The trek continues…

I woke up the morning of departure day to calm winds and temps in the 50’s so I considered it a good day to start moving again. The sun was just coming up as I took in the dock lines and waved goodbye to St James Marina. The ICW was void of all traffic this early in the morning which was good as I was heading due east into the rising sun and couldn’t see a thing. 🌞😵‍💫 I had about 6 miles to go before I turned back to the north up the Cape Fear River (Southport NC) so I knew the sun would be in my eyes for most of the way. No biggie though as I really enjoyed the warmth!!

I had left early to catch the current that would be running north up the Cape Fear River as it’s pretty quick and you don’t want to catch it against you. As I turned up the river, I noticed a slight increase in speed (👍) and a bigger increase in the wind right on my nose (👎). Today would be the first of many days to come with the wind on my nose. Some days would be a cool breeze and others would be like being in a washing machine but those are stories for the future…😉.

So up the Cape Fear River I went with the wind against the current and the waves starting to build up but it was nothing major. I was making about 7 knots over ground and that I was very happy about! My goal was to get to my next anchorage at a decent hour and get settled in so I could relax for a few hours. The anchorage was located at Wrightsville Beach NC (Masonboro Inlet) and would be my starting point to run outside from the to Beaufort NC. We did this coming south so I knew what to expect when I arrived there. As I made my way up the river, the winds had picked up even more and the water was getting choppy so I was really happy to see the turn that would get me off the river and back into the ICW.

Snow’s Cut is a short cut that connects the Cape Fear River to the portion of the ICW at Carolina Beach and the currents that rip thru there can be just as bad as Elliott Cut down near Charleston SC so you want to time it so you go thru it with the current. I caught it just about perfect and my speed over ground picked up to about 9 knots. It only took a few minutes to get thru and I still had the current with me as I picked up the ICW on the other side and continued north (sometimes I do get things right…😁).

Before I knew it, Wrightsville Beach was coming up so I started my preps to anchor. I had to go past a big barge that was parked in the middle of the anchorage but there weren’t any other boats there so I had a ton of room.

I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at anchor and I was really happy about the way the day had turned out!! The next day I’d be getting up early to head out the inlet into the open ocean for the run up to Beaufort NC and the weather was forecast to be great. This would also get me past most of the tighter sections of the ICW and I was really psyched about that!! Little did I know that the next day had a few surprises planned for me just so I wouldn’t start thinking that this was going to get easy…😳… remember, it’s an adventure…😖.

Next up…the rest of the story for this portion of the trip…🌊🌊🌊

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