Day 223: Monday, April 15, 2013
Port to Port: Little River Anchorage to Southport, North Carolina
Underway: 8:37 am Motor Off: 3:20 pm Miles Traveled: 33 Stayed At: Free Dock
First Things First: First time in North Carolina.
Mile 342 to Mile 309: After a dark and stormy night (the other kind of dark and stormy), we awoke to overcast skies and wind out of the northeast. It rained steady all night but there wasn’t any thunder and the wind gusts were manageable. It still makes sleep difficult, though, with all the new noises and the uncertainty of the weather. It is also hard to get used to the idea that our home is attached to a thin piece of rope which is attached to a fairly light anchor which hopefully is stuck securely in the mud at the bottom of the river. Only a little disconcerting.
Yesterday we didn’t want to quit, today we couldn’t wait to be done. Our goal was Southport only 33 miles up the ICW. It seemed to take forever. The skies were overcast. The wind was howling right at us all day bringing in a strong high pressure system. The waves were against us. And, except for an hour in the morning, we fought the current all day. We were lucky to go 5 mph. I guess you can’t win them all.
We slogged through the day counting off the miles one at a time. There were several choices to stay in Southport – the city allows transients to stay a day on the end of their municipal dock, we could anchor in the small harbor, we could dock at the Provisions Restaurant and stay overnight for free if we ate dinner there or we could find a marina. We ended up at the restaurant. The free dock was taken by a cruiser that had passed us, the harbor was tiny and a boat was already anchored in the middle and we aren’t desperate for a marina yet. It turns out, the food was excellent and the prices reasonable at The Provisions and we didn’t have to cook. All’s well that ends well.
In Passing: Little Saucepan Creek, Sunset Beach, Mad Inlet, Calabash River, Bonaparte Creek, Lockwoods Folly River, Deadback Water, and Corkins Neck.
