Swansboro, NC to Georgetown, SC

So, we left Swansboro in the early morning, and continued down the ICW towards Wrightsville Beach. Our first point of interest was passing through Camp LeJeune Marine Base. Occasionally, there will be live fire exercises and the like on this part of the ICW, so signs at both ends warn of such activities. Long, straight and narrow, the most interesting thing about this stretch was the sight of several mobile missile platforms that seem to have been abandoned along the shore....All along the banks of the ICW, residential development seems to be booming. This was one of the more memorable ones...That evening, we pulled into our anchorage in Wrightsville Beach. It's a pleasant little town, and the ocean was within 500 yards of the dinghy dock. We meandered about the town for two days, enjoying the beach and various touristy things like the museum of history.







After leaving Wrightsville Beach, we headed south to Carolina Beach for the evening. It was a short day, but necessary due to the long run to Calabash Creek we had planned for the following day. Shown is the Carolina Beach waterfront.We awoke with dawn the next morning for our run down the Cape Fear River to our anchorage in Calabash Creek that evening. Along the way, we passed through the Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge, the last of it's kind. With ZERO vertical clearance when closed, the traffic waiting for this bridge was fairly intense. Of course, it only opens at the top of every hour, and we managed to show up 8 minutes AFTER the hour.Our anchorage that night was right next to the "Calabash Crossroads", where the ICW, Calabash Creek, and the Little River Inlet meet. From our post, we were able to see the huge casino boats coming and and out of the inlet. Somehow, these thing manage to draft only a few more feet than us.
On the move at dawn again, we were greeted by the sunrise in our wake as we headed to the "Most Worrisome Stretch of the ICW". Neither of us had slept much that night after we read that from our guidebook...But we made it through "The Rock Pile" without incident. As we passed through at dead low tide, we were able to see the sharp rock ledges and such that the guidebook warned us about. Not something you want to find with your keel, and not all of them are marked...That evening, we anchored in the serene Bull Creek. It was gorgeous. Enough said.A little later than dawn this time (at 3am the current and wind became engaged in an epic battle to see how fast they could spin the boat), we got underway. It had started to lightly rain, but we couldn't tell if it would stick around or it was an isolated incident. It wasn't isolated, as demonstrated below by Darcy... we did however manage to gather a few gallons of fresh water from the morning deluge.
And that pretty much covers it. We're anchored in Georgetown, SC right now. Only a few yards from the dinghy dock, which is VERY handy. Stay tuned...