Delayed our departure until two hours before high tide to avoid shallow spots near Bogue Inlet, where we touched bottom several times on our last ICW trip. Nice ride in sunshine, passing through Camp LeJune's (thankfully inactive) firing range. Had to maneuver around a sunken boat in LeJune's channel with only 6 inches clearance under our keel.
Missed an ICW turn, following the channel into the New River. After realizing my mistake, back-tracking delayed our progress by one hour. Returning to the ICW, we were met by a pod of porpoises. Stopped to watch them frolic around the boat. Progress was further slowed when we also had to wait for two bridge openings.
The afternoon sun was directly ahead of us on our southwesterly course, reflecting strongly from the water. Sunglasses and hats didn't help. The reflected glare affected our eyes, making the chartplotter too hard to read, and made continuing on the narrow ICW too dangerous. We slipped into a small marina about 30 miles from the South Carolina border, mooring at 3:30PM for the night. Good thing we stopped here ... the Figure Eight Bridge, 12 miles ahead, is being repaired and only opens at 9 and 11 AM and 4 PM.
Met a nice couple from Annapolis onboard Ariel, a Krogen42 widebody. While we had drinks aboard Ariel, their dog, Chessie, ate the rawhide laces on one of my removed boat shoes. I thought it was funny. They were horrified. They then joined us aboard Ebb Tide II for another bottle of red wine. Ham steaks, spinach, mac and cheese for dinner onboard.
Ebb Tide II underway
