Waccamaw river

 Hi all, 

I was too beat yesterday to post. Had spent the previous night in Carolina Beach. I got up early to take advantage of the ebb on the Cape Fear River. Often I am able to sail the river but the wind was light. I have been a motorboat since Oriental, something I am not happy about. There has been wind but this part of the ICW is just too narrow and with a lot of traffic.

After dipping into the architectural aesthetic of the ICW, I feel I need to delve into the boat handling skills I have observed. Yesterday offered a couple of prime examples, one of which nearly turned tragic.

It began as I approached Lockwood's Folly inlet. With a name like that, you expect trouble, and I was rather beset with apprehension. It was dead low tide and I was poking along at just above idle speed, or about 3 miles an hour  trying to keep the boat in 5'9" of water. She draws one inch less than that. The alarm on the depth sounder was set at 7 feet, and it makes a high pitched whiny noise when that depth is encountered. It is not a pleasant sound. Fortunately, were I to go aground I would soon be lifted off by the rising tide.

The scene was complex as I rounded a bend. There were about a half dozen small fishing boats scattered about, 2 of which were the Jon boat type, perhaps 14 feet long with a very small outboard motor. One of the slightly bigger boats was crossing the narrow channel and he passed just behind me. So, lots of activity concentrated at a known fishing hotspot.

Into this congestion came 2 center console powerboats, each of about 26 or 27 feet, and sporting 2 big outboard motors. One thing I've observed about American boaters is that they like horsepower, they aren't timid about using it, and God forbid that they slow down. One of the boats is going north and the other is going south. White Seal is in the very middle of the channel going 3 mph.

It becomes evident that both boats intend to take the inside of the corner. They were both doing about 20 to 25 mph, which doesn't sound like much to car people, but believe me, it is plenty fast. I realized that they didn't see each other, but at literally the last second they each swerved, fortunately in each case to starboard. A poor sap minding his fish pole in one of the Jon boats was nearly swamped by a huge wake and received a saltwater shower. My boat got hit by spray, but thankfully not in the cockpit so my charts were ok. The weather was perfect and I wasn't expecting rain so I didn't have them covered. Other than being terrorized the other small boats fared OK. But here's the thing, the 2 trangressors didn't even slow down that I could see. There was a high speed exchange of the usual single finger salute and one party uttered some extremely coarse language not fit to repeat but they didn't stop. It all took about 15 seconds and White Seal continued poking along at 3mph till she got thru the critical area.

Perhaps an hour later I was approaching the Shallotte Inlet, which is very similar. I was in the same equivalent situation, tide very low, lots of small fishing boats including several anchored directly in the MIDDLE of the shallow, narrow channel. Once again I was crawling along when I could hear a very fast moving boat coming from behind. Due to some guy hogging the middle of the channel with his anchor and multiple fish lines out I moved over to the side of the channel, right next to a red buoy. It was very evident that there was a barely submerged sand bar coming out to the buoy. The powerboater had decided to take that route as there were no boats in that location. He and his buddy hit it hard and came to a very sudden stop. I hollered over and asked if they were OK. No response, but no injuries were apparent. Their focus was on getting the engine restarted, which amazingly enough, they did. It even went into gear and moved. It didn't sound too good but they went slowly past and pulled over at a conveniently located marine repair yard.

It's kind of crazy out there in boater world. Lots of people who aren't very good at it! I wish they would learn how to slow down!

Best, Charlie