Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell

Took a J out for a brisk sail out past ft mchenry and caught up about my trip. Wind died down rather than picking up after the fort, and that combined with the easterly angle made a real bridge run unrealistic. Also, I've never experienced this sailing before (probably because I'm used to being dehydrated in the heat or avoiding liquids while on watch off shore) but in the cold I developed a pretty urgent need to pee that forced me to ask to head back an hour before I wanted. :-( That really really pissed me off. I don't want that happening again. 

Holy moley today was peak ICW. I think we will go outside tomorrow. We started the day with a swing bridge and 3 MILES of something called "The Rock Pile". The name says it all. Thankfully a nice Endeavor 42 came out right before us (another Aquamap user!) so we followed him most of the way to Georgetown. (I know it was an Endeavor 42 because some guy sitting on his deck in Myrtle Beach radioed him to compliment the boat and get the make and year. It was awesome.) We went through another dozen or so bridges (at least 3 swing bridges) and the last one (Ocean Highway Bridge just outside Georgetown) pinged the antenna! This one wasn't even supposed to be iffy but it was for sure not higher than 63ft. However, we did come in at high tide so that certainly contributed. Of course there wasn't a measurment board to check on this one before we went under. The good part about coming in at high tide is that the very very worrying deep red "channel" into Georgetown harbor was closer to 9-10 ft than 6, so hurrah. Next high tide is 4:30 am so we plan to leave early. There was a very scenic bit of winding river through a forest with actually reasonably deep water for a while this afternoon so that was really lovely. We also saw a sun dog, and a pack of sea gulls who were following us like dogs begging for scraps. They kept swooping and hovering beind us and cawing. 

Went on the outside through Onslow Bay about 70 miles. I like going on the outside sooooooo much better than the ICW. There were dolphins and hardly any waves or wind, though we did get the jib out towards the end which was nice. Managed to snag the fuel dock for overnight at sea path marina. (VERY nice showers!) And Zach and Lindsey picked me up and took me to dinner with her parents which was extra awesome.

Left deep point (north) anchorage and made it to "The Dunes" marina/club. Mirror like surface on the water of the ICW as we left this morning. There's was a tiny bit of rain after the Pungo River but otherwise just a nice warm beautiful day. There was briefly enough wind to get out the jib and it was helping us get some extra speed too.
We made it under 2 very very tight squeeze fixed bridges also. They both had reports of being less than 65 feet but we should still be a couple feet lesss than that so I would spot and direct Mal to center the boat just slightly to the right of the center light in order to avoid tapping it with the antenna and then watch to see if there would be any contact with the underside of the bridges. None so far and I think these were the last 2 iffy ones. There may be a broken draw bridge coming up somewhere though so we need to figure that out. Maybe more ocean time!

Marina is has excellent facilities, including a great fitness room so I got on the elliptical before bed and slept extra well for a bit. Also very well protected and a good spot if I ever need to duck in somewhere over here.