July 23 - Wrightsville Beach, NC

Friday, July 23.
Yah, we are in North Carolina!  It finally feels like we are making progress towards the Chesapeake area.  We are at mile marker 283 (our goal is mm #1 at Norfolk, VA).

We got going early because this was going to be a long day -- 55 miles -- to get to Wrightsville Beach (remember, we average 5 knots, unless the tides and current are giving us a bonus boost).

First stop: a pontoon bridge. It actually rides on the water and swings open. Even the jet skis have to wait!

Capt Dan. It takes concentration to keep in the channel.

Motoring along the ICW can be tedious, and boring, except for the constant excitement of watch the depth.  The depth frequently drops from 15 ft to 7ft in a blink....and you have to weave around in the channel to find a safe depth (we learned that we can run aground a 5.5 ft!)

Now, that depth is more like it!  Too bad it's short-lived, as we crossed a sound.

Barrier Island ... Ocean on other side.

We hit this popular boating town late Friday afternoon, which meant that the traffic on the water was CRAZY and finding a marina with open dock space wasn't easy (so we had to settle for one without a pool).  However, they did have a courtsey car that we could use, so we spent 4 hours driving around this cute beach community ... making all the usual required stops at a grocery store, hardware store and liquor store!

Wrightsville Beach is one of the few places along the East Coast that has easy access to the ocean -- the inlet is 3 miles to the ocean instead of the usual 20 miles -- so we were excited to make the run from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort, NC, offshore.  It would save us a day on our passage, and we'd get to sail!  Of course, as our plans go, as soon as we made this decision, the weather once again conspired against us.  The mild winds we had been experiencing changed to very high winds ... so instead of 10-15 knots of wind, we were looking at 20-30knots of wind (along with the 4-6ft seas that accompany high winds).  It's a 77mile run, so we decided to stick with the ICW.  However, now the winds were so high that we couldn't put up the sunshade while we traveled, so it ended up being a very long, HOT, uncomfortable day, made all the more difficult with the high winds pushing us around in the channel.

Choppy water = uncomfortable ride.

Beach front property is lovely no matter where you are.

North Carolina has these great sandbars that were all crowded for the weekend. 

Love the tall bridges. No waiting.

At the dock. 

The best part is always the end of the day!