May 14 Day 323 – Wrightsville Beach to Mile Hammock Bay

We planned to sleep in this morning as we figured there was no need to get up early. We couldn’t go anywhere with an engine that didn’t run and Gerry figured he wouldn’t get any replies to his e-mails from the Cummins guys until at least 9:00. However, we were up by 7:00, had breakfast and Gerry started checking other “engine” things. He could get the engine to run, but the reset fuse would pop and the engine would stop. He decided to check the wiring in the engine panel. Voila, he found a loose wire, tightened it, and that seemed to do the trick. He is soooooo smart !!

We left the anchorage about 9:15 to time our arrival at the Wrightsville Swing Bridge when it opened at 10:00. As we pulled into the ICW from Motts Channel, there was Chateau De Mer, a boat we had met in the St. Johns River. We had 3 bridges today, at least 2 of which we had to have opened. The other one turned out to have 23 feet of clearance so we were able to pass under without an opening.

Our trip today was a pretty easy one with a variety of scenery: developed areas with lots of homes; marshland; and during one stretch we were so close to the ocean you could see the sand dunes. Since we are so close to the ocean and passing so many inlets, the water has cleared up – no more coffee color right now (that will come again later).

Our destination was an anchorage called Mile Hammock Bay. It is in the area of Camp Lejeune. It’s a large dredged basin adjacent to military property but you are allowed to anchor as long as you don’t go ashore. We arrived at 3:00 and set the anchor. It was very windy. Thankfully, the anchor set very well and we had lots of swinging room.

Linda fixed a yummy pressure cooker meal, we watched TV, did a bit of computer stuff, planned tomorrow’s travels and then off to bed. It was still very windy as we went to bed.

Heading out Motts Channel -- we now had local knowledge on how to traverse the channel

Here's a shot of where Motts Channel meets the ICW and where we ran aground. On the left you can see the green mark -- but on the right, no red mark. There should have been one about a third of the way across the channel.

We ran aground here by this boat.

While waiting for the bridge to open, took a picture of the boat with the dogs -- the one in front is a chocolate lab -- looked just like our old dog Rocky

The Wrightsville Bridge opening for Chateau De Mer

Just before passing through the bridge, we noticed our little red rescue boat at the dock

This is what someone's tiki bar looked like at high tide -- you could only see the top of the palm tree and tiki hut

Wow, who'd have thought there would be giraffes in North Carolina

Here's the Surf City Bridge closing behind us

Petty in Pink - the sequel (posted a pink house yesterday, but think this one outdoes it)

Little strips of land between the ICW and the ocean

At this point on the Intracoastal, we were so close to the ocean you could see the dunes

We passed an area with lots of mud flats because of the low tide. This guy was trying to push his boat into deeper water.

Just before the entrance to our anchorage we had to maneuver around a tug and barge. With the low tide and strong wind, the tug was having difficulty keeping the barge out of the mud.

This was one of our anchormates -- an old rusted out landing craft

There were also some military boats and trucks

The military constantly has training excercises in the area. Here's an assault boat heading out.

The anchorage at sunset