Mile 323 Holden Beach, NC

In the evening before we left Morehead City, we were talking with our friends on the catamaran and got to see the Orbital launch from Wallops. We could see the fire from the rocket about a minute after the launch and watched it go down range over the ocean for more than a minute. It was really neat to see.

We have made good mileage the last few days. There is a lot of current to deal with now. The place we are staying tonight has a 5 foot tidal range. The ICW in this part of North Carolina runs through the sounds just behind the barrier islands. There are quite a few bridges to go through. Here is a swing bridge at Surf City that pivots open at the center.

 

They all have various opening schedules and you need to try to time when you get to them as is is hard to hold position in the current if you need to wait half an hour for an opening. There are also inlets from the ocean were the power of the water tends to fill the ICW with sand so the channel is blocked in spots. We have seen 4 boats traveling close to us go aground in the last 3 days. Do you ever wonder what it is like for a little fish in a school of fish to watch his buddies get picked off and just keep on swimming? There is not much we can do to help them. Some work themselves off and others call the tow boat service. We find that if we research the problem inlets on Active Captain and Cruisers Net that we can plan a path that works well and if we slow down to approach the bridges close to opening time then we don't have to circle around as much which is how two of the four got stuck.

 

We have been anchoring on these little creeks off the ICW near the beach. Two nights ago we were behind Surf City and Topsail Beach where the pirates used to hide, waiting to pop out and hit the unsuspecting merchant ships. We really, really liked this area. The anchorage and beach were great.

 

The new dinghy and davit system have worked well to get us in.

 

We anchored behind Wrightsville Beach on Wednesday and are now at a brand new floating dock in Holden Beach where the City Manager came down to welcome us as we docked because we were the second boat to stay at their new dock. I am happy because for a stretch near Topsail the water turned almost blue and Linda is happy because we have had dolphins all around the boat for the last few days.

 

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