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North Carolina Loop

May - June 2024
Towed C-Traveler out to my Buddy Bill's home on Lake Keowee in S. Carolina, to spend several days exploring the lake, and then we'll head over to Morehead City, NC, to relaunch and cruise the N. Carolina Loop. Read more
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  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 4

    First Stop. Lake Keowee

    May 10 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    Forgot I joined this blog to share my trips. I left home with C-Traveler in Tow this past Tuesday. Arrived at Bill's and Lake Keowee Thursday and launched. Spent the last couple of days exploring the lake. Tomorrow we'll pull the boats out and then Tuesday head over to the Newport River Pier and Boat ramps to launch for our cruise on the N. Carolina Loop.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 7

    Last day on Lake Keowee

    May 13 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

    Did some last minute shopping today, then we loaded C-Traveler and Mystery Girl on their respective trailers. Somewhat of a rainy / misty day, so good day to also get some laundry done. Tomorrow we'll head over to the Radio Island boat ramp and launch.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    2
    Day 8

    Arrived Newport River Pier and Boat Ramp

    May 14 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 72 °F

    Also shown as Radio Island Boat Ramp. Bill and I were on the road today by 7:40am. We had about a 30 minute delay just outside of Greenville, SC, for an accident, that was cleared up before we got to it. Then Bill's TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitor System) indicated his left front trailer tire was losing air near Wilmington. We pulled off at an off ramp and verified it was in fact losing air. While changing the tire we noticed that the inside brake pad was missing, so replaced that as well. Most the day of travel was in the rain, but fortunately, there was no rain while working on the tire. Our other friend Mike, on Little Joe, was already here at the boat ramp when we arrived. We started to set the boats up to launch before more rain moved in. We'll sleep on the boats trailered tonight and launch tomorrow. Should be an interesting day with more rain and lots of wind in the forecast. I went out for Pizza with Mike, and on the way back, we stopped along the water front to check out some statues.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    3
    Day 9

    Oriental, NC

    May 15 in the United States ⋅ 🌩️ 72 °F

    Today ended up being quite nice. We woke up to calm weather with clearing skies. Got our boats launched, then headed up Adams Creek, crossing the Neuse River and stopping for the day at Oriental NC. Some pictures along the way, homes along the creek, sinking or wrecked boats, a Great White Heron, some interesting yachts, the Shrimp boat fleet in Oriental, and a few photos of our boats. The one thing I missed, because they were too fast to photograph, where the porpoises that came near our boats, either diving beside us, or just ahead of us. This evening, Mike and Bill are anchored out in Green Creek, while I took the last space on the two free docks Oriental has for boaters. (That allowed me to go walk off some more of last night's pizza! lol).Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 10

    C-Traveler layout

    May 16 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    Some of you may be wondering what living on C-Traveler for several weeks might be like; what’s the layout. So this post is a description of what’s available to me and Rosanne on C-Traveler. The V-Berth where we sleep has a shelf down both sides. When I’m solo, I get both sides. LOL! In which case, I use Rosanne’s side to store my camp chairs, my toiletry bag, and anything else I don’t have room for on my side. Like an extra tub of clothes. When she’s along with me, then her clothes tubs are on her side, and I just have my side for my tubs. We found tubs that fit perfect for storing our clothes. I also have my C-Pap on my side. It’s not in the photo, as it’s right up against the helm end of the V- Berth. We sleep with our feet towards the bow. The dinette has a sink with running water, and there is a small 2.5 gallon water heater. I need to be plugged in to shore power or run the generator to heat the water up. There use to be a stove (electric and butane) next to the sink, but I pulled it out and replaced it with a butcher block. (Basically a nice 1” piece of Oak.) We have a small portable one burner butane stove that we can use on top the butcher block, or better yet, on a small table set up in the cockpit (actually a fish cutting board, but it gets more use as a stove table). That keeps the heat and condensation out of the cabin! We have an enclosed head that I replaced the marine toilet with an Airhead composting toilet. We also have a shower in there (behind the small compartment door), but to conserve potable water, I have two large solar campshower bags I place on the roof. (The boat’s potable water tank only holds 20 gals.) The one on the starboard side I can bring the shower hose in through the head window and I have the toilet set up on a platform whereby I can remove it to give us more room for showering. (We can get 2 ½ showers out of each bag, and when the one bag is empty, I move the bag from the port side over to the starboard side.) We have a small table we can eat at. Along with the small refrigerator, we also have a portable Engle Freezer that when I’m solo, I usually strap down on the port forward seat. Otherwise, the freezer just stays in the cockpit (back of the boat). Rosanne made a nice insulated cover for it, and that’s what around it in the photo. With the freezer inside, I leave the seat and convertible back rest at home. I have two 100 watt solar panels on top the roof that are hinged so that I can lift them to clean the roof, or even take them off if I need to. If you look close, you can see we have several fans around the cabin and V-Berth. And since we do some cooler weather boating, I have a small webasto diesel heater. I also recently installed a 1200 watt inverter, just big enough to run the microwave if I don’t have shore power or want to start the generator. Also nice for charging up this laptop. :-) Anyway, that’s my home away from home in a nutshell.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 11

