May 31st... Wrightsville Beach to Mile Hammock Bay (Camp Jejune, NC)

Today's only real challenge was the timing of the bridges. The first was in Wrightsville Beach and it opened on the hour so we simply had to guess at the time it would take to get our anchor up and motor the half mile or over to the bridge. The second was 5 miles away which posed no real problem either.... we timed it perfectly. However, after arriving at exactly the right time the bridge operator made the three of us dance for 6 minutes in the current with very little room to maneuver.

The last bridge of the day was 18 miles away which should be easy.... 18 statute miles -minus 2.4 =15.6 nautical miles. If we run at 5.2 knots for three hours everything will work out right. The only problem is tidal currents. Every inlet we pass means a change from current with, to current against. At times the current is as much as three knots. If our max speed over ground without current is 7 knots, then there are times that our headway is only a little over 4 knots. So we have to factor current, high and low tides, wind, as well as where we are going to be relative to the various little inlets. We made the third bridge with a few minutes to spare.

With about 15 miles to our destination we raised our jib and sailed up the intracoastal for the about two hours in 20 knots of wind. It doesn't happen very often.

We had a very pleasant evening with Bev, Arnie, George, and Dorene on "Scandia." It looks like we will be going our separate ways tomorrow.