Giving Ourselves A Short Day

Morehead City to Camp Lejeune  |  5 Hours  |  35 Miles 

We slept well in the open anchorage in Morehead City. The wind died down as predicted and Crossroads swung nicely through the overnight change in tidal current. Our big Rokna anchor and a lot of chain held us tight and even came up clean this morning as day broke with heavy cloud cover. (True to my earlier hypothesis, I'm sure the 54 degrees helped all the mud fall off before coming onboard.) We scooted under the Atlantic Beach Bridge and past white sand dunes. Fishermen of all shapes and sizes were out and moving. We had a good push from the current and even saw a boat speed of 9.2 knots. That quickly changed when we crossed Bogue Inlet and began running into the current. Boat speed dropped to 6.2 knots in a matter of minutes.

We needed one bridge to open for us today. The Onslow Beach Bridge is located in the Marine Corp base at Camp Lejeune. Camp Lejeune is the largest concentration of Marines and Sailors in the world, is a major area for amphibious assault training, and "Home of Expeditionary Forces in Readiness." We used our high school Algebra skills to perfectly time the bridge opening. If a trawler needs to go 1.24 miles in 10 minutes, how heavy should we be on the throttle? Along the way we saw multiple signs of training activity.

We led two other boats through the opened swing bridge. The barrier island in this area is surprisingly thin and the breaking waves of the Atlantic Ocean could be seen about 100 yards to port.

The channel is also quite narrow. The green marker sat in VERY shallow water and we found it best to favor the red. Shore birds gathered along the sandbar to watch us pass by. With rain forecast for the afternoon, we decided to cut the day short and pulled into Mile Hammock Bay. With no other boats in the anchorage we had our choice of spots to ride out overnight gusts that will clock around almost 180 degrees before morning. The clouds opened with perfect timing as I went to the bow to lower the anchor. Back inside, we settled in for an afternoon of football watching and naps. From the pilothouse we watched the waves breaking on the beach and two dolphins touring the anchorage. After a week of pushing hard, a short day was a nice reward to ourselves.

Five other boats had joined us in the anchorage by the time a deep darkness settled over us. Salmon, broccoli and rice for dinner, followed by a movie made for a nice relaxing day. Tomorrow we will head to Wrightsville Beach.