May 3, 2010 - Day 18

We got a late, 0730, start today. I wanted to be underway at 0700 so we could time the bridges we had to transit. The late start caused us to arrive early/late at the Wrightsville Bridge. I tried dragging my heals by idling the engine back and even idled back and put the transmission in neutral. The wind was directly behind us blowing 18, gusting to 22. Add that to the favorable current and the boat was traveling at 4.3 mph with no engine or sail help.

Arriving at bridges with lots of wind and current is no fun. Heading into the wind/current with just enough speed to keep the boat near stationary is not too hard. But when you get inexperienced skippers or big powerboats who cant idle low enough, it becomes a dance of sorts as you try to maintain position and dodge boats out of control.


After getting through the Wrightsville Bridge, we played the same game again trying unsuccessfully to arrive just in time for the opening of the Figure Eight Island Bridge. After watching us jockey around for about 15 minutes in wind gusting 24, the bridge operator said he would try to open the creaky old swing span early. By the time he got it open, it was at the normal scheduled time.


The next bridge at Surf City was 18 miles away. The GPS estimated with our speed we would be either 20 minutes late or 40 minutes early depending on how you looked at it. No amount of sail trim and safe throttle could get us there any faster so we settled back and dragged our heals again.

When we got to our anchorage destination, Mile Hammock Bay, there were already 5 boats anchored. We found a spot and dropped the hook at 1630. The bay is a basin dredged out by the Marine Corps for use with Camp LeJune. By 1800 three more boats joined the anchorage making a total of nine boats (make that ten counting the permanent resident). Considering the high wind situation (20 gusting to 24) we all needed maximum swing room.


The wind stayed strong until sometime after 0130. The Rocna held firm with a 5:1 scope.

Location: Anchored in Mile Hammock Bay, NC - MM 244
Distance Traveled: 51 mi