Happy Birthday, Malcolm! April 28-30 Blog Updates

Wednesday, April 28:  Happy Birthday to our dear brother-in-law, Malcolm Leite, and Happy Anniversary to Wayne and Patti.

It was a beautiful sunny day. We got through the Barefoot Landing Bridge at 7 a.m. The next swing bridge, Little River, was waiting for a mechanic, so we pulled up to Dock Holidays Marina for a few hours to wait for it to get repaired. On the way there, we saw cable cars going over the waterway right in front of our boat.

About 10:30 a.m., the bridge was ready to open, so we pulled the lines and cast off. At 11 a.m., we crossed the South Carolina-North Carolina border. We were not going to make the 11 a.m. pontoon bridge opening, so Chuck pulled out the jib and sailed for a while.

I called my friend, Mike Loch, hoping to connect with he and his beautiful wife, Joan, for another visit on our way through, but he was in NJ. His dad fell and broke his hip. We were disappointed that we wouldn't see them, but decided to plug on and go to the Pipeline Canal anchorage in Southport.

At noon, we went through the Sunset pontoon bridge. They are building a 65 ft. bridge to replace the aging bridge.

There were too many boats bunched up and Chuck wanted to motorsail, so we lowered the rpms and stayed behind. They were dredging Lockwoods Folly Inlet MM320. It was shallow and the dredge was snaking back and forth between the temporary markers, so we called to make sure we could pass on the diamond side (diamonds are a girl’s best friend).

Around MM316 a new 65 ft. bridge is under construction.

We passed this big building with Sandy's on the roof. Since that's how our daughter's name was spelled before she became a rebellious teenager and changed it to Sandi, Chuck asked me to take a picture of it. It's still Sandy with a "Y" in his mind.

We heard from Bum’s Rest. They stopped at South Harbour Village Marina in Southport for fuel. It is right before the turn into the Pipeline Canal anchorage, which is where we planned to spend the night. It was only $1.35 a foot, so we pulled in there to join them.

I took Jazzy for a little walk. It was a nice complex with a couple of restaurants, a market/deli (which closed early in the day), laundry and showers. I threw a load of clothes in the washer.

It was Patti’s turn to cook, but it was their anniversary, so I offered to switch nights and cook instead: salad, flank steak, roasted potatoes and veggies. While I was cooking, Kathy from Shearer Adventure, stopped by to say hello. We met Kathy and Jim in Marathon, FL. They have a dachshund, Katie Bell (it's funny how cruisers with dogs remember who they are by their dogs). She saw Patti walking with Sailor and remembered we traveled together. It was great to see her. Sorry we didn't get to stop over yo boat, Kathy.

After dinner, we walked down the street to the park overlooking the anchorage. We saw 10 boats anchored there.

Thursday, April 29:  We left Southport at 6:40 a.m. The current was pushing us along, so we were motorsailing at 9.3 knots at 2800 rpms.

We entered Snow’s Cut at 8:35 a.m. and the current was going in the other direction leaving the Cape Fear River. Our speed was cut down to 4.9 knots over ground. Speed over Water was 6.8 knots. The bank is washing away from the strong current and the trees are falling down.

At 9:20 a.m., there was slack tide, so we were moving a little faster…SOG was 6.4 and SOW was 6.5. Today was a short traveling day, arriving at the anchorage in Wrightsville Beach at 10:45 a.m. We dropped anchor and put the motor in the dinghy. Chuck took me to the Dockside Restaurant dinghy dock so I wouldn’t have to walk across the bridge and I walked 10 minutes to the Harris Teeter grocery store.

I took a taxi back to the Dockside with all my groceries and called Chuck. He was in the middle of moving the boat and resetting the anchor because we were dragging and so were others around us. So I waited close to an hour with my groceries. I kept moving the bags to keep the cold stuff in the shade. Luckily, the frozen items kept the other items cold, so nothing spoiled.

Since there was a lot of current and wind, we opted to stay on Sheet Music and I made a light dinner.We'll note if we do this trip again to get a slip, not anchor, in Wrightsville Beach. We weren't the only one having problems. Even the taxi driver told me that his friend was towed off the bridge there twice!

Friday, April 30:  We were keeping an eye on our anchor drag alarm on the GPS below, but peeked outside at 11:30 p.m. to see a big trawler within 20 feet of us. They were moving and snaking around in different directions than us. So we had to do an anchor watch. While Chuck adjusted some lines, I slept midnight 'til 2:50 a.m. Then I relieved the captain and stayed up the rest of the night, knowing that I could sleep while we are underway. We pulled anchor at 6:30 a.m. to make the 7 a.m. Wrightsville Beach bridge opening. I made the skipper breakfast and went to bed.

I slept until 11:30 a.m. We were heading for Swan Point, but decided to continue to Swansboro instead. That way, we’ll arrive in Beaufort, NC, early tomorrow and will be able to spend some time in town. It’s a cute little town and I liked it there on the way down.

We went through Camp Lejeune and saw a helicopter taking off. It was pretty cool.

We're on a face dock and it's windy. All the fenders and batterboards are protecting the starboard side of the boat. Chuck threw an anchor over port side to pull us away from the dock.

Wayne and Patti took the courtesy car to the grocery store. Then we'll enjoy the homemade chicken soup that Patti made the other day with garlic bread.


Tomorrow:  Beaufort, NC (pronounced Bow-furt).