Begin – 33.86N  78.63W – North Myrtle Beach, SC

End – 32.77N  79.84W – Charleston, SC

Total fuel:  67.90 gallons

Travel time:  7.5 hours

Miles traveled:  114 miles

Seas – Calm ICW

We shoved off late this morning because of intense thunder and lighting storms… luckily Kelly downloaded a very cool app from NOAA Hi-Def Radar App for our IPAD… that works great! We could see clearly that we only needed to wait a couple hours before we could leave and it was spot on… so by 10:00AM we were able to finally shove off and head to my buddy Matt’s slip in Charleston.

The running was smooth in the ICW and our first fuel stop was in Socastee SC, we poured off my spare 10 gallons to lighten up my ride, I’ve been having some porpoising issues and have found that if I burn off my spare fuel first the rest of my day riding is much nicer!

We ran down through the ICW which I believe was the Waccamaw River, the riding was really smooth until we hit the mouth of the river where it meets Georgetown, all at once it went from flat calm to 3′ waves every 3′!  The good news is that were able to maintain about 20 miles per hour and stay on the peaks of the waves… this only lasted for about 3 miles.

We ended up having lunch (2:00pm) in Georgetown at the Lands End restaurant, the food was worth coming back for sure. :-)  We didn’t play around here… we refueled and shoved off for Charleston… we made Charlestown by 5:30pm and my man Matt was waiting on his boat to help us tie up for the night!  We hung on Matts boat for a bit, threw back some coldies and headed for his house.

Over & Out

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

Begin – 34.71N  76.71W – Morehead City, NC

End – 33.86N  78.63W – North Myrtle Beach, SC

Total fuel:  73.18 gallons

Travel time:  9.5 hours

Miles traveled:  138 miles

It was time to pack up from our Cousin Vinny’s and push on!  The morning started a little rough… wind blowing out of the SSW at 15 knots… the good news is that we where able to run the western side of the Bogue sound so we were in the lea and able to run in some calm water.

After Bogue sound it was all smooth running because of the ICW… while passing Camp Lejeune we got ourselves a real treat… we needed to do a little refueling and unbeknown to us we stopped right in the middle of a live fire exercise… WOW!

The bombs bursting in air and live machine gun fire made for a very quick refuel… I’ll make sure we get some of the video posted… it was loud!

We rounded South Port and stopped to refuel and lunch, we had lunch at the Dead End Saloon and enjoyed their food very much… we really enjoyed the clam soup!

We actually refueled two times this day, once in Hampstead and the second in South Port.

Pushing onward we made way for  North Myrtle Beach, we spotted a Marina named Cricket Harbor and had to make a run for it… unfortunately they didn’t have any sleeping accommodations, however as future would have it we bumped into a super guy that was working on one of the head boats and he directed us down the ICW about 1/2 mile, you wouldn’t believe it… once we pulled into this marina Steve actually drove his truck down to help us get squared away… so much so that he called his buddy Tom (which owned a slip at this marina) to see if we could use his slip… which Tom did let us use for the night and that was seriously appreciated!  Thank you very much Steve and Tom… it was a sweet pleasure to be helped like that at the end of a hard day!

So we checked into the Holiday Inn Express had are really nice dinner and Clarks restaurant and called it a night.

Over & Out

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

No running during these couple of fine days… we got to enjoy ourselves with my Cousin Vincent and his wife Dina and kids, Vinnie, Alex, Angelina and Sophia.

All the kids had a great time and they really enjoyed hanging out and playing together… they don’t see each other very often and they really have had a great time these past few days.

Dina kept us well feed to say the least!  She treated all of us like kings and where well nourished each day!  Thank you much Dina!  It was really nice catching up with my cousin Vinnie, we haven’t spoken together like that in years, so it was great.  Vince took good care of us and hooked us up at marina.

We even had some play time and took all the kids out of the skis for the afternoon and ran around the bay in front of Morehead city… the kids had a blast.

We were even able to go to mass together which was another nice treat…

It’s so nice to be able to see your relatives and have an enjoyable time!  Thanks Vince and Dina for opening up your house to us all… we had a blast!

I hope we can do the same for you next time you visit up North!

Over & Out

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

Ps:  Still trying to catch up… working on it… will keep you posted.

Pss:  We’ve decided to run to the Bahamas, however we are going to run to Key West. :-)  I’ll fill you all in next post.

Begin – 35.46N  75.31W – Virginia Beach, VA

End – 34.92N  76.65W – Havelock, NC

Total fuel:  153 gallons

Travel time:  13 hours

Miles traveled:  188 miles

Finally leaving Va. Beach… the boys were getting stir crazy and wanted to push on… the seas were 1′ NW Winds 15 knots.  We left the dock at 7:30am and headed to Oregon Inlet a 65 mile run.  35 miles into the trip we needed to make a beach landing and refuel… our fuel consumption was double on this run.

