Southport,NC

We left a very chilly Surf City in order to make the 8:00 bridge opening. Today we only saw a few boats on the ICW, one of which was a beautiful Selene 48. Since there were a series of timed bridges today, Bill pushed it up to after the Surf City bridge so we could make it for the Figure 8 bridge 18 miles ahead at the top of the hour. The next bridge at mile marker 283 only opens on the hour also, so we slowed way down to go the next five miles. It all worked out perfectly. We were glad because an extra hour on the water waiting for bridges would have been cold.

Today we had literally every warm piece of clothing on that we could find. I sat in the companionway up by the dodger for most of the day. Bill used the remote auto pilot and did the same to try to get out of the wind.

When we went through Snows Cut and entered the Cape Fear River, the waves and wind picked up a bit. And we actually saw a few snow flurries. WHAT? Yesterday we saw dolphins.... today snow. The water is starting to get a little bluer/greener near the inlets to the Atlantic, however.

We stayed at Southport Marina, which was a great facility. The marina staff was very helpful, the floating docks all new.

Since we got to Southport fairly early in the afternoon, we walked downtown and explored a little. Southport has a great little waterfront with lots of shops and restaurants. We decided to et take out Thai and cozied up on the boat in front of the TV.

For more pictures of our trip via the ICW to Southport, NC Click Here