"2000, November 12-13 First Trip Whitaker Creek" Oriental Travelogue by grandmaR

No Wake Zone in the Canal

As we approach Goose Creek, I download pocketmail and get 4 minutes worth before I get cut off. Bob opens the engine hatch in the floor to check to see if the engine temp on the gauge is really 170 like it says, instead of 180 like it should be.

A white boat named ENCORE, but with no hailing port passes us. Bob gets on the radio to warn ENCORE that the marker is a river marker and not an ICW marker (river markers going down the river the red is on the left - ICW markers going south - which we are- the red is on the right). They hastily changed course.

ICW chart with track to Whitaker Creek

We go from the canal into the Bay River (which I think is a funny name for a river), and then into the Neuse River. There aren't many waves, just a few little ones at the mouth of the river. The wind is off the starboard quarter at 4.8 knots apparent, and our speed is 5.5 knots. Looking at the water on the horizon through the binoculars, the waves make it appear deckled. SANTA MARIA is on our starboard and ENCORE is in front of us.

They both go over to Adams creek on the port. We have decided to go to Oriental for the night so we go up the river instead of into Adams Creek. We stopped at Whitaker Creek Yacht Harbor. They have slips big enough for some of the smaller catamarans. We went to WCYH because it was closer to the ICW. They have a lounge with washers and a phone that you can use free for the computer and a courtesy car.

I called the marina yesterday afternoon to make a reservation. They asked us our keel depth and our beam and our eta. I told them I had no idea of an ETA. I called from the Bay River and told them I thought we'd be there between 3:15 and 4.

They put us on the first slip beside the fuel dock. We are tied up by 3:15 p.m. after 48 miles at 6.3 mph.

Quesidillas which I had again in 2003

I finish up a roll of film and mail it there. I also found the Southern Cruising Guide and bought it. I talked to a lady on a catamaran who is going down farther along the Adam's Creek Canal to Jarrett Bay Boatworks to get their boat hauled because they are the only one with a lift big enough for their boat. They are doing the cutlass bearing and leaving the boat to go to visit their daughter in Germany. Daughter is a year younger than our son.

The marina people tell us that several of the restaurants in town (2 miles) will come and pick us up, so I call the M&M cafe, and he says he'll be there in 5 minutes and he was. We had a very nice meal. I had crab, spinach and cheese quesidillas and Bob had a surf and turf. I had enough room left for a piece of cheese pecan pie, and Bob had a brownie sundae, with only one scoop of ice cream by request.

There was another couple there - German I think - who had tried to walk from the marina, and got a lift for the last bit. We are surprised at how many foreigners there are cruising the US.

Visiting marina cat

As we got back, we saw the Canadian boat CARELLEN that we saw in Elizabeth City with the two boys (7th and 9th grades that they are home schooling) coming in. I finished up yesterday's journals and took the computer in and hooked up to the phone and downloaded all the e-mail. Bob thinks we can go all the way to Swansboro tomorrow if we leave early enough, so I do that route.

Originally, he had wanted to go to a consignment shop he heard about in Oriental, but we can't get the courtesy car until 9:00 a.m.

The marina has cats which come aboard congenial boats. One of them worked its way under our buttoned down cockpit enclosure (it was cold so everything was secured) and jumped down from the cockpit through the top of the companionway onto the nav table and spent some time watching TV with us.

We watched TV until we fell asleep.

Channel into Whitaker Creek

Bob decided to get a shower this morning because he had been too tired last night, so he went down and did that.

It was very foggy - none of the daymarks were visible from the dock less than 100 feet away. Very still and calm, but also sunny. Bob said that we wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, so I took some photos, and redid the route to account for leaving later, so that we would go to Beaufort like I told our son that we would do.

Then of course the fog lifted quickly, so I didn't get a chance to take a shower like I had wanted to do. I did got down to the bathroom and to do one last pocketmail download at the phone.

On the way back to the boat I met the lady from CARELLEN, and asked her if she'd seen Fred and Sharon. She said they all had gone into the marina at the Alligator River bridge, and that she'd seen them since then. She said it was too cold for them to anchor out last night.

We saw several birds in the trees near where we were including a red bellied woodpecker. After I got back to the boat, I found that Bob was showing the Canadians the screens I painted, so they came aboard and looked at them from both sides, and I showed her the paint I used.

Next stop: Beaufort NC