Carolina Beach

10/30/14
Carolina Beach NC, ICW
Position: 34 08.559N, 77 58.265W
Posted by Bill

Said goodbye to the New River and motored to Carolina Beach. We had 3 bridge openings to make, the first opens on the hour, the second on the hour and half hour, and the third on the hour. Trying to time them based on the tidal currents was interesting. We missed the first opening by about 20 minutes even though we left Sneads Ferry early. We thought we caught a lucky break when a tug needed an opening 10 minutes after the 9:00 opening. Commercial traffic gets a special opening, but we missed the window by 5 minutes and the bridge tender wouldn’t hold it open for us….bummer.

We circle around for 40 minutes, make the next bridge opening and then have to slow to a crawl to make the last one which was only 4.3 miles away. Let me tell you it is not easy to hold our boat in a controlled position for 40 minutes in wind and a 2 knot current.

Most of the scenery was beautiful homes along the ICW and Carolina Beach resorts on the other side.

ICW:
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Going through the Surf City swing bridge:
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Figure 8 Island where all the rich people hang:
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Wrightsville Beach:
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Wrightsville Beach lift bridge:
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We ended up at Joyner Marina at Carolina Beach:
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CB 1
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Tricia’s aunt Doris and cousin Jane who live nearby, came to the boat to visit and we had a happy hour on the boat. Then Doris treated us to dinner at Freddies in Kure Beach. It was awesome and it was great fun to hang with the girls. It was nice that they came to us, since we have no car. They are fun people!

The alternator worked after the first 3 hours of our passage today…what is up with the damn alternator? I can almost hear it say “na na na na boo boo, just try and figure me out”.

Cool for me to be in Carolina Beach. Makes me think of vacations as a kid and my first experience in the ocean.

By the way….we really are missing our friends and family…not kidding….we do!

6 thoughts on “Carolina Beach

  1. Harry

    Hi guys! Following your blog daily and loving it. Its interesting to see the day to day reality of travel on the ICW. One of these days! Your problem with the alternator is troubling, driving you crazy yet? I was on the cruiser’s forum and there are so many possible causes. You’ll figure it out eventually. Maybe you’ll bump into Nigel Calder heading south also!

    Reply
    1. bwehmer Post author

      Harry, yes the alternator is driving me crazy. In addition to the problems, no one carries it in stock. Going to have to ship it to a future location. We are going to have to stay in marinas until I get it sorted out. Need to be able to use that to recharge the battery bank!

      Reply
  2. jane cash

    It was great seeing you guys, if you need anything while you are in Southport let us know we are only an hour away. Bill loves your site, he’s wishing he was on this adventure. Jane

    Reply
    1. bwehmer Post author

      Jane, we had a really good time hanging with you and your mom. We were wishing that we stayed a few more days closer to you so we could party some more, and also see Bill again. On our way back we will plan to do that. If you guys feel like heading south in the next few months, we would love to meet you somewhere. We appreciated that you drove to meet us and took us to dinner. It’s tough not having shore based transportation and wanting to see people. We feel bad saying “Lets get together…come to us!”

      Reply

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