We left Bucksport this morning at 0745 and headed south down the Waccamaw River. We had some current against us and we were making about 6 knots. Photo not when we left but after we arrived yesterday.

We planned to travel as far south as we could and stop at sunset. This meant we would be anchoring some place north of Charleston, SC. We had made a reservation for tomorrow night at St. Johns Yacht Harbor just south of Charleston... they have a courtesy car and a Publix for groceries.

About an hour into the trip the current switched to our favor and we were soon moving along at 8 to 9 knots... very nice! This current stayed with us for the majority of the day... not 8 to 9 knots but over 7 knots most of the time.

We had a lot of VHF traffic between a group of sailboats traveling south together. They kept going aground and TowboatUS Georgetown came to assist a couple of them. This photo of one aground at the mouth of Minim Creek with TowBoatUS ungrounding them.

This was the first of many groundings throughout the day... from what we could tell there were 5 or 6 sailboats in the group and at least 3 of them grounded a few times... Low tide in this area is not good for boats over 5 foot draft.

Sunset came and we were just a couple of miles from an anchorage in Whiteside Creek... turned to starboard off the ICW and 500 yards in and dropped the hook. We securely anchored in Whiteside Creek 1645. Our location for the night N32°52.330’, W079°42.913’. We traveled today for 9 hours covering 64.9 nautical miles averaging 7.2 knots.

We left Carolina Beach this morning at 0700... destination for the day either Barefoot Landing, Osprey Marina or Bucksport Marina... depending on current being favorable or against us... do not want to travel after dark if we can help it.

We started off with a bang... Cape Fear River with current pushing us along... 10.5 knots for quite a while... we were at Southport in just over an hour.... quickest I can remember ever doing the Cape Fear.

t all stopped at Southport... we dropped from 10 knots to 5.9 knots in a few seconds... we did pick up speed as the day went along here an there as we approached and passed each inlet.

Several very shallow areas... one we actually hit bottom... as we passed
Shallotte Inlet... this area has always been a shoaling area and following our track we have taken for serval years we hit what felt like a hill of sand... 8 feet deep as we approached and then BAM! the bow bounced up and up and over the hill we went... back to 8 feet on the other side... totally shocked me and Susan was in the galley and thought we had hit another boat.

We reached Barefoot Landing at 1400 and we had started getting a favorable current so we opted to continue on to Bucksport Marina with an eta of 1700.

Heard a couple of boats on the radio today and one boat passed us... other than that virtually no boat traffic today... Heard both boats hail Osprey Marina to stay for the night. So we will see both of them tomorrow when they pass us.

We arrived our destination and we securely dock at Bucksport Marina at 1715. Our location for the night N33°39.074’, W079°05.696’. We traveled today for 10 hours and 15 minutes covering 69.8 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.

We left Swansboro this morning at 0640 before sunrise and proceeded south down the ICW. Destination for the day planned as Carolina Beach.

Forecast was for a cold and windy day... being on the ICW and no open water the winds would have little effect.... and luckily the cold was not too bad as it was bright and sunny all day and the pilothouse was warm and cozy with the sun shining in.

Today we had a lot of bridges with restricted opening times. Onslow Beach Bridge, Surf City Bridge, Figure Eight Bridge and Wrightsville Beach Bridge.

Onslow Beach Bridge we ran a little late on arrival but were lucky to have a boat waiting for it to open so we were able to make the opening.

Surf City Bridge was not an issue arriving 4 minutes early finding the same boat waiting at the bridge that was at Onslow.

Arrived to the Figure Eight Bridge to again find the same boat waiting for an opening. We could of dropped the antennas and mast and proceeded through but only had to wait maybe a minute for the opening.

Next bridge was the Wrightsville Beach Bridge and it only opens on the hour so we had a slow 4 miles to arrive to it at 1400... the boat that we have met at each bridge rushed ahead and waited like 30 minutes for the opening at the bridge... not really hard to calculate the time of arrival and pace yourself so you arrive with very little wait time... he does not seem to have figured that out.

We arrived our destination and we securely dock at
Carolina Beach State Park Marina at 1600. Our location for the night N34°03.012', W077°55.156'. We traveled today for 9 hours and 20 minutes covering 58.8 nautical miles averaging 6.3 knots.