Well it’s time for day 2. We had a great night’s sleep and got up early to ride the incoming tide up the Cape Fear River. We headed north with a pleasurable ride in a swift current turning right to Snows Cut. Snows Cut which continues the ICW on the inside of the North Carolina barrier islands. I planned destination is the Harbour Village Marina in Hampstead, NC. while traveling in the Snows Cut we went under the Snows Cut Bridge which leads to Carolina Beach. There were a few small fishing boats just outside the tight channel.
After leaving the cut we passed Carolina Beach Yacht Club and Marina that looks like a great spot if your looking to get past South Port.
Our next challenge would be the weather as a severe thunderstorm rolled in making our approach to the Wrightsville Beach Bridge difficult. There was a 30 knot wind off the starboard bow, torrential rain and the bridge with a 20 ft clearance only opened on the hour. We line up along with several other boats doing circles getting pushed to the west by winds and south with the current. After negotiating this opening we received a radio transmission that the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge may not open due to the high winds so we dropped our antennas and squeezed under the bridge that had a 21 foot clearance. After a meeting with the 1st mate we decided not to run all the way to Swansboro and we stayed with our original plan to dock at Harbour Village Marina. The approach was tight and shallow but clearly marked . The dockmaster put us on the fuel dock which worked out because the club house blocked most of the winds making tieing up easy. The marina is very clean and surrounded by beautiful homes. After securing the boat and checking in we were met with Mike and Eva who drove up from Myrtle Beach. We settled in for cold docktail’s and were approached by a father who was celebrating his son’s 1st birthday at the club house. He presented us with a tray of extra wrap sandwiches that we enjoyed for the next few days. Hopefully a sign of the kindness we will receive over the next year on the loop.
Mike and Eva took us to Surf City for a cold drink and some apps where we wandered into a beach bar that had a great view but the music was too loud and the weather was good enough to sit on the deck. we went back to the mainland and stopped at a great little spot called Coastal Wing and Spirits that had outside seating out of the wind. We did behave due to the long drive Mike and Eva had back to Myrtle Beach. It was back to the boat for a good nights sleep for a planned 65 mile run to Beaufort, NC for day 3.