We left Southport Marina at 8:00 this morning.

Today was a very relaxing day. We motored from Cape Fear River to Surf City. For the first time this trip, we put one of our sails up -- the screacher. It helped us gain half a knot.

Bridges:

1. Highway 133 Bridge - 65'
2. Snows Cut Highway Bridge - 65'
3. Wrightsville Beach Bascule Bridge - 20' (passed through at 1:00)
4. Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge - 20' (passed through at 1:30)
5. Surf City Swing Bridge - 12' (passed through at 4:00)

Memorable Moments of the Day:

We passed an island that was full of birds and we saw a guy out there with his camera. I got pictures of that in the gallery.

A huge freighter passed us, with tons of large containers on board. It was definitely a sight to see!

We saw a few Southern traditions that we were not aware of: someone was using their golf cart as a pick-up truck in order to haul their boat out of the water; someone converted a skiff into a drag-net trawler

Jeff sprayed himself with the cold water shower on the back of the boat to cool down.

We saw dolphins today!

We almost missed the Figure Eight Island Swing Bridge opening and would've had to wait another hour for the next opening. Luckily the tide was in our favor and helped push us along, plus we had the motors in full throttle. The unlucky sailboat behind us couldn't keep up and missed the opening.

Our destination was Surf City, NC today. In reading our Waterway Guidebook, it sounded like a lot of things were within walking distance (and they are), including a grocery store. We pulled up to the marina to find a dock with an umbrella and food cart table. And that was the entire "marina". In the Guidebook it said this particular marina had a pool, so we were excited about that. No such luck! But the beach is a ten-minute walk away from here. It's a quaint area but also built up for tourists. Unfortunately there is not enough tourism to keep places in business or to help maintain the commercial area here. Most places are pretty rundown.

Nevertheless, we had a fun evening here. We ate dinner at Buddy's Crab House & Oyster Bar, which was right on the ocean and adjacent to the beach. We had a great steamed seafood meal there and also a fantastic view of the water. There is an IGA store directly across the busy street from the marina, so we stocked up on some groceries. There's also a park across the street that we walked through. It's all decorated for 4th of July and the town is having their fireworks show there on the 3rd. It looked so festive and was fun to stroll through.

A very nice fellow pulled into the marina with a skiff boat and was talking to us. He was on vacation (but lives an hour and a half from here) and had his three kids with him. Jeff was talking to the man about how we bought the boat in Key West and that we're from CT and we're trying to make our way up the coast. When the guy tried explaining all this to his kids, they didn't understand. So I was talking to his kids and telling them about it, and they understood what I was saying. The man thanked me for breaking it all down for them. They were all very sweet and the man even offered to pick up anything we needed. We told him we were fine but thanked him for his generosity. If only people were as polite in New England!

We traveled 40 miles today and plan on getting to Morehead City tomorrow. We've heard there is a heat wave coming tomorrow. We're hoping it won't last long, but we've heard it will be hot and humid for the next week or so.