Wednesday October 24: Carolina State Park - Close to the Cape Fear River

It was an early morning leave from Swansboro yesterday as it was going to be a longer day than usual.

I looked out of my little porthole by my bed and indicated that "it's still dark out - why do I have to get up?" Steve replied I was just looking the wrong direction and the sun was on it's way up!

Guess he was right - we left the dock about 7:15. The time I determined was best in order to make the first bridge at 9 am.

The day actually went very well with the currents running such that we were able to make all of the bridges with a maximum of a 15 minute wait time.

Having the GPS is a wonderful thing as I can set the destination and it will give an estimated time of arrival based on the speed we are traveling at any given time. What a great help in making these bridges!!

We arrived at Wrightsville Beach just after 3 pm. Traveled 55 miles in 7 1/2 hours. We've been here 3 times before so it was easy to know where we wanted to stay and best of all where the good breakfast place was :-)

So after breakfast we took a ride past the anchorage area where many of the traveling boats just anchor for the night. We like the option of being able to ride around so prefer to be tied to a dock.

It was looking like a great day. The current wasn't going our way until about 11 am so there was no rush to head out today. I think I even slept in!

The ride ended at the Wrightsville Beach beach area. Very nice beach - very similar to the beaches of Florida that just stretch from right to left as far as you can see.

Of course the condo's and hotel stretch that far as well. It's amazing to me that there can be that many people who want to live on the ocean. Although I totally understand it - there just isn't anything like it. I felt like we were back in Encinitas as we walked along the beach. As you can see, the tide is out - which is why we were waiting around a bit to head out.

It was a perfect day. Almost no wind, beaches and marshes on both sides of the waterway - Steve was definitely enjoying the ride :-)

We are back in the land of the 5 foot tide swings. We passed these boats that are on raised platforms to keep them out of the water but there is no way for the boats to leave the dock unless the tide is up. Guess this is one way but it would seem pretty restrictive to base the comings and goings of your boat on the tides.

Must be something you just get used to around this area. Very different than being on the Neuse River where the only raising/lowering of the water level is because the wind is either blowing water into the river or out of the river.

We arrived at Carolina Beach State Park after a short 2 hour run. Very nice facilities and very empty. We were one of two boats here for the night. Turns out the sailboat 'Legacy" is from Ohio ... and they know one of Steve's good friends from Benedictine High School that live in Madison, OH. Small world! Plus they even know where Loudonville is!

This was a great place to ride into Carolina Beach - of course we have a place picked out for breakfast. Nice 4 mile round trip ride on the bikes.

Back at Wrightsville Beach we did manage to find the museum but it was unfortunately not open yet. Steve decided to try the dumbbell sitting in front to see if his arm is really healed :-)

Steve also spotted a pelican mailbox - something we had never seen. He thought Matt and Wendy might enjoy having this instead of the standard Rubbermaid mailbox that is the norm at Cherry Point. Wonder how that would go over?

Unusual home along the way today .... looks like fun :-)


Tomorrow: we travel a whole 2 hours down the Cape Fear River to Southport, NC. We'll leave Yesterday's Dream there for 3 weeks while we travel to DC and then on to Ohio.

Weather is supposed to be great for the next day or two and then quickly deteriorates just in time for the Marine Corp Marathon in DC! More later ....