April 21,2019
Happy Easter. He is
risen and we thank Him for a beautiful morning to restart our adventure after
several days in Southport waiting out small craft and gale force wind
advisories. Luckily most of the rain
associated with this front missed us but winds were strong and we were glad to be
in a marina and protected by some larger boats.
Gale force winds of 40 knots and waves over 20' offshore
Southport was a great little town to hole up in for a few
days. Some very good restaurants (Mr.
P’s Bistro), some quite unique ones (yes, we’re talking about you Provision
Company) , and some pretty standard
fried seafood shacks (Fishy Fishy Café). A very nice and walkable downtown
area, a spring arts festival, some interesting older historic homes and a small
maritime museum gave us plenty to do.
Southport waterfront
Robert Ceech, the local Great Loop harbor host, even stopped
by the boat to visit and offer up anything we needed including the use of his
car. Now that’s southern hospitality. We
apparently are on the leading edge of loopers heading north but there were
still at least 4-5 looper boats who pulled into Southport to weather the storm.
Southport Marina as seen from the towns marsh walk park
Leaving Southport we caught a great rising tide up the Cape
Fear River and through Snows Cut. At one
point we hit over 10 knots with the engines just barely at cruising speed – so
an easy 3 knot favorable push! Brother Pete and his wife Rhonda live in
Carolina Beach in a neighborhood with a waterfront dock and were waiting to
take pictures and wave us by. How cool
was that??
We timed our arrival at Wrightsville Beach perfectly to
coordinate with the “on the hour” lift bridge opening. Funny how we caught up with all those faster
boats that had passed us earlier all
still waiting for the bridge opening.
Boats were swarmed around that bridge like flies on stink but made a
very orderly march through it once it opened.
Jostling for position as the bridge opens and then the orderly procession
After Wrightsville Beach things get pretty dull other than
the constant checking of charts and local notices to mariners. We had gotten great information on Saturday
at the nightly weather and nav alert seminar held at the Southport Marina which
really kept us out of trouble in this area which is known for it’s shallow
water and shoaling concerns due to the many large and small inlets.
Water was a pretty color through one section and reminded us of the Bahamas
The pink house just added to the feeling.
We pulled into New River Marina at 3:30 to fuel up. Our last fuel stop was here last Oct. as we
were heading to Charleston. After
packing in 150 gallons of diesel we were topped off and
surprised it didn’t take more. We
supposedly carry 300 gallons and the gauges were reading around a ¼ tank, so I
expected us to take on a little more.
But the gauges now say we’re full, so It looks like we averaged around 3
miles/gallon!!
A few more turns after leaving New River Marina and we were
anchored for the night in Hammock Bay which is on Camp Lejeune. You can anchor here but can’t get off the
boat and go on their property. We had
stopped here going south and there were 18 boats that time. Tonight we have a little more breathing room
with just 10 of us. It was looking like
an uneventful sunset due to some clouds, but things took an awe-inspiring turn
as the sun broke free in the final moments lighting up the sky with a rainbow of
colors. One of the sailboats at anchor
sounded his conch shell just as the sun passed below the horizon. What a perfect end to the day. Life is good!!
Beautiful sunset at anchor
Journey on 4-21-2019
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