Interesting Travels Interspersed with Beauty

SEVILLA faces the rising sun

     As I mentioned last night, 5:30 comes mighty fast. We did what needed to be done and has our anchor pulled by 6:25. The sunrise was spectacular. Thank heavens for my camera that just happens to have a phone attached to it!  While at the helm, I was able to capture the sunrise over the ICW.

 

Another for my favorites list!

    Today’s plan calls for us to travel 16 miles make the 9AM opening of the Surf City Bridge.  That will allow us cover the 18 miles to make the 11:30 opening of the Island Figure Eight Bridge.  Since we only move at 6-7 mph, there is no way to make the 5 mile trip to the Wrightsville Bridge for the noon opening. Instead, PEKABU made the opening at 1 as both the Surf City and the Wrightsville Bridges only open on the hour. RAGTIME, SEVILLA and PINNACLE stopped about 10 miles north of Wrightsville Beach to spend the night at Harbor Village Marina. BRUNELLE joined them a little later in the day.


PINNACLE, RAGTIME and SEVILLA

    All day the currents were constantly changing due to the many ocean inlets.  We would drop to 4 miles or fly at 8 mph depending on the direction of the current. Shoaling was a constant concern, but staying mid channel really helped.  Unfortunately, I had my first grounding at buoy 105 because the green mark was slightly out of place, so I went too far to the right.  Thankfully, we backed off and continued on.

 

RAGTIME and PINNACLE at
the Island Figure 8 Bridge

    Sometimes, or rather many times, you have to wonder just “what was he thinking!?!”  We were towards the back of 17 boats waiting for the Wrightsville Bridge opening. As usual, the power boats figure they are faster, so they should go through the bridge opening first so they don’t have to slowly pass the sailboats. Usually that is no problem . . .well, until today,  Just below the bridge, the ICW is lined with boats in docks.  Two of the big boats apparently had reservations on the first dock.  Both boats made the turn to the right just after the bridge.  While the first boat was docking, the second boat simply backed up into the channel while the rest of the boats were going through.  Needless to say there were many near misses while the captain of the vessel was totally oblivious!


Power boats make the journey too

 

Fishing in the shallows

    Despite all the Sunday boaters buzzing up and down the waterway, the rest of the trip went rather smoothly. That is until we came to Snows Cut.  Pete had been on the phone, very involved solving problems with his client for most of the afternoon.  When we arrived in the Carolina Beach area, the charts didn’t make sense to me.  Rather than interrupt Pete’s call, I slowed and began to make circles.  When he finally took note of where we were, he told me to go under the bridge.  The problem was that I could not see depth markings or the channel on the electronic chart.  I way really concerned about traveling in unknown depths.  Thankfully, Pete ended his call and took the helm through the cut.  He explained that for some unknown reason, the information disappeared for that area, but he knew we had plenty of water.




People had gnomes. . . then angels, but a giraffe the a new standard

Sunday's pastime



Family fun time













Constantly impressed with the strong currents











The Marina next to Snows Cut

Sunset at Carolina Beach State Park

 




    As we exited the Cut, the entrance to Carolina Beach State Park Marina was just to our left.  We filled up on fuel ($2.84 instead of the $1.67 per gallon we spotted earlier in our trip!) then tied up at our dock.  This is a beautiful little marina and at $30 flat docking fee, it is quite a bargain.  We'll stay here and let the rest of the group catch up.
 

ICW Mile Marker    296

 7.5 Hours       (Total 75.0 Hours)
52.4 Miles       (Total 467.6 Miles)