Day 310, Monday, April 28th, on the “road” again, (so to speak)!

Day 310, Monday, April 28^th, on the “road” again, (so to speak)!  and yes it is Willie Nelson's voice we hear when we say this.

Picturesque start to the day

Up and at em, we head out by 7:00 to time the tides across the skinny waters.  As we work our way from Myrtle Beach to North Mrytle Beach we pass under a gondola carrying golfers across the river to finish their game on the other side.  Normally we see skiers with skis hanging off the gondola, not golf clubs.  We hold our breath as we pass under the wires.  Of course as murphy would have it we pass directly under the wire as a gondola is passing across.  Wonder if we will ever get used to going under stuff in our sailboat.  A couple miles into the trip and with Julie at the helm we bump something in the water, luckily no damage. We were in the proper spot in the channel, just some debris that had relocated itself.

Golf clubs hanging from gondola

Beach out to the ocean with vehicles on it

We get to Southport and struggle with the decision of whether to push on.  It is low tide and we attempt to pull into the basin, but we can see there are a few boats sitting in the mud and we don’t trust we won’t ground out.  Our alternate marina looks pretty crowded and no one is answering the VHF.  We look at tomorrows weather and it does not look so good so we decide to push on.  One reason we were going to sit tight was there is up to a 3 knot current up the Cape Fear river and our timing may not be so great.  As we head out we are slowed down to half speed which we anticipated, however as we move north for about 15 minutes we are able to pick up a couple of knots of speed so it is not too bad.  Before long we are doing a satisfactory 6 knots which will enable us to reach Wrightsville beach in daylight.  There is a cut up ahead that may add more current issues, but we decide to push on anyways as there are not any great spots here that we want to be trapped for 3 days. We are thrilled that the current is not causing us grief.  It may be part luck but so far the current has been our excellent friend (touch wood).

We reach snow cut and again are pleasantly pleased that the current is not too strong at all.  We have heard some nasty stories about the currents in this area.  We have now been moving for 10 hours and are getting tired and sore from standing a lot as we hand steer most of the ICW whereas when we are in the ocean we use the autohelm.  We continue on another hour and reach Wrightsville Beach to find out there are no docks available.  Normally this would not matter too much, however there is a storm system coming through so we wanted to be on a dock.  We anchor close by and settle in for the night. We see a drone in the sky with a camera on it.  Big Brother is watching.....

Drone in the sky taking pictures

The currents are fairly strong where we anchor and the boats are facing every which way, making it difficult to determine the amount of swing space needed.  We come up on deck after the tide has changed to find ourselves way to close to the neighbour so we shorten our scope.  Luckily there is little to no wind so we are fine with less scope out for the night.

We review the charts, eat dinner, play a game of Kings Cribbage and are off to bed for the night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson