Wrightsville Beach to Church Street Town Dock, Swansboro, NC (docked)
July 12, 2022
We often have to wait for things – bridges mostly. Today was about making sure our timing was right – we had two bridges at the beginning of the trip that only opened once an hour as well as a chance that we would have to wait for Camp Lejeune to finish firing practice.
I misremembered when John wanted to leave and set my alarm extra early. This meant that left the anchorage early enough to get to the first bridge before 7:00 AM. We learned that the bridge opens on demand prior to 7:00 AM, so there was no waiting.
We made it to the second restricted bridge with about 10 minutes to wait, which isn’t bad considering this bridge only opens once an hour.
Camp Lejeune did not have live firing exercises today so we were able to keep on trucking up the ICW. The signs and the shot-up vehicles lining the route indicated what we were lucky to have missed.
The weather was gorgeous and breezy and that makes our slow ride a lot more enjoyable.
The Church Street Docks in Swansboro are used by folks who boat in for lunch AND by folks who are tying up for the night. Although we had been assigned a specific slip for the night, a small day boat was there. We decided to tie Lailia to the T-head (the end of the dock) because there was a strooooong current running through. Once again we had great timing – the other boat on the T-head was one that used to be at St. Johns Yacht Harbor. Mona and Nolan grabbed lines and helped us dock.
We walked a mile to the Piggly Wiggly and stocked up on some fresh food. After dinner we joined our former marina neighbors for a drink in a small spot near the dock. They’re on their way south back to Charleston so it’s serendipitous timing that we crossed paths with them.
We’ve got about 45 miles to go to Oriental tomorrow.
Life on Lailia 