When we landed on the beach a few woman came out from their houses and said we looked like “Red Dawn” invading the beach!  LOL!  The surf was 4′ to 6′ so the beach landing and departure was real fun!  We all refueled successfully and pushed on for Oregon Inlet, we arrived at Oregon Inlet at 1:00pm.  This ended up being a pretty tough ride, it sure was nice seeing Oregon Inlet and making the run in…  Oregon wasn’t too bad today, you just have to stay between the waves!

We meet a bunch of really cool people, our first encounter was with Dick Adams, great guy, Civil War Actor (for the South of Course!) and keeper of cold watermelon…

Dick (pictured above right side) was kind enough to breakout some delicious watermelon and share with us and a stranded group of people from the outer banks.  As a matter of fact it was like a refugee camp at his location do to the hurricane Arthur and all that were evacuated… what a bummer… be on vacation and get shipped out there was about 200 people at this location just making do.

we packed up and set  course for Core Creek, about 85 mile run.  In the beginning of the run all was good and once we cleared Parched Corn Bay… from Parched Corn Bay all the way to Core Creek we took a spanking… we had to run slow and with that we ran out of daylight at 8:38pm and fortunately for us we invaded Bill & Kathy McDade’s home and for us, what a blessing!

I can’t say enough about the McDade’s, we met their son in law on the beach, explained our situation and in latterly minutes we where introduced to the family, which offered us fresh dry towels and water.  We packed up our gear and called my Cousin Vinny, he lives about 30 minutes away… his lovely wife Deana was able to come and pick us up. :-)

Now back to the McDade’s… after securing our skis the McDades invited us into their home and gave us, fruit, cheese and crackers, and most importantly… not to mention a fine selection of beer!  Their three little nieces where helping out and running around with excitement… looking at the jet ski people! LOL  It was the perfect family to run into… they are avid sailors and their daughter even races sail boats in San Fran… so they totally understood our situation. :-)

Thank  you very much Mr. & Mrs. McDade, we really appreciated all the hospitality!

Thank God we made it to where we did, the fortune of the McDade’s and only 30 minutes from Vincent and Deana’s home!

Since it was the Forth of July, Vincent was working the Fireworks so Deana had to make the ride out to pick us up… the reason I’m pointing this out because it was a very dark long ride, Deana never really ventured out this way however she toughed it out and made it to our location… Thank you Deana!!!

Vinny and Deana had everything ready for us when we got to their house… the boys were all joking that they could sleep on concrete and it would feel comfortable… however the air mattresses felt like the finest bedding one could buy!!!  What a great night sleep!

Over & Out

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

Ps:  I know I’m running a couple days behind… trying to catch up over the next couple days. :-)

Laid up in Virginia Beach, not advancement.

Hurricane Arthur threw us a curve ball… we needed to stay put for a few days.  In the meantime we took advantage of all that Va. Beach has to offer.

7-2

Kelly & Qwin went fishing off the pier, Matt tried surfing a couple times before the ocean came up.  I laid back had a couple drinks and just relaxed.

A highlight for me was seeing my old friend Mary, we actually got to go out for a wonderful sushi dinner with her and her two sons Tim 19 and Danny 15, they are two fine young men, Nice job Mary! :-)

Dinner was super and very filling, the boys couldn’t even finish everything… and that’s not normal!

So basically the next couple days were R&R that were filled with some fine meals and easy living.

7-3

We had a couple great breakfasts a Big’s Sams, its funny,  but when you aren’t running the boys nor I couldn’t eat as much!  The first couple days of running, you would think we haven’t eaten for a week,  today was a little different… all of us just couldn’t eat that much… thank goodness!

Today became a little busy… I needed to go to West Marine and replace the two GPS units that broke down on the 1st, we also had to move and consolidate our rooms from two to one because of the holiday weekend… it was a little crammed  however we worked it out.

After getting the units I needed to head back to the Rudee Inlet Station Marina, Pat and Cassin (the Boss) were great to deal with and anytime you need to travel to Rudee please use these guys… they are ACES!

As good furtune would have it I bumped into a few fine folks from Va. also berthing at Inlet Station, Jason, Milo and their fine wives where gracious and offered as many drinks as necessary!  We chatted a bit and talk about their BMX & Jet Ski endurance runs… it’s fantastic the people you run into in the boating world… it makes it all worth while!  Oh ya… how could you forget Bruce from Bikini Bottom!  Bruce was also nice enough to offer his paddle boards to the boys if they wanted to use them… Thanks Bruce and nice talking with you, it was a lot of fun.

