Looking for the Carolina Sunshine

11/3 - We woke this morning to the sound of the couple across the dock preparing to leave. Soon there were many more voices than two and some of them were quite loud. We peeked out to see what was going on. The boat leaving was quite a large sailboat, but it did not have bow thrusters and the strong wind was blowing it against the dock. They had to maneuver in a small area and were having difficulty turning around to head out of the marina. The marina staff jumped in a small tender and attached a line to the bow of the sailboat and helped pull them around and then down the fairway of the marina.

Since we were up, we prepared to leave too. Fortunately, we were on the opposite side and the wind was blowing us out a bit instead of into the dock. Gerry backed the boat down the dock, with the dock master holding one of our lines in case we needed assistance. We managed to depart without much trouble at all. Once out of the marina and on the ICW we passed by our friends house (Rick and Betsy). Right about that time, they called us on the radio and wished us a safe trip – they had been watching us as we headed down the ICW.

Took a shot of Rick and Betsy's house as we passed by.
Thanks again for your hospitality!

Boats waiting at the Surf City Swing Bridge

The pink house.  We took a shot of this house last spring;
however, this time our friends provided as with a little local knowledge.
Seems the owner of this house also owns several X-rated
establishments in the area ..... hummmmm .........

Today’s trip was complicated by 3 bridges we needed to have opened – one of which opened on the hour and half-hour, and two that opened only on the hour. When you’re a slow boat it’s tricky making the bridges at the right time. If you’re too late, then you have to maneuver around until the next opening. We timed the first opening about perfect – only had to wait a few minutes. For the next two we decided to take a chance and hope we could sneak under them. They are listed at 20 feet. We need 19 ½ feet to clear. That’s way too close for comfort. Fortunately, it was low tide so that gave us a few feet more of clearance. We cleared both bridges without having to wait for an opening. At one bridge we had 25 feet of clearance and at the Wrightsville Beach Bridge we had 21 feet.

Our destination for the evening was the Wrightsville Beach anchorage. Gerry said this was kind of like getting back on the horse after you’ve fallen off. For those of you that followed our blog on the Great Loop, you may remember that we ran aground earlier this spring going into the Wrightsville Beach anchorage. Then, we later thought we were dragging the anchor and tried to start the engine so we could move – but the engine wouldn’t start. It wasn’t until the next morning that Gerry figured out what was wrong. Even with all the bad luck last time, we decided this was the best anchorage for tonight.

11/4 – The forecast for today was 100% chance of rain with some wind. A good day to stay put. We puttered around on the boat. Gerry did a few things in the bilge; Linda read, made bread and worked on the Bahamas provisioning list, all while listening to the rain and the wind howl outside the boat. All in all a pretty relaxing day.

Boats in the anchorage in the early morning