Day 297 – Southport, NC to Harbour Village Marina, Hampstead, NC - April 28, 2012

It is a bit cool this morning and quite overcast, not a bad day for travel, but it would be even better with the sun out.  We have two swing bridges to go through today.  Both have a clearance that is very close to our air draft – we will need to check the tide boards on each bridge to determine if we can safely go under them or if they need to open for us.  The first of the two bridges opens only on the hour while the second opens on the hour and half hour.  We arrive at the first bridge and determine that it will need to open for us; unfortunately it was just twenty minutes past the hour.  So Fred got to spend the next forty minutes hovering just below the bridge while avoiding the nearby boats, the docks, the shallow water and dealing with the wind and tidal current.  That type of maneuvering is not my favorite to watch – it makes me nervous and I’m sure all my chatter about where we were and how close we were to things drives the captain crazy.  In spite of all my “help” Fred did his usual amazing job.

Once we cleared the bridge we moved right along so that we could make the next opening of the next bridge (if it needed to open for us).  We approached the second swing bridge and determined that it didn’t need to open so we went right through.  After passing by a few more inlets to the ocean we arrived at Harbour Village Marina.  This marina is in a man-made harbor on the mainland across from Topsail Island.  It was a nice quiet place to spend the night.

            Miles: 36.8      Bridges: 3        Locks: 0

traveling through Snow's Cut

Snow's Cut

it was not a very warm day, but people were partying on the
beach in their tents and campers

one of the inlets to the ocean