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. | |
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We passed through the congested marina area at Wrightsville Beach, NC |
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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. |
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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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Go to Next Leg |