Wednesday Nov. 3
We were the first out this morning from the anchorage. The sky was overcast all day and the wind was cold out of the North. I think there were about 10 sailboats as well as 5 power boats moving along with us.

One of the big aggravations of the ICW are the swing and bascule bridges. Some only open on the hour and some open on the hour and half hour but it seems that at each bridge there a group of boats waiting for the opening with wind and current contriving to make each minute a hair raising, white knuckle event.

On today's leg there were 4 bridges and at the last ( Wrightsville) there must have been 12 or 13 boats all crammed into a 1/2 mile by 300 yard area waiting for the bridge to open.

Once past Wrightsville the current was favorable and we made good time to Snow's Cut which connects the New River to the Cape Fear River. The current thorough the cut gaves us a good push until we were on the Cape Fear were we encountered a 2.5 knot current against us. The river was fairly choppy and a strong wind was still blowing out of the north.

We finally arrived at Southport at 5:15PM and are now tied up at a marina for the night.

The plan is to continue on the ICW as the weather outlook for the next 4 days doesn't look good. We will continue to the Waccamaw, Edisto Rivers and then to Charleston, and finally Beufort, S.C. where we plan to anchor as we wait for a weather window to go out on the Atlantic to Fernandina.

































ICW Rush Hour