Wow - Mile Hammock was something else last night. From dark until after midnight it was loud and intimidating. The military was doing some kind of helicopter exercises and you'd swear they were doing touch and goes off the tip of our mast - that's how loud it was. They'd circle, and then hover and you could feel the drum drum drum and whirr of the helicopter motor and blades. It was kind of scary not knowing what they were doing above us. This morning it occurred to me that they were probably doing boarding maneuvers on the ship that's beached about 50 - 100 ft away from us which is why it felt like they were right on top of us. Good thing we had the anchor light on so they could see where our mast was (um if they really cared!). I'm just glad they didn't practice their boarding procedures on us. Another cold night but amazing at the same time!

When we pulled out of here, there was a dolphin convention going on right at the entrance of the anchorage. It was really cool to watch them (about 10-12). Little ones, big ones, all splashing and hunting for breakfast. A couple did a sideways swim-by looking at me at the bow watching them. Needless to say by the time I got my camera, they were to far away and not as photogenic - I need to Velcro the camera to my forehead LOL.

We had a rising tide following us to Wrightsville and there were a lot of dolphins whenever we passed by an inlet where the Atlantic meets the Inter-coastal Waterway. The water along this path changed to a beautiful green between emerald and beryl. We anchored near the Wrightsville Beach Bridge in 11 ft of water (N34*12.380' x W77*47.987').

There appears to be a lot of services here - restaurants, stores, etc., and the marinas and condos here are plentiful - it's like a summer or marine resort town. The "live oak" trees are more abundant and as I recall from my studies, this is the area where you can start seeing carnivorous plants (if you're on land) - pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, bladder & butterworts.

The winds are really starting to kick up and there are small craft advisories out for this area so we'll probably stay put here for tomorrow and possibly the next day. The windchill puts us in the 20's for the next couple of days and with the way the cold was biting at our hands and cheeks today, it's not something we want to do everyday even with the Nov/Dec weather moving in early. We're at Mile Marker (mm) 283 at Wrightsville so another 377 to reach the Florida border line. Looking at the weather reports - this arctic blast IS going to follow us to Florida (ready for snow Joe & Di, Lonnie & Terri???)