7-4

Ok, we are all starting to get a little stir crazy… it felt like ground hogs day… up for breakfast and then back to the hotel and mill around… Matt and Qwin tried their best at surfing however the rip tides from Hurricane Arthur where really strong and those guys didn’t feel comfortable in the water… also the waves really weren’t all that good!

That night we went to Mahi Ma for .50 cent wings, oysters and clams!  We killed it and then took a bus downtown for some DQ and walked around checking out the sights… Va. Beach in the summer is a very very busy place… filled with carnivals, music and bunches of shopping, there was something for everyone.

Before we headed back to the barn we had to make a pass at the Haunted House… they did a great job and everyone had a ball!  Ok, it wasn’t that scary but the guys at the Haunted House did a great job. :-)

The fireworks were canceled for tonight, so we are going to try for Morehead City and we are thinking we can make it to Morehead city, because they rescheduled their fireworks for the 5th like lots of other spots along the east coast this week.

Looking forward to a better week of running next week and who knows what is in store for us!

Over & Out

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

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Begin – 37.92N 75.38W – Assateague, VA

End – 36.83N 75.97W – Virginia Beach, VA

Total fuel:  113 gallons

Travel time:  10 hours

Miles traveled: 80 miles

Since we had a late ending yesterday… We wanted to give our followers a little break this morning ;-) so we didn’t start running until 8:45am.

taking no chances of getting hung up, we poked our nose outside and ran south to Metompkin Inlet for 12 hard miles… Seas one to two feet with SE wind 10 knots.

we ran for another 30 minutes to Wachapreague Marina and refueled at Capt. Zeus… Great place with good people… We took on 51.46 gallons, and set course to one of my favorite little bars, The Sunset Grill… Big shout out to Sheree for her fine Southern Hospitality, she offered us a place to stay at her house because she heard our conversation with trouble  getting a place to stay at Rudee… As luck would have it we did get a room at the Schooner Inn, right at the point Rudee Inlet, Thanks Sheree!

We made friends with a biker dude (I’m sorry buddy I forget your name!  If you read this send me a message and I’ll update :-), however most importantly he gave us a perfectly shaped sand dollar for good luck, let me tell you we needed it for our last 18 miles… We plugged in Rudde Inlet to the GPS and made way.   Seas were nasty running 2 to 4 feet and the wind was blowing out of the SE 15 with 25 knot gust. It made a rough ride to say the least… The boys did a great job and learned why it is so Extremely Important to prepare for the worst… Ask Matt… He didn’t want to top off his fuel before we left, however I insisted he did, which ended up being very very important… It took us 2.5 hours to make 18 miles… It was a beating and I was blown off the ski twice because of my surfboard being caught by the wind at the peak of the waves, good times!

The boys didn’t have any deboarding issues which made me very happy…. They made their Sea Bones today and learned what not to do the next time!

We departed Sunset Grill at 4:15 and arrived at Rudee at 6:39pm, made way for Inlet Station Marina and for our sake was helped out by Pat.   Thank God Pat was working he helped put on 61.60 gallons of fuel,  was able to provide us berthing and even gave us a ride to the hotel which he actually called in advance for us to make sure the had accommodations!  Thanks Pat you were a life saver!

We settled in and caught dinner at Il Gardino on 10th street… Yummy, it was a nice treat after our beating. :-)

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

Enjoy the Dolphin show off Indian River inlet

Begin – 39.21N 74.32W – Northfield, NJ 6:55am

End – 37.93N 75.38W – Chincoteague, VA 10:00pm

Total fuel: 74.61 gallons

Travel time: 15 hours

Miles traveled: 122 miles

Met the Harvester on Wildwood Beach 8:30am, he took some great photos… I’ll post them in the gallery.

made course for Indian river inlet

seas calm and glassy

At 9:30am appox 12 miles out I received low fuel indication… Wanted to test how long we could run after indication, ran 35 minutes at 5k RPM until dry… Did refueling exercise at sea with success.

refueled at Indian river took on 45.34 gallons of fuel, set course for Ocean City Maryland and ran ICW all the way to Chincoteague,

Got to see the tons of wildlife and even the ponies on the way

set course for Rudee Inlet via ICW and had a run in with some water that wasn’t conducive to marine craft  (yep stuck in mud), as luck would have it, we did this on a falling tide,

so we had 3.5 hours to contemplate running in the shallows…. unstuck at 6:30pm… Made a run at the ocean only to turn back a couple miles off and call it a night.

topped off fuel once more at Curtis Merrit Harbor took on 29.27 gallons

Got a hotel room with slips, ordered pizza and hits the racks at 11:00pm… Long first day.

total miles traveled 122

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)