From Oriental, we zipped across the Neuss early in the a.m. (8 o’clock) while the winds were calm. We anchored in Adams Creek for awhile to get done the things we didn’t do yesterday (some interior cleaning) and around 11a.m. lifted Knute and headed for Morehead City.
Tom and Patsy Conrad, aboard their new Nordic Tug TRUE NORTH had saved us a place at the Town Docks, newly purchased by Denard, who has owned Portside Marina for some time. The current is vewwy twicky there, but by 2 p.m. we were secured. Spent the afternoon and evening with the Conrads, ending with a great dinner at the Ruddy Duck and a very brisk walk home!
That current tried to slap us around as we backed out of our slip at 7:15 Friday morning, but once again, Fred won! After no boats in the water in the Chesapeake, we now are in a 7 boat parade. One of the boats confused us a bit when we heard “[garble] America” on the radio. Turned out they were saying “Yacht America”, and indeed she was a lovely yacht. All 7 of us hovered at the Onslow Bridge where the Marine on duty actually chatted and seemed to have a sense of humor. (No offense to Marines, but we’ve had some less than happy experiences at Onslow.) Tom, on TRUE NORTH allowed AMERICA, who was able to go fastest (and burn the most fuel) to move to the head of our little‘fleet’. Next bridge is Surf City, and using the chart plotter, we were able to time the trip, arriving just in time for the opening.
Our home for this day is Harbor Village Marina, just past Surf City and about 10 miles north of Wrightsville Beach. Fred’s cousin Jane and her husband Pete very kindly made the trek from their home near the W’ville bridge, and took us to dinner at Baja, and then to Harris Teeter for groceries. Bless them. What a great evening!
By noon on Saturday we were through the Figure 8 bridge, and at Wrightsville, where a flock of paddle board sweepers were having a ball! We waited for the bridge to open although we believed there were 21 feet of air at the center of the bascule. The bridge tender says 19 means 19 so we chose discretion and waited.
It was a gorgeous day, and lots of boaters were out enjoying it! The water was calm and the Cape Fear River held no fear for us. we passed by Southport, and stopped at St. James Marina. What a delightful spot! Very low dockage rates, clean, well marked floating docks, a nice store and restaurant, and for a special bonus, a fork lift taking boats out for winter storage and stacking them in the gi-normous shed. We could have spent a few days relaxing here, but we have a Thanksgiving date in Beaufort! We laughed as we left St. James---the retaining wall was so clean that the barnacles almost looked like copper-y art intentionally placed.
We passed through Lockwoods Folly easily; couldn’t raise our old friend Phil Robinson at his dock. His Shrimp store may or may not have been open, (but dockage is still available) so we continued on and by noon were in South Carolina! First stop, Myrtle Beach. We didn’t shop at the outlet mall at Barefoot Landing, just took a long walk around it. Delicious evening—the end of a delightful week.
On that note, I’ll depart, and see you all next week. Have a happy Thanksgiving. Heaven knows we have oh, so much to be thankful for—and we are!
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