Wrightsville Beach Marina is right beside the next bridge so when it opened at 8:00 am, we just pulled away from the dock and into the ICW. A lot of boats were floating around waiting for it to open and we just timed our departure when it opened. Compared to yesterdays travel, the trip today was quiet quiet, but lots of nesting Ospreys with their nests sitting atop the markers. The route was pretty straight away.
Passed through the Camp Lajeunne Firing Range at mile 235. This is an area that is closed off when the warning lights are flashing as you enter the range. Reason being, they use live ammunition to blast the tanks and trucks on the side of the river when they are practicing. Luckily for us the range was not operating when we entered because it has been known that the waterway was closed to travel for up to 4 hours.
There are a lot of ugly houses along the ICW but I personally think this takes the prize.
We are still traveling east which seems funny until you look at the map of North Carolina and it does extend out quite a ways as does the ICW. Our planned stop was Morehead City. It took us a bit of time to find the Morehead City Yacht Basin but we did finally get there where we picked up fuel and got a pumpout. Shortly after we arrived, Rambler pulled in to the same marina. They had left at 7:30 in the mornign but were a ways behind us so they caught the 9 bridge opening at Wrightsville and booted it from there to reach Morehead City. Good marina and a nice place with a great restaurant close by - Floyd's 1921 Restaurant.
We also heard from our Canadian friends on Spring Moon the 26 ft sailing vessel that we first met on the Illinois River. We passed them several times on the Tennessee River and Tenn-Tom waterway, but lost track of them after that. We did hear that they had been at some of the marinas we stayed at but never heard from them until today. They contacted us on the radio and phoned us later that night. It was good to catch up a bit. However they were staying at a marina in Beaufort which was across the waterway from Morehead City Yacht Basin.
Later that night, we heard a knock on our door and who was there but a fellow who we last saw at the Fort Myers turnoff which leads across Florida. This was his home marina and he recognized our boat and came over the say hello. He was working on the boat, replacing stuff. We had a nice chat about what has happened since we last met.
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