Wrightsville Beach

Most boats leave early in two groups. There are three swing bridges today and timing the opening is not always easy with hard to predict currents and thus boat speed on the different creeks and estuaries we pass through. We get lucky and make all three scheduled bridge openings as planned or I should say hoped for. Fortunately, we have the current with us and against us an equal amount of time, so our average speed is adequate to make the openings. Some cruisers like to race ahead and spend considerable time waiting in front of the bridges. I like to get there with the least amount of fuel used and not spent much if any time drifting in a narrow channel in front of a bridge, especially when the current is trying to push you into the bridge. 

Surf City Bridge, the line up. These boats passed us two hours ago.

Our favorite ICW,  Lawn Ornament

The last bridge is the Wrightsville Beach bridge (opens on the hour) which is 5.1 miles down from the Figure 8 Bridge (which opens every ½ hour). I plan on motoring 5.1 miles per hour and take an hour between. No way can we motor 10.2 miles per hour to cover that distance in ½ hour. One of the boats we see quite often “Mar-a-Lago” a Catalina 42 goes through the Figure 8 Bridge at the “Bottom of the hour”. He is too far ahead of us to see him, but I can track him and monitor his speed, from his AIS transponder. As soon as he gets through the Figure 8 Bridge, he floors it to 8.4 to 8.6 knots. Not quite enough to cover that distance in ½ hour. But at the “top of the hour” his speed does not slow down, apparently he talked the Bridge operator into delaying the closing a few minutes. At 5 minutes past the top of the hour I can see his speed settle back down to normal cruising speed, after he must of cleared the bridge. That must have cost an extra gallon or two of fuel. They are traveling with “Mighty Fine” a trawler from Charlotte, Vermont who has no problem with going that fast. 

Just another warm day in North Carolina on the ICW

We pass through the Wrightsville Beach bridge mid-afternoon on a warm sunny day and there are boats all over the place, many hanging out in the channel at the bridge, oblivious to the line of boats coming through the bridge opening. We head into the anchorage at Wrightsville beach and the place is a zoo. The water is very choppy from all the boat wakes. You would think it was the middle of summer.  By sundown the water calms down and we have a quiet evening. We head into a Mexican, Surf themed restaurant “Tower 7 Baja Mexican Grill” we like for dinner. We were last there two years ago with our friends Dan and Dawn. Only this time it is much warmer, still in the high 70's after dark. We go to bed around 11:00 PM and it is still 73F.