On to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

Afteer a quiet night we raised anchor promptly at 7:30am, getting an early start because we had to pass four bridges. The bridges on the ICW are of two types...fixed and moveable. 

The fixed bridges on the ICW are all a minimum of 64 feet high (excepting one bridge, the Marie Tuttle bridge just north of Miami) and since my mast is only 54 feet high these are of no consequence.

The moveable bridges (swing, draw, lift) are 12 - 20 feet high in their closed position and so have to be opened to allow sailboats to pass. Some bridges open on request but most operate on a fixed schedule of either every hour or every half-hour. Timing the opening is critical because if you are not within 1/2 mile of the bridge when it opens you have to wait for the next opening.Three of the bridges we passed today were the moveable type: the Surf City bridge, the Figure 8 Island Beach bridge that's really the name of the island the bridge connects to) and the Wrightsville Beach bridge Through careful planning (Hayden and Radeen worked their computers hard) we were at each bridge within 10 minutes of its opening

 Moondance just passing the only fixed bridge of today's passage

 Island Spirit approaching the Surf City swing bridge. It pivots around its center, opening passges to right and left. 

Today's portion of the ICW was a bit more built  up than previous parts.Some stretches were lined with beach type houses, looking a lot like the Rockaway's of our youth

But there was several far more grand houses, and then there was this most unusual house (unusual for North Carolina)

Pink house, grand entrance, ringed with palm trees...fantastic!

There were the many beautiful stretches along the waterway

Looking across the dunes towards the ocean (which you can't quite see)

Passing the last bridge - the Wrightsville  Beach bridge we found the waterway full of boats off all types  and sizes docked at marina's packed cheek to jowl on both sides of us..we picked our way through the crowd and took a cut-off towards the beach and to an anchorage (Mott's Channel Anchorage) which is large with lines of houses on both sides and al low fixed bridge at one end. Anchoring was a bit tricky asthere was a large(1knot) current flowing south and a moderate wind (10-15 knots) flowing the opposite direction. Following Hayden's advice I quickly lowered the anchor and 75 feet of chain, then decided to lower another 25 feet off chain (I have 250 feet of chain in the chain locker) and then backed up hard to evercome the wind and tide and set the anchor. ..So far so good!..love that new anchor!

View of the anchorage, looking towards the bridge which forms the northern end off the ield

View from the bridge..Priority is the one in back, second from the left.

Afteer a brief rest to tidy up, Hayden and Raydeen came by on their dinghy to pick me up. We went over to Bob and Nina's boat, but they decided not tojoin us.

We went to the dinghy dock that the town provides, walked one block to the beach and was suitably impressed

Looking South on this very large, very clean, mostly empty, beautiul beach

Hayden and Radeen

As always you can view a map of our voyage by clicking on the link to the map at the to right of this blog.  By default it shows the past 24 hours, but you can see previous days, or all days, by choosing one of the options to the left of the map.

Tomorrow we are on to Southport where we'll tie up behind a restaurant (the dock is free if we have dinner at the restaurant)...what could be better!