Well, today we FINALLY thought we were done with the swampland but NOOooooooooo! We left Morehead City this morning and decided to follow the ICW down towards the SC border.
After a while the shores were beginning to be lined with houses and every single one of them had a looooooong dock that ran about 150 ft out into the ICW.
Some of the homes were a little bizarre but most of them were modest…. But all are built up about 20 feet on stilts.
This afternoon we came around one corner and bang into a US Navy patrol boat at the beginning of Camp Lejune which is a huge Marine Corps Base.
The base straddles the waterway and on the port side of the ICW is a big swamp that has tanks, missile launchers, busses and other targets strategically placed. They shoot at these things from the other side of the ICW from about 2 miles away, with tanks and other heavy weapons. Man, these things were blown all to hell.
Near the end of the run through the base were confronted by 5 very large and very heavily weaponed zodiacs. These guys could take on an army…. And win. They looked tough but they all waved as they went by.
Like I said…. They looked tough and scary, but at the end of a hot day a nice swim is always in order.
Late this afternoon as we were approaching the SURF CITY SWING BRIDGE we decided it was time to hunker down for the night. The charts showed the Beach House Marina up a creek off the ICW just north of the bridge…… and they had fuel and water…..so we decided that we’d go there.
Things went well as we rounded an island and started up the inlet when BANG!!!! OH SHIT!!!! We were hard aground on a sand bank. What the hell was that?
After ten minutes of rocking the boat with the engine running full astern she finally came off and floated free. I told Jan I’d take it from here and BANG…… we were up on another sand bank.
I’ll guarantee everyone right now that there is absolutely no growth on the bottom of our keel.
As we got back out into the middle of the channel we saw a big sign that said….”Beach House Marina is here… with an arrow pointing to port, NOT OVER THERE.
We got in OK and fueled up before making our way to a dock for the night.
After a cold drink we walked one block to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean then had dinner overlooking the sea. The evening was perfect and the sea was calm. That’s when we made our decision to go outside on the sea for the next couple legs because we miss the sea so much.
So, tonight, we’re in Surf City, NC and enjoying it.
Later……
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