Trip To Swansboro

[AirborneJarhead]

The wife and I wanted to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary by doing a bit of salt water sailing. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune for many a year and we always liked the Swansboro area.
In preparation, I knew I would need to fix my trailer up a bit so I replaced the axle and hubs with new ones sourced from Northern Tool. That done, I turned my attention to the boat. I put a new 46lbs thrust saltwater capable trolling motor on her and ran 8 gauge wires from a newly installed connector installed in the cockpit up to the deep cycle battery that currently sits on the keel in the cabin. Makes for taking the motor on and off so easy! Then we loaded all the gear we figured we'd need and hit the road from Charlotte, NC to Swansboro, NC...a 257 mile trip. We initially intended to leave Saturday morning and spend the night on the boat, but bad weather laid those plans to waste.
We got to the NCDNR boat ramp off of Hwy 24 around noon and got really lucky in that a parking spot was available to get Little Wing rigged up. As most are, this boat ramp was a madhouse and a flood tide had the current ripping through. Plus it sits right on the ICW and boat traffic and wakes were ridiculous! But, we managed to splash her and get the truck parked with no drama.
We motored out into the traffic pattern and began fighting our way through the wakes. The 46lbs motor was more than adequate and I really only needed to set it at 4 out of 5 on the throttle to make good way. Once we made it out of the channel, we raised the main and had a nice sail. I was too chcken to go forward to raise the jib as we were really getting hammered by the wakes. I definitely see a roller furler in my future! But with the 10 to 12 knot winds, we were cooking along just fine at 3-4 knots.
We sailed around Shark Tooth Island and turned around near the inlet entrance and found a nice little beach with a deep drop where we could pull up and relax for awhile. I made a dent in the cooler's beer inventory for sure! We watched dolphins and all the crazies in their go-fast boats for awhile then decided to take another sail. Unfortunately, once we got underway, we noticed dark and ominous clouds building up so we decided caution was the better part of valor and motored back to the ramp. Getting her back on the trailer was quick and painless. Within 15 minutes, the rain hit and we were safe in our hotel high-fiving at our sound decision making. The next day would be Monday and we knew we'd have the water nearly to ourselves so we just went out to eat and enjoyed a free concert in the town square.
Unfortunately, the weather Gods were not so kind and Monday dawned dark, gloomy and rainy with the threat of bad thunder storms as well. So it was an easy decision to just grab breakfast and haul our butts back to Charlotte. We are thinking our next sailing adventure will be Charleston in October. Until then, I'll be plying the waters of Lakes Norman and Wylie.

[geeman]

Sounds like a good trip even if the weather didn't fully cooperate and the work you've done to the trailer definitely paid off!  Also your experience with the trolling motor answered some questions I've had about using one as the sole auxiliary.  Thanks for posting.

[Bramble]

I'm glad you got to make the trip.  Sounds like a good balance of daring & caution.  Thanks for sharing.

[geeman]

AirborneJarhead - What are the keel guides on your trailer made of?  Looks like maybe 3 inch pvc curved outward at the aft ends.  If you made them, am I right about the material and how were they curved and made to stay that way?  Thanks

[AirborneJarhead]

Geeman, I will go out this afternoon to see what, exactly, it's made of. I know they are stout as I use them as handles to lift the back of the trailer to set it on jackstands.