Anegada da Vida: Surf City NC to Carolina Beach NC

Start time and hours 0840 3428.14

End time and hours 1400 3433.57

Overnight we set the clocks back one hour. Because of this and the fact that we had a short ride ahead of us to Carolina Beach we got to sleep a little later and still get under way before 9am.

This was a very straight forward cruising day. We had a well-marked ICW and plenty of depths. The scenery was great with marshes, inlets, creeks, and homes. It was fascinating to be in the calm waters of the ICW be able to see the turbulent Atlantic Ocean through the inlets, especially the one at Wrightsville Beach.

We only had one bridge opening today, the Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge. The Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge is listed as 20’ of clearance and it had 21’ when we went under it. I think we can get by with 18’. The Wrightsville Beach bridge is also listed as 20’ clearance but when I called ahead the bridge operator said that he only had about 15-16’ of clearance.

The Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge only opens on the hour so you really need to time it correctly. We did not. We are a slow boat and sometimes timing bridge openings while also trying to figure out the contrasting currents caused by the many inlets is difficult. We got to the Bridge at 11:20 and had to futz around for forty minutes until the next opening. By the time it opened there were four other boats waiting to get through.

After the Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge opening it was an easy cruise to Carolina Beach https://www.carolinabeach.com/ and Joyner Marina. http://joynermarina.com/ At the marina we pulled in for some diesel fuel. While at the fuel dock a sport fisher getting diesel had a problem with their fill tube and put 26 gallons of diesel into their bilge. They immediately turned everything on the boat off and evacuated their boat. TowBoatUS had to come and take them back to their marina so they could get the problem repaired. They were lucky to not have their bilge pump put any of the diesel overboard into the water. That would have been an expensive clean up.

After getting fuel, we moved over into our slip. We would be staying for two nights while we visited my brother Chris and his wife Ellen. They have been living in the Wilmington area for about 20 years and lived about 8 miles from the marina. We called them after tying up and had cocktails on the fly bridge before going out to dinner at Brasserie du Soleil in Wilmington. http://brasseriedusoleil.com/

The next day we took our bikes out for a ride to see some of Carolina Beach. It was obviously off season and not crowded. Also, not much there. We had lunch at a BBQ place, Holy Smoke. http://www.holysmokebbqnc.com/ We spoke with the owner and had a great lunch. We then rode up the road to the grocery store to re-provision a little.

Later that evening we had dinner ashore at my brother’s house. We had a very nice visit and then got back to the boat to settle in for the night. They had offered us their spare bedroom but we explained that it was easier and more comfortable to sleep in our own bed on our boat.

The next day we were expecting a long run down to Barefoot Marina in North Myrtle Beach.