April 16, 2020 Thursday

It was only 45 degrees out when we pulled anchor in the Calabash River and headed north on the ICW and with a north wind of ten knots all morning we were soon in sweaters, down vests and foul weather jackets.

We had three trouble spots to tackle today where inlets crossed the ICW and fill the passage in with sand and we were at low tide so I was concerned but we didn’t have any problems. Even Lockwood Foley was a full eleven feet deep. We had run aground here on our way south in December.

Other than the inlets where you can see the dunes and ocean, this section today of the ICW is not particularly scenic, consisting of single-family homes with docks. Some of the old homes have been replaced with fancy large homes but few of the homes are particularly beautiful in our view.

The temperature rose in the afternoon and the wind speed declined so it was almost pleasant when we arrived at the wide-open Cape Fear River and turned to head up to Snows Cut. Along the way we received the sad news that my sister had passed away and we had to call our children and friends to let them know a very strong willed and proud woman that they knew and loved was gone.

My plan was to continued on the ICW to Wrightsville Beach but we decided to turn in to Carolina Beach and pick up a mooring ball so we could end the day in the mid-afternoon to take time to mourn. With the pandemic ongoing there would be no travel for a funeral or wake. The same situation we faced when my brother passed just a few weeks ago. A sad time for the Crothers family. We look forward to when we can all get together in New England to celebrate both my sister’s and brother’s lives after the pandemic is over.

We put the motor on the dingy and we went into the public dock to take a walk and stretch our legs after having been on the boat for so many days. It felt good and we ended up at the Publix’s grocery store and bought things we were short on like fruit and vegetables. We had passed a rough looking seafood shop (always the best kind if you want fresh) where we picked up some shrimp, mahi, and mussels.

We grilled the fish on a silicon grill mat along with some potatoes in foil and assembled a salad making a fine dinner. We decided to spend tomorrow on the mooring ball and enjoy the fine sunshine before continuing north in the rain that was expected to come over the weekend.