I'm up to weigh anchor before the dawn. We hope to make it through 4 bridge openings today, and 2 of the bridges open only on the hour, which is not only uncharacteristic, but annoyingly hard to time. The other 2 open every half-hour. Although overcast all day, we endure only a light spit for a few minutes early, and keep dry in the full enclosure. WIth help from the wind, we barely make the first bridge. The second bridge is 3 hrs further, but the current is running with us, and we have a steady wind to beam. We almost make it an hour earlier than we planned! After waiting almost an hour for the next opening, the current and wind scream us to the next bridge an hour earlier than we thought we would, which means we can make it through the last bridge an hour early as well. We consider riding through Snows Cut and the Cape Fear River to Southport...another 15 miles, but after such a stressful day chasing bridges, we tie up at Oceana Marina at Carolina Beach for the night. I'm exhausted. Jan does the laundry while I shower, and we watch Jeopardy eating leftover fajitas, then go to bed. After the constant chatter of sailors desperately trying to find dockage for the night in Wrightsville Beach, we can't believe there's nearly no one here at this marina, which is nice, protected, inexpensive, and with beautiful new floating piers.