After a beautiful send off for Day One, we have seen a variety of weather including thick fog near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, entering the ICW again at Southport, North Carolina. Day Three was eventful with three 'opening' bridges and a pretty good grounding near Black Mud Channel. We were able to get ourselves unstuck with the aid of some fisherman, hoisting a sail and sending big Momma to the starboard side. We just missed the next bridge opening and had to wait. Just before the bridge opened, a motor yacht, MV Migration, came along and went right through. We let him pass us but were surprised to see him slow down. I hypothesized that he was timing it perfectly so I called to ask. He had it down to the minute when he would arrive at the next bridge so we followed him through the next one at Wrightsville Beach where he pulled into a marina. We anchored a little way out of the channel for the evening, did some sail work and Bob even went to the top of the mast to change some light bulbs. 
Day four was very exciting as we entered the Cape Fear River and navigated through a huge expanse of water. Things got a little hairier as thick fog rolled in making motoring from marker to marker more difficult. We have a GPS but we also used our charts and had a good lesson in degrees and the compass with Anna as we followed the compass instead of visual markers. As we approached the entrance to the ICW channel at Southport, we realized that there wasn''t even a bouy to mark the entrance and we would have to go down to comple reliance on the GPS or dead reckoning. Just at this moment, our new best friends on MV Migration pulled up behind us and asked if we would like to follow them into the Marina. We had been planning on picking up one of the free docks (3) or anchorage (1) in town but he informed us it was the night of the Christmas parade, fat chance we were going to find anything free (never mind that we couldn't find ANYTHING in the fog) so we called two marinas and opted for the second a little further out of town and a little cheaper.
Anna testing out the Bosun's Chair at Wrightsville Beach.
Finn helping out with the dishes and Anna taking a math test in the rain.
Maybe consider posting your GPS coordinates when you post so we can track you. The fog is not isolated to your location. I was surf fishing with a buddy of mine yesterday afternoon out on Vilano Beach (North of the St. Augustine inlet). The fog was pretty heavy all afternoon. Looking out over the breakers, I'd estimate visibility to be about 400 yards with 6 ft. waves. It was nowhere near as heavy when we crossed the ditch, and out around I-95 it was a beautiful dusk.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to figure out how to add a map with our location for two nights and decided about five minutes before reading your note to add coordinates. Will do! Check it out on the "Where is Midwatch?" page.
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