April 22 – 24 Bird Island, SC to Swansboro, NC

April 22 Bird Island to Wrightsville Beach, NC

It is getting lighter out now so that means we can get an earlier start on the water. Just before leaving the anchorage at 06:15, I snapped this photo of the condos over on the ocean side of Myrtle Beach. And another one of the sunrise.

It was a cool morning and as we motored along the ICW, we saw frost on this dock roof

It wasn’t long before we came to the Inlet View Bar and Grill, where we ran aground last fall at low tide. We did finally get off the bottom and tied to their dock. The current in there is really bad, but it is a great place to eat. Unfortunately they are not open on Mondays.

Below are our photos of the day:

This guy’s dock was either made from a boat or to look like a boat

Lots of shrimp boats lined up for the season

And even a shrimp boat named for you, Gwen

Wowzers!

Fishermen out by the ocean inlet

Two very different style houses side by side

Refinery at Southport

Ferry on the Cape Fear River

A beauty of a day for sailing on the Cape Fear River

MTOSU Cape Fear

The Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point on the Cape Fear River is one of the largest military terminals in the world. It serves as a transfer point between rail, trucks, and ships for the import and export of weapons, explosives and military equipment for the United States Army. Needless to say, it is a restricted area and security is high. Although it may be hard to see the red and white security boat in the next photo, they are everywhere.

Guys out fishing at Snows Cut

Erosion on the sandy banks

We got a good push from the current through Snows Cut

The wind really picked up as we were going in to the channel for our anchorage. We had planned on rolling in the jib a bit earlier but the wind was right and we were motor sailing at a good speed. When we went to roll it in, the rope was jammed. Mike went up to the bow and tried to release it. No luck. I took the helm and tried to pull the sheet in to keep it from getting into the water. I released the halyard and Mike pulled it down by hand. The wind was so strong. He got me to go up and sit on it before it all blew over in the water. I stayed there until we anchored and could get the knot free to hoist it back up to roll in. Always lots of excitement or catastrophes on a boat!

We anchored in Wrightsville Beach at 15:45 and had travelled 54.2 nm. We invited Jim over for supper but he had started to change his oil and do some maintenance on Blossom. And speaking of oil changes, we looked at the engine after we got the jib back on and what we saw was a mess of oil everywhere. We washed off the engine cover and then tried to find out where it was coming from. Apparently after Mike changed the oil the day before, he had used the dipstick to check the new oil and hadn’t put the dipstick back in place. Needles to say, we needed to put more oil in to replace what we’d lost. Another catastrophe! Although, it could have been much worse. Mike said that he should have never changed the oil on Easter Sunday. After that was all cleaned up we enjoyed a lovely chicken dinner. Our Easter Sunday dinner was a day late because we had gotten in late to Bird Island and then did the oil change. Missed having our family dinner at Sarah’s this year. We will have a family reunion dinner when we get home. 🙂

April 23 Out and about in Wrightsville Beach

It was a lovely warm morning when we woke and nice for a change that we didn’t have to set the alarm and get out on the water. Jim came by in his dinghy to see if we wanted to go in to town for breakfast but we had already eaten. We got ready later and dinghied in to see the town and have lunch. We ate at the King Neptune Restaurant. It was an older Bar and Grill but good food and fast service. The fish and chips were delicious.

After lunch, we strolled through town and walked to the beach. We had been to Wrightsville Beach in 2014 with Jim and Cheryl on our way down south. And again last fall. Except last fall, it was too cold and windy to get off the boat! Here are a few things we saw while out enjoying the nice, hot day:

A neat looking Volkswagen van in a parking lot

Apartments, all pretty colours

Surf on the beach

Beach patrol

We really enjoyed our time and rest there. If you get the opportunity to go to Wrightsville Beach, I’m sure you will enjoy it too.

April 24 Wrightsville Beach to Swansboro, NC

We were up early and watched the sun come up.

Our photo journal for the day is captioned below:

Wrightsville Beach Lift Bridge

For our bridge fans; this lift bridge is gear driven

We made the 07:30 opening of the Figure 8 Swing Bridge

Nesting season for Osprey

Wow!

ICW mile marker 270; we will be at marker 0 in Norfolk, VA. A pelican was there to greet us

Just look at this place

Mile Hammock Bay; we anchored here on the way down

Onslow Beach Swing Bridge

Camp Lejeune; U.S. Army practice territory. We did hear some banging noises but no light flashing so we could go through

A couple of their targets

Danger signs posted on each side

Soldiers

Army practice

Another beautiful home

People on the beach at our anchorage

We set the hook at 15:30 just off the ICW at Swansboro and had travelled 49.84 nm. It was a very hot day. The news report said it broke records for a high of 88F/31C. We embraced it, as we knew all too soon we’d be getting colder temperatures!