From Jon. Monday. March 28th, 2022

Monday morning before dawn we were sitting at the dock in Wrightsville Beach, just south of the drawbridge drinking coffee when I glanced at an email on my phone from the Chesapeake Yacht Club. The temps in Maryland tonight were dropping down into the 20’s so they were turning off the water to our dock, but hoped to have it back up by Thursday, depending on the gale force winds heading their way.

Gale force winds? Where did this come from. For the past week the forecast for the duration of our cruise had been for a large high pressure to park itself over the East Coast, giving us light winds, no waves, and comfortable temps in the 50s and 60s. Now we were looking at a closing weather window. Our old forecast was still reasonably valid through Wednesday evening, but Thursday was going to be a mess. Friday no better. We needed to get heading north, and quickly.

I pulled open my Waterway Guide to the page with bridges to see what the story was with the drawbridge 200 yards to the north. Bridges down here in the Carolinas come in three varieties. Fixed bridges with 65 foot clearance, and hence no factor. Draw or Swing bridges that open whenever requested, so only minimal delay to us cruisers. The third variety were draw or swing bridges in densely populated areas that only open at restricted times so they don’t create annoying traffic congestion for the cars trying to cross that particular bridge. I checked the guide and the Wrightsville Beach bridge only opens on the hour from 7 am to 7 pm. I looked at my watch. 6:50 am. Yikes!

“Hey everybody, bridge opens in ten minutes and then will stay closed for an hour. We are getting underway. Kurt, can you disconnect shore power. Terese, and Michelle start pulling fenders and lines, leaving bow, stern and the red spring line.”

I climbed up to the flybridge and started the engines to get them warmed up. Back down in the main saloon I started the generator and helped Kurt shift from shore to ship’s power. Terese got everybody headsetted up so we could all communicate and in less than five minutes we were ready for underway, with just the minimal dock lines holding us in position on the pier. It is a joy having a great crew who knew their jobs and jumped to them quickly and efficiently.

Looking south down the ICW we saw other boats pull off the dock, getting ready for the opening. We waited patiently and as the bridge opened and two sailboats headed past us we spun off the dock and got in line, heading north.

With the first obstacle out of the way we came up with a new plan for getting home. 150 miles up the ICW was the quaint little village of Belhaven. That was our goal for Today. Tuesday we would run another 150 miles up to Norfolk, which would just leave the Chesapeake Bay for Wednesday. The forecast for the Bay was 12, gusting to the low 20’s but from the south. The proverbial fair winds and following seas. It would be a gentle sleigh ride up the bay…if the forecast held. Thursday was forecast to hit forty knot winds, with the accompanying waves.

After going through the bridge, we did a slow pass of the two sailboats, kicked Eleanor up on plane, and started eating up the miles of the ICW at our customary 20 knots.