVID and we had spent several days there on the way south, we decided to keep moving.  We wanted to anchor close to some of the trouble spots on the ICW, so we could time the tides right.  

We reached my anchor spot in the Coosaw River by 3:15 pm and we were anchored by 3:35 pm.  The spot I pick is somewhat exposed, but under the right circumstances, is beautiful and quiet.  We traveled 27.8 nautical miles.  

Friday, March 20, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

From Sapelo Sound, we headed back out the inlet and sailed up to Port Royal Inlet.  We headed in and turned south to stay at Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head.  We arrived around 4 pm after sailing 64 nautical miles.  

Thursday, March 19, 2020
Number of days:
1 day

We left Fernandina at 7:35 am and headed out St. Mary's Inlet.  We had planned to stop in St. Simons, but we were making such good time that we decided to keep going.  I decided to try Sapelo Inlet, which does not come highly recommended.  We did see warnings about a few marks missing or being shoaled up.  All marks were on station, but the shoaling was still a problem.  Between #5 and #6, the depths suddenly dropped to 7.5 feet.  I moved south and things improved.  

We anchored in a rather exposed area at about 5 pm after sailing about 66 nautical miles.  Not sure I recommend stopping in Sapelo unless you have time to go futher inland to anchor.  

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