Our first jump was overnight from Charleston to Wrightsville Beach via the Cape Fear Inlet. Both are commercial shipping inlets so they are wide and deep! This leg started out peaceful enough, motor sailing and enjoying Mother’s Day with company on watch. Overnight, the winds picked up as forecast and then some! Trouble gybing during my watch had the Captain up with way too little sleep, then the forecast 20kt gusts came in as 30kt gusts. We rounded up, then got hammered with beams seas and those big gusts for the length of the inlet. It was brutal, but at least there wasn’t other traffic to deal with. Once we were on the Cape Fear River, a brush fire on shore ended up reducing visibility and clogging the air with smoke. Follow that with a notoriously tricky spot, Snow’s Cut, and we were more than ready to drop the hook in Wrightsville Beach for a nap! We didn’t go ashore and only stayed a night, though I would like to check it out in the future. And one weird thing we noticed on the ICW south of Wrightsville—seemed like power boats loved to do a starboard-to-starboard pass. We are not used to that! So many times it looked like they were coming straight at our bow!
The next day we opted for a long day sail from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort. Seas were rough to start the day (and it was cold!), but finally smoothed out so we could make better time. We dropped the hook by the Highrise Bridge just before sunset!
After a few long days, we are ready for a change of pace. We will be on the ICW for a bit now, making our way slowly through the peaceful marshes of NC.
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