Mile Hammock, St James and Wacca Wache

11-13 to 11-15-11
It was a quiet night on the hook at Mile Hammock Bay.  We were surprised that there were only 10 boats there, but is was nice because you did not have to worry about having enough room.  We got an early start and were out on the waterway before 7:00.  Wayne got some beautiful Sunrise pictures before we left.  Here is one of them, the water was so calm you can see the sunrise reflected in the water.

I took this picture as we were entering the waterway looking out behind us.  Sunrises and sunsets over the water make them even more beautiful.

We made great time all day.  We timed the bridges perfectly and the bridge tenders were kind. Our normal anchorage is at Carolina Beach, but we had a favorable current to make it through Snow's Cut and across the Cape Fear and it was early afternoon so we decided to keep going.  There were not any good anchorages on the other side of the Cape Fear.  We heard other boats calling the St James Plantation Marina.  We called and they had a spot for us for a reasonable price.  We got fuel and tied up to a slip.  St James Plantation is a gated community near Southport, NC.  They had a nice ships store and restaurant.  We would stay there again.

We got another early start and made great time.  We had another beautiful day on the water and saw dolphins, turtles and LOTS of Pelicans.   We tied up at Wacca Wache Marina for the night. Wayne's cousin Bryan and his wife, Sam, live just off the Waccamaw River near Wacca Wache Marina.  They had invited us over for dinner and were nice enough to let us do a load of laundry.  We had a fun evening and a wonderful dinner.  Bryan had caught some fish over the weekend and blackened them for us.  He also created a new shrimp recipe with a secret ingredient that was an emergency substitution that turned out REALLY good.

Tuesday found us out again early.  Wayne had to do some fancy backing to get out of the marina, he did it like a pro.  I guess this is like riding a bike we are getting used to it again very quickly after our 2 year break.

The Waccamaw River is different from most of the waterway with it's large moss covered trees.  I always enjoy the ride through this section.  The leaves were not quite as colorful as in the past but still very enjoyable.  This is a view along the Waccamaw.

 Today we played dodge the lily pad.  From far away this looked like a lot of debris in the water.  When you get up close it is clusters of lily pads.  We needed to avoid them to keep the roots from getting tangled in the props.  It is kind of like a live video game !

 We heard a boat ahead of us say "dolphins at red 26".  There are dolphins everywhere, so this was a little unusual.  We get there and my guess is there were 20 to 30 dolphins !!!  They were playing and having fun.  They love swimming next to the amas like they are racing the boat.  I was on the bow trying to get pictures...not a single one turned out.  I had so much fun watching them race the boat and jump in the wake. I kept thinking to myself these must be the teenage dolphins and if their mother's knew what they were doing they would be in trouble, but it sure was fun !

We passed this "one car ferry" in an out of the way place on the waterway.  The waterway was not very wide at this point .  I am not sure I would want my car on it.

We stopped at Graham Creek for the night.  We like this anchorage and have stopped here every time we have passed it.  After we had the anchor down the boat ahead of us hailed us and ask if they would like to join them and the two boats they had been traveling with on their boat for Happy Hour.  We had been in this group of boats off and on since we had anchored with them at Mile Hammock.  We met Ross and Diana from s/v One White Tree, Chris and Brenda from s/v Tango and John and Deb from s/v Java.  It was a fun get together.

We used our dinghy to get over to One White Tree.  This was the first time we had used the dinghy and the dinghy motor in 2 years.  They worked well and we once again were able to remember all of our methods of getting the dinghy down, the engine on etc.  For those of you new to the blog we have a 10 foot Avon Inflatable with a 15 hp Mercury Mariner outboard also known as the "family car".  We also carry two sea kayaks for a little exercise :)