mile 311.4-244.5
Today, we were back to dealing with bridges. There were some tricky current areas as well. We left Southport before sunrise.
Our first challenge was Snow’s Cut, a narrow channel between Southport and the Cape Fear River, and Carolina Beach. The cut has a bridge at the north side which is fixed. but narrows the cut even more. The current was fierce against us, We were barely able to go 4 knots.
The other hazards in this narrow cut are logs. Luckily this one was beside us. And of course there are boats trying to pass, although most today waited until we were through.
We passsed Carolina Beach and rounded the corner. There was still a great deal of current. It looks like it would be fun to explore the shallow creeks and inlets that run through this area. We may have to meet Austin and Sara here soon.
Our next issue was the Wrightsville Beach Bridge which only opens on the hour. Most bridges open twice an hour but not this one. I guess they just have too much traffic. But even the Bridge of Lions opens twice an hour most of the day. We calculated that we could not go fast enough for the 10 o’clock opening so we had to slow down for the 11.
We got to the bridge early but around 10:40, the Sherri D, a shrimp boat passed us and approached the bridge and because they are commercial traffic, the bridge opened right away. The bridge tender hailed us to let us know we could follow the the shrimp boat through . Thank you Sherri D.
Our next bridge was the Figure Eight Swing Bridge. It opens on the hour and half hour and was 5 miles away. We tried to keep up with the Sherri D but could not. We slowed down, hoping to make the 12 o’clock. When we got there, the bridge tender said he would be opening late because he had just opened and was going to have to open again for some commercial traffic behind us. We turned around to hover in the channel. A motor boat came up and since there were now two boats waiting with current behind them, he opened and let us through.
Our last bridge of concern was the Onslow Beach Bridge, but by the time we got through the first two, we realized we would likely not make this bridge or the anchorage past it, today. We decided to continue on to Mile Hammock Bay, 4 miles above the Onslow bridge, instead.
The anchorage was crowded when we got there and we got a lot of advice from other boaters as we came in. We anchored behind a Nordic Tug. It was a good set but the wind was due to do a 180 around midnight At least there was no current. We settled in early for a nap.
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