    Babbit Bay

    May 17 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    5/17. It was a very calm night anchored in Spellman Creek last night. We left there this morning at 7:30am and got back on the Pungo River. We passed Belhaven, NC and then shortly after entered the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal. This is a fairly narrow canal that is pretty much straight for its entire 23 mile distance. Very calm water, except when other boaters over take or pass you without slowing down, or worse yet, slow down, but instead of slowing down enough to not produce a wake, they end up “plowing” water, which leaves a bigger wake. A situation of the boater not caring or knowing what their wake is doing! Many of the boaters are more courteous and will slow down to a no wake speed. We are probably the slowest boats on the water. We cruise at 5 kts. Most the trawlers will cruise around 7-9 kts. The sailboats are doing about 6 kts. And then the go fasts are doing about 12-20 kts. We cruise slow for fuel efficiency and to see more. Many of the boats we are traveling among are doing the “Great Loop”. You can google it if you are not familiar. The canal bank has a lot of erosion from boater’s wakes. There are also a lot of stumps and snags along the canal’s edges. I’ve uploaded photos showing the erosion, stumps/snags and how busy the canal can sometimes be with several boats running together. Once we left the canal and entered the much wider Alligator River, with the wind we had 1 to 1 ½ foot chop. I think the winds were on the nose at 10-15 mph. This afternoon we only came down the Alligator River a little ways, and pulled into Babbit Bay to anchor for the night. The entrance past Catfish Point was a bit tricky with trees and stumps along the sides of the channel to come in. No photos as I was concentrating on navigating in! ;-) Covered 51 miles.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 12

    Elizabeth City

    May 18 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    Woke to a beautiful sunrise in Babbit Bay, and then saw the rainbow behind Mystery Girl. Got an early start as we left our anchorage around 6:45a. We had the Albemarle Sound to cross, and thought maybe earlier would be better as the winds seem to pick up more as the day goes on. It was choppy again continuing out the Alligator River, along with rain, and dodging Crab pot floats. I don’t like to spend a lot of time crossing open or larger bodies of water, so I left Bill and Mike behind as I pushed C-Traveler up on plane crossing the Sound. Fortunately, nothing worse than the 1 foot chop. Before leaving the Alligator River, we go under the Alligator River swing bridge. Because of the size of it, they will not open it whenever the winds are gusting more than 34 mph, or any other time the bridge tender doesn’t feel it’s safe. Didn’t matter for us, as the bridge has a clearance of 14’ and that was about 6” higher than I need for my VHF antenna’s, which I can put down if necessary. Bill also can put his antenna down, and Mike’s is not that high. As I was entering the Pasquatank River on the ICW track, there was a sunken sail boat with about 30’ of mast sticking up. I reported it to the USCG, but I suspect they were already aware of it. I continued dodging all the crab pot floats, passed the Weeksville Airship Hangar (during WW II blimps were a key part of the US defense against German U-Boats and this building could house a dozen of the armed airships!), then passed the USCG Air Station Elizabeth City base. I was never stationed at E City, but seeing the planes brought back fond memories of flying the C-130 in Sacramento and Kodiak! Finally passed under the Elizabeth City bridge and then found space on the dock in front of the Mid Atlantic Christian University. Bill and Mike arrived two hours later and rafted off of me. Before they arrived I walked downtown to enjoy the Potato Festival. 50 miles today.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 12

