Moving on

Friday, February 7

Thanks for all of your concerns about our safety with the huge storm on the East Coast Thursday night. There were tornado warnings but we only got torrential rain. However, today we woke up to big winds; it’s sunny though! We did drive to both the north and south ends of Topsail Island today to watch the huge waves and spray. Pictures just don’t capture it.

We then grabbed a beer and app at Daddy Mac’s beach grill, by the pier, to see more. There were a couple surfers out there trying to ride. The waves crashing and running down the tall pier posts were fabulous…. much better than the calamari appetizer.

We are going to move the boat a bit further South tomorrow, to Wrightsville Beach, 22 miles. Baby steps 🙂. Last fall we drove there but the weather was so bad we didn’t get to explore much. We are going to stay at Bridge Tenders Marina, right at the bridge that crosses over to the island for a night or two then move on to Carolina Beach. The wind is suppose to die down later this evening. Hope so! We won’t be moving if it doesn’t. The weekend is forecast to be cold but 70’s next week.

Our route south along the ICW will take us past a number of hazards, including shoaling caused by recent storms and a dredging operation. One way  we find out about these hazards is a service called Waterway Guide. This is a subscription service that compiles info about marinas, facilities, waterway news and Nav Alerts. We view all this at: https://www.waterwayguide.com. We also do our navigating with a couple of computer programs called Aqua Map Marine and Open CPN. These programs offer many tools for planning and actual real time navigation.

After we review the lists, we plan a route that will keep us clear of problem areas. This is not like cruising in our home waters in the Apostle Islands where we can go on the other side of an island to avoid something. Here we move over by a number of feet to avoid hazards and shallow water. This is where having an accurate GPS position is critical. Most days we have our plotted track plugged in to the IPad and watch as the boat ICON moves along the waterway. Another interesting tool is the depth surveys done and compiled by the USACE, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. These show up on our Aqua Map screen in color and help us seek out the deeper water. You can see the results of this planning here:

The Red route is our planned track avoiding the red and orange shallow water in Snow’s Cut and then turning to Port into Carolina Beach State Park Marina. We will report back to see if this actually worked. 😉

In addition to the above apps, we use a Garmin 720s, which also has radar.

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Saturday

We woke Saturday to beautiful sunshine and 35 degrees outside. Hmmm, we put our heavier coats in the car already. We’re thinking we’ll leave them there and just wear layers. Thankfully, with the sunshine, our bridge will stay warm as once we unplug from the dock, we no longer have heat. Good thing we’re hearty Northerners and can take it….

After discussing with Dee that we can leave our truck at the marina for awhile, a last walk on this beautiful beach and chocolate chip coconut scones with our coffee, we are ready to cast off. Did we ever mention there’s a spot called Xanadu next door? Excellent bakery, specialty groceries, a bar and dining–yes, we’ll miss it but we must start our southward journey.

Our beach walk was outstanding even wearing lots of clothes. We first ran into a youngish woman surfer who asked Mona for assistance getting her wetsuit zipped and velcroed closed. Apparently, if not done right your hair gets caught in the Velcro. Yikes! Once on the beach we were rewarded with a group of 16 surfers, all riding out near the pier. Great sight. No dolphins with them this time.

A little further down, a disheveled young man in pajama pants, still carrying his White Claw… breakfast or still partying from last night?

A perfect shell. Yes!

A few surfer pics

Coconut wearing her jacket at beach ☺️

We said so long to Surf a city about 11:00.

Last views of Surf city from ICW

In Bayfield, seagulls follow fishing boats…. here, pelicans

We had kind of forgotten how many beautiful homes there are along the waterway. Always something to see. Because we are in low country, the ICW is very wide in places unlike the narrow ditches up North.

We easily passed under the two bridges along the way.

The second picture is at our destination: Bridge Tender Marina, Wrightsville Beach. Pursuit is in the middle of the picture on the dock behind the big Sport Fisher.