Calabash River

Day 10: Top Sail Sound to Calabash River, SC
After spending the night at a posh new resort just north of Wrightsville Beach, we got underway after dawn heading for Cape Fear. We doubted we would have a decent weather forecast for an off-shore hop so we also expected to cross the Cape Fear River and continue down the ICW to the South Carolina state line.
Mike and Steve getting Sarah ready to depart Harbor Village at dawn.
Shortly after entering the ICW we went through the Figure 8 Bridge and then the Wrightsville Beach Highway bridge (picture on right). The Wrightsville bridge would be the last bridge opening of the day until we reached Sunset Beach. All of the other bridges are fixed with 65' minimum heights.
	We passed through the congested marina area at Wrightsville Beach, NC

At Carolina Beach, NC we entered Snow's Cut and headed for the Cape Fear River.
	24 years earlier I transited Carolina Beach on my only other trip down the ICW. Pictured above on the left is the view of the Carolina Beach community in 1980. Below that picture is nearly the same view today. I'd say there been a little bit of development here.

After crossing the Cape Fear River we passed through Southport, NC and continued down the ICW. No off-shore passage today.
We passed the Lockwood's Folly Inlet where dredging had resumed after Congress restored funds to allow the Corps of Engineers to continue maintenance of the ICW. This inlet had been closed for some time because of silting.
	We had hoped to make it all the way to Myrtle Beach, SC on this day. The major obstacle was the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge just above the SC state line. We were pushing to make the 5:00PM opening which would allow us the arrive at Myrtle Beach around 7:00PM. We were approaching the bridge at 4:30 when we heard the bridge tender announce on VHF Channel 13 that the bridge could not open at 5:00PM because of the extreme low tide. We and a lot of other boats had to cool our keels until 6:00PM by which time the tide had come back up enough to allow the bridge to resume operation. On this day the bridge lived up to its name as we made it through just before sunset. By that time we had ruled out Myrtle Beach as we would have to travel some distance on the ICW in the dark. Instead we anchored just off the ICW on the Calabash River (red arrow on chart).


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