Morehead City to Carolina Beach

Leaving Portside Marina at 6:30 a.m., we found the waters of t he ICW to be shallow with visible shoaling.  One of my biggest fears is running aground.  It would be very easy to do here.  I finally came to the calming conclusion that because it is so shallow, I could walk to shore if we ran aground and wouldn’t even have to get my hair wet.

Camp Lejeune was not practicing their war tactics so we were able to pass by relatively quickly.  We were very aware of the planes they were flying overhead as these have a distinctive sound and are very very loud.  We saw a group of tanks just over the dunes but that was all we saw militarily while passing through.

Marines and their tanks on the beach

calm and serene

Crabbers were everywhere laying their crab traps in the channel

This flock of birds moved like a black cloud in the sky

Such a sad sight

 We had the most incredible timing with the bridge openings today.  We are trying to get to Murrell’s Inlet to pick up Lainey on Saturday so we are hoping to make good time. I said a prayer that we would make the bridges easily today because  waiting on bridges to open will significantly delay us.  We hit the Figure 8 Island Bridge right at the half hour and never had to slow down.  Our next bridge at Wrightsville Beach opens only on the hour.  It was nearing 3:00 when the bridge came into sight–Steve called to let the bridge master know we were coming in.  He let us know he would open the bridge in 5 minutes.  Steve bumped up the speed and we made it.  Making this bridge allowed us to travel for another hour down finally stopping at Joyner Marina in Carolina Beach.  We tied off at about 4:30 and took a walk to see if we could find a beach.

We walked for about an hour, saw the ocean and the erosion of the beaches.  We returned to the boat to watch the news of the shooting incident in Connecticut.  Our prayers and thoughts are with this community.
After the news, Steve napped on the sofa while I wrapped presents and watched White Christmas.

Hebrews 13:8       Ecclesiastes 1:2     Proverbs 3:6