Southport and south

Geography first.  Beafort to Swansboro to Wrightsville Beach to Southport all in N. Carolina.  Leaving tomorrow for Myrtle Beach South Carolina.
Tied up at Swansboro for 2 nights because of gale warnings that never happened.  Strange little town.  Muscovie ducks wandering the streets.  Everyone hanging Christmas lights, big tree lighting on a giant fake tree.  Chowder cook-offs and fishing derbies.

 We got a bunch of wind but we won't be so cowardly next time.d

Left Swansboro with some good tide and wind and decided to go for Wrightsville Beach, about 50 miles but to do that we had to make two bascule (draw) bridges exactly right.  We didn't. Both 8 Mile and Wrightsville bridges only have to open on the hour and we didn't make them.  So we had to find out way through the channel into the anchorage in the dark and the searchlight on our pilot house decided not to work.  Just a little stress we didn't need.  Got Lacy ashore and had a quiet night.

From Wrightsville to Southport we had to go down the Cape Fear River upon which we encountered a crazy rage 9 years ago.  We  planned this trip just right and rode the ebb tide into Southport doing almost 10 knots!  Sled ride!
Two friends of Kathleen's from the Bahamas live in Southport,  Ed and Cass.  We agreed to meet them at one of their favorite watering holes, The Provision Company, where we would get free dock space if we ate there.

It's a wonderful funky old restaurant that serves 4,000 people a day in the summer and we arrived on the day they were closing for 4 months.  So a pretty wild party erupted and Rosie was the guest celebrity.  A lot of fun.

Today, Monday, Cass lugged us all over town to buy food and hardware and let us do laundry at her house.  SO appreciated.  Thanks Cass.

Lacy fell in the water today while trying to jump to the dock to find Kathleen.  Not good. Whenever Kathleen is off the boat, here is where you find Lacy.

Mindy Donnelly, who has coaxed an old Perkins diesel to the Bahamas several times, told me long ago that I shouldn't baby a diesel.  "They like to run hot.", she said.  Well Mindy is usually right and the more I run this engine the better it gets.  I'm now running at 2400 rpm getting 6.5 knots if flat water.  I'll take that.

Gale force winds predicted again for tomorrow and yes, it has been cold here. 30 degrees predicted for tomorrow night.  And we're aware of what's happening in Vermont.  That kind of weather in November is just plain cruel.

So we'll push on south.  Rosie is rarin' to go.