We made great timing on the ICW for the two timed bridges that we needed to pass through. One of the bridges is the Sunset Pontoon Bridge which is scheduled to open only on the hour. This bridge is unique because its a one lane bridge that is actually a little house floating on pontoons. Most of the locals are upset because it's scheduled to permanently be decommissioned by August because a new high rise is being constructed. The locals would like to keep their pontoon bridge for historic purposes.
Our destination today was St. James Marina in Southport. Now if you want to see the little town of Southport, this is not the place to stop. However our plans were to do a few chores aboard the Summer Wind. Early in the afternoon we were tied up and getting what needed to be done accomplished. Dick wanted to treat us to dinner for having a tough day so he treated us to a lovely dinner at Tommy Thompson's Grille. That evening we went to bed sated and exhausted!
MAY 1ST 2010 - To give us a little boost from the current going up the Cape Fear River, we arose around 6:30 in the morning. The tide would be with us for approximately 4 hours. We made short work of getting off the dock and onto the ICW. As we were travelling on the river we heard this distressed woman's voice come over the radio, yelling at another boat for waking them. Her husband was trying to fix a leak on the engine and they were drifting. This voice was familiar to us, because we have heard it other times with similar problems. Sure enough, we came upon them and slowed down. The woman called us over the radio. They were drifting towards these huge tanks, the current runs pretty quickly on the river. She was frantic and asked if we could tow them to a spot where they could get their anchor down to fix the leak. Dick recommended them call Tow Boat US but helped them get out of the danger they were facing immediately. So, we grabbed their line and towed them to a much securer spot. The husband thanked us, and they anchored down. We listened fervently to hear if they called Tow Boat, so we hope they fixed whatever leak they had.
Our stop for the day was the Wrightsville Beach anchorage. It's a very popular stop, and one we're familiar with. The winds were piping up and if your familiar with anchoring, the winds and current were against each other. It makes anchoring challenging, but Dick did managed to get the anchor set. An hour after waiting for the winds to die down we realized that just wasn't going to happen. The winds seemed to be increasing, so we decided to stay aboard the Summer Wind rather than dinghy ashore. It seemed today was going to be the day to remind us about boating safety. We were enjoying our lunch or trying to when these powerboats went zooming through the anchorage. The boat was literally waked enough to loosen the anchor and we started drifting. Like Dick says ,,, "The Fire Drill begins".. He started the engine and I (Elle) went up on the bow to raise the anchor. It wouldn't have been so bad had these boats not been going by full speed like we were pylons on a race course. The captains of these vessels were young college kids out for a 'good time'. Well we set the anchor back down and kept an eye on the boat traffic. That evening we settled down with our dinner and watched the evening news. The local politicians were applauding themselves on addressing and increasing boating safety in 'no wake zones' in the Wrightsville Beach area. We're not sure if they've ever been in the anchorage on a weekend!!
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| The Rock Pile |
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| Going up the Narrow Canal |
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| Sunset Pontoon Swinging Closed |
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| Sunset Pontoon Bridge |
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