Heading to Morehead City

Another beautiful start to the day!

Well, we have been having tides and currents to contend with. Now let's add bridges that have to be opened, but only on schedule. Makes for a great planning session. We all discussed it last night after we had dinner on Rocking B. Thanks Margaret and Ken! And thanks Connie for the cookies and for the boat-homemade scones we will enjoy for breakfast.

We decided to take up anchor and get to the Wrightsville Beach Bridge to get an on demand opening before 7:00. So we left the anchorage at 6:05 and headed for the bridge. We are passing thru a no-wake zone and a possible high current zone, so we wanted to allow plenty of time. No problem Escape and Rocking B went thru. Guinevere  and Sea Salt have plans for later. After 7:00 it is on schedule.

Pretty condo along the channel.

Me and my shadow!

Shay liked this boat...

...this one not so much.

Dockside, a favorite restaurant when we have a car.

Not sure what she is?

We then had 5 miles to travel to the next bridge. We were not sure if we could pass under without an opening, but the bridge tender called us and told us to come on thru, the bridge had 25' of water. So we went thru and B waited for the next opening.

Then the fun started. The next bridge is only opened on the hour. We have 17 miles to get to it. We went thru this bridge on the half hour, so we have either 2.5 hours or 3.5 hours to get to the Surf City Bridge. So, do we travel fast and try to make it in 2.5 hours, or do we go slow and do it in 3.5. Remember, we also have currents causing problems in the many small inlets we will pass by. Decisions, decisions, decisions. We talked it over with B and finally decided to go slow. We were passed by several sailboats and thought, "Ha-Ha, we will see you at the bridge!"

We kept checking out time and distance to the bridge and kept slowing down more and more. As we got close to the bridge, we did not see those sailboats, so they made it at the 10:00 opening. Well, we don't know how fast they had to travel to get to that opening.

Let me explain something. Remember, we are in a boat. We do not have any brakes, a park gear, or a shoulder we can pull off on. So when we have to wait for a bridge, it can be a problem. So we try to time it so we have a minimum wait time. And if you have other boats, which you usually do, it makes it even more fun!

We ended up with about 7 boats waiting for the Surf City Bridge 11:00 opening. We were going slow and the other boats kept passing us. One guy asked why we were "holding back". Shay said so there won't be such a traffic jam at the bridge. He said "ok" as he passed us. One of the boats, a trawler, was grounded for a while and had some trouble getting back into the channel.

Finally the bridge opened and we all got thru Sea Salt has caught up with us, so we are the 6 Musketeers again.

Yeah, we have more fluffy clouds today!

We had our boat hauled out here 2 years ago.

We were wondering if this is an indication of cutbacks to the upkeep of the ICW. Are these white poles supposed to replace the green and red markers? They are probably lots cheaper, but not so easy to interpret.

The steps to crabbing are: Grab the pot

Get the pot on the boat

Get the crabs out of the pot

Get the pot ready and get it back in the water

The roof on this house glowed in the sunlight

And this house is still pink!

Military boat picking up snacks?

This shows us entering a shallow area near New River Inlet. You can tell by the number of markers, that its tricky.

We have to follow the markers in the water, not the electronics.

Dredge working in the New River Inlet

 We had no problems. Rocking B had gone thru earlier and told us they didn't see any shallow water, but we were not following right behind them and didn't know exactly where they had gone. We went slow, watched our depths and followed the markers.

Our anchorage for the night, Mile Hammock.

Sea Salt is with us and the others have deserted us. That's ok, we like SS.

Zooming up the ICW...

Zooming in the air.

Rocking B decided to go farther today, so they would have an easier time with some bridges tomorrow. They have a balancing act, of depth and height.

We got here about 1:45. We traveled almost 8 hours, went about 35nm and traveled at 4.6kts. I told you we had to keep slowing down to get to the Surf City Bridge on time.

 

So, we will spend tonight in Mile Hammock and then get into Morehead City Yacht Basin, our home port, tomorrow. We have been away since October 9th last year. It's time to get back, do some maintenance and most important-visit family and friends again! We haven't seem most of them since Christmas!