To Wrightsville Beach

The plan for today was to go to Wrightsville Beach, a distance of only 32 miles (about 5 hours). Unlike previous days, we hadn't discussed details of the trip, such as what time we would be leaving, but I assumed it would be sometime around 9 am, to get us there around 2 pm.

We awoke at 6:30,  got dressed leisurely and was about to make some coffee when I got a call from Radeen saying we had to leave at 7 30 to make the 10 am bridge opeing at Surf City, about two hours down the ICW....it was now 7 15....It was a  "Chinese Fire Drill" (am I allowed to say that) but we had the anchor up at 7:30....and we were underway.

The rrest of the trip was anticlimatic, excepting for one wonderful thing...This summer we had installed an inverter/Charger that allowed us to  have regular 120 volt AC on board, which meant we could run our Keurig coffee machine...and we did. While underway we turned on the Inverter, plugged in the Keurig, and brewed what we consider to be great coffee....it was wonderful!

We can now use our coffee machine, our microwave and even our hair dryer while underway or at anchor...and you know how much I look forward to using the hairdryer..

Of course what makes all this possible is that our brand new alternator is working like a charm, generating tons of current to replenish the amperes that the Keurig or microwave (not to mention the hair dryer) takes.  Life is good!

As has been the case so far, the ICW is beautiful. Nice vistas, tons of different birds (no dolphins this day), lots of neat houses to look at.

The passing view

We made the Surf City bridge opening with minutes to spare, and then the "figure of 8" bridge and then the Wrightsville bridge (all bridges that have to open to let us pass...there are other tall bridges (65 feet tall) that we just pass under, and they don't count.

Waiting for a bridge opening...a bunch of boats milling around and trying not to hit each other

We arrived at the Seapath marina in Wrightsville Beach at 1:30. It is a beautiful marina, attached to an 11 story condominium with only a few transient slips. As has been the case every where south of Maryland, the people were courteous, helpful and considerate....its getting hard to take!

Looking East from our spot in the marina

Some of the gazillions of other boats at our marina...and there were many other marinas in Wroightsville beach

We hung around, did some minor chores, read and talked over plans for the rest of the trip with Hayedn and Radeen when they dinghyed over ( they ecided to anchor out nearby)

Sunset in Wrightsville Beach as seen from our cockpit

We decided to eat in...I grilled a fantastic steak using the grill pan that Rich Fieldhouse taught me to use, and added a salad with garlic flavored olive oil and raspberry vinagrette (that I had bought in Beaufort)...fantastic!!

Tomorrow we head towards Southport