Scary Stuff! Rock Pile, Lockwood Folly & More: Cruising the Carolinas

1,000 Great Loop miles down, only 5,000 to go!  We’re realizing how lucky we are to see the US from the water – a totally different perspective and we’re loving it!  After starting the week with 3 inches of rain and a gale warning, plus scary sounding ICW places like The Rock Pile and Lockwood Folly, we’re happy to have “weathered” this week safely!

During the two days of bad weather, we were safely tucked away in Osprey Marina near Myrtle Beach, SC.  We took advantage of this friendly family facility to fill up with diesel (reportedly some of the lowest diesel prices on the ICW), did laundry, had free bagels and coffee each morning while enjoying the camaraderie of other northbound cruisers who, like us, are waiting out the gale warning & deluge of rain.

South of us in Charleston, cruisers weren’t so lucky … there were reports of 45 mph winds and 4 foot waves crashing over the docks in several Charleston area marinas.  Boats were frantically trying to keep the dock from damaging their vessels. We encountered one of the boats entering Osprey as we were leaving.  Their stern platform had been ripped off – and this was a well built, newer Selene trawler.

After the gale force weather passed, we took advantage of five calm sunny days, 2 states and four stops to get to Morehead City, positioned to cross Pamlico Sound, one of two open water areas ahead.  Monday’s forecast is for flat calm, should be a good time to cross to Oriental and then on to Belhaven, NC.

But with names like The Rock Pile and Lockwood Folly, the ICW has several challenging spots in this area.  Boats have lost props, bent shafts and worse in The Rock Pile – a very narrow channel with rocks jutting up from the bottom, reportedly as little as 3 feet under the water.  Optimystique draws 4′.  We were careful to run the middle of the channel and escaped.  I was a bit disappointed that The Rock Pile wasn’t more visual – at low tide, I had envisioned  3-4 foot granite walls on each side.  Despite navigating the hazard at low tide, this is all we saw.  I guess I should be happy we’re safely through!

Lockwood Folly, the next major challenge, had varying reports of 3.5′ of water at low tide.  Many said to be sure to go through at least 2.5 hours before low tide.  Since low tide was noon and Lockwood Folly was 25 miles up the ICW, we had to leave the marina before 7 AM to time it correctly.  We saw nothing less than 8′.

We negotiated 6 other ICW trouble spots in the last two days, with nothing less than 7-8′ under our keel.  Basically the shoaling occurs anywhere there’s an inlet.  We didn’t even transit these during a mid-tide or higher, but we did make sure to stay mid-marked-channel, checking forward as well as behind us constantly to make sure current wasn’t sweeping us out of our intended course.  David’s ICW mantra is “honor the marks” – think that comes from his Coast Guard background?

We moved every day after the weather turned nice on Wednesday.  Wednesday night was Myrtle Beach Yacht Club where we enjoyed $1 taco night at the Officer’s Club (upstairs at the yacht club) with 5 Looper boats – Optimystique, Blue Moon, Blue Goose, Magic & Wine Speed.  Fun evening!

Thursday night was Deep Point Marina where the Bald Head Island ferry departs.  We were there before noon, so enjoyed the afternoon on Bald Head Island, even climbed Old Baldy, the Cape Fear Lighthouse established in 1817.

Along the way, we anchored at Mile Hammock Bay – a bay on the south side of Camp Lejeune Marine Base.  We saw Osprey helicopters and lots of regular helicopters, most flying two by two, but no real “action”.

Others report having the Marines blowing  up stuff ashore and practicing their scuba skills next to anchored boats, but since it was a Friday night, David said they were all in the bars.  But Saturday morning that worked to our advantage since there was no “live fire” across the ICW which could have delayed us for several hours.

Saturday evening in Morehead City Yacht Basin turned out to be a good choice for us.

Definitely on the “other” side of the river from the Beaufort (where most boats stop), Morehead City is a commercial ship port and fishing mecca.  After getting settled, we decided to change the oil … our first time by ourselves on Optimystique.  All went better than expected and that’s done for another 100 engine hours.

There was a huge offshore fishing tournament the day we were there & we watched as all the towering sportfishing boats came in & had their catch weighed.  More mahi mahi, wahoo and yellowfin tuna than we’ve ever seen all in one place!  I still think they could have offered us a couple tuna steaks … or mahi filets, but no one offered, despite us hanging around and watching the fishermen clean their prizes.

This week we’ll make the decision whether to tackle the Dismal Swamp Route … or the more traditional Virginia Cut.  Two alternate ICW routes to Norfolk.  I’m voting Dismal Swamp, but it will require more research.  Reports are the entire channel is 5′ deep with sunken logs on the bottom … don’t want to destroy Optimystique, but sure would like to experience the Dismal Swamp.  When we brought s/v Winterlude south, we did the Virginia Cut (yes, including Coinjack) because the Dismal Swamp was closed.

Here’s to the next 1000 miles of The Great Loop! Onward!