    Lake Drummond Ditch, Bill and Mike

    May 18 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    These are photos Bill and Mike took the other day when I stayed rafted at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center, and they continued up to the Lake Drummond Ditch. Also two photos while we were all at the Elizabeth City Mid Atlantic Christian University.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 13

    Dismal Swamp Canal

    May 19 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Left Elizabeth City this morning on the Pasquotank River. Went through the old Albermarle and Chesapeake Railroad Bridge, that must have recently been removed, that had a pretty dilapidated building next to it. Turned into Turners Cut leading into the South Mills Lock on the south end of the Dismal Swamp Canal. Bill and Mike stopped to take their Kaboats and explore a side channel while I kept going, picking my speed up a bit to make the 11am lockage. I’d lock through, then make my way to the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center and see if I could get a space on the dock there, then Bill and Mike would join (raft) after the 1:30p lockage. They apparently were able to take Mystery Girl and Little Joe all the way down that channel, so never got their Kaboats down. When I got to the visitor center, there were already 3 large boats on the 150’ dock, with one already rafted. I rafted on another big boat and informed Bill and Mike that they could raft on me when they got here. Rather than join the crowd of boats, they decided to continue to the Lake Drummond Feeder Ditch, find somewhere to dock or anchor their boats, and then explore the ditch with their Kaboats. Once they got there, they called to let me know there was a small dock there, but since I was already rafted and in a good place for the night, I decided to stay put. Tomorrow they’ll get going early and go through the first lockage at the Deep Creek lock on the north end of the Dismal Swamp at 8am, and then do some more exploring with their Kaboats right on the other side of the lock. I’ll go through the 11:00am lockage, and meet them before we continue on. The Dismal Swamp State Park and Visitor Center is right next to a Highway Rest stop. The state park visitor’s center has some interpretive displays, while the rest stop visitor center is more of a gift shop. Prior to supper, I enjoyed social hour with the other boaters docked here for the night.Read more

  • TravelerNorth Carolina Loop
    Day 14

    Norfolk, VA

    May 20 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    I left the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center dock this morning at 7:30am and made my way to the Deep Creek Lock. Most interesting thing I saw was a farmer’s portable steel bridge that he can slide back and forth to get his livestock and farm equipment across the canal. Both Mike and I tried to get photos of it when we went by, but were already by before we were able to take a shot. The entire canal is not much more than 50 feet wide pretty much the entire length. And only about 7-8 feet deep. Just before the Deep Creek lock, is a bascule bridge that also has to be raised before we can get under it. Two of the other larger boats at the Visitor Center were waiting with me for the bridge and lock. One south bound boat was locked through at the 11am lockage, and then the lock tender, who also tends to the bridge, about a ¼ mile away, came down to open the bridge. Once the south bound was through, then the three of us continued under the open bridge and to the lock. The operator drove back to the lock and locked us through. After lockage, I met back up with Mike and Bill, who had gone through the first lockage at 8:30, then anchored in the next bend, while taking their small Kaboats back on a small side creek to explore. We continued on in Deep Creek, and then turned into the Elizabeth River Channel, which runs into Chesapeake Bay. We entered the Norfolk outskirts and all the industries along the water. Not far, we had to wait about 30 minutes for a railroad bridge to be opened. It’s normally left open, except when trains are traveling by. There were quite a number of boats waiting by the time it opened! Coming around Money Point, we turned into Saint Julian Creek to anchor for the remainder of the day and night. 23 miles today.Read more

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