Light drizzle in the morning, but it soon stopped and the sun came out. A really lovely day. The water was totally calm, so we had no problem whatsoever leaving the dock.
The ICW is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow strip of sand. A lot of big hotels, condos, and fancy homes are built along the oceanside. A couple of times, we could look down an inlet and see the surf pounding on the beach.
On the inland side of the waterway, there are many large estates and lovely homes with private docks. They're in an excellent location, because the outer strip of sand protects them from the worst of the wind and waves, yet they're close enough to the ocean to get out there in a matter of minutes by motorboat.
At Wrightsville, we saw a school of dolphins swimming around and leaping out of the water. Sometimes they swam next to our boat or ducked under the bow. We were really surprised to see dolphins in an inland waterway.
The current here is very strong. When we approached closed bridges, we had to turn around and head upstream to keep from being washed into the bridge. As soon as the bridge opened, we zoomed through it, so we didn't lose much time at bridges.
We were very glad it was such a clear day when we got to the Cape Fear River, because channels went off in every direction. We had to keep a sharp lookout for the channel marker numbers to make sure we didn't take the wrong channel.
Arrived in Southport around two. We could have continued on, but we were afraid we wouldn't make it to another town where we could buy groceries, so we tied up at the Southport Marina. It's a nice one, but not quite as nice as Harbour Village. They let us use their courtesy car, so Roy and I and a couple of other sailors drove to a super market and stocked up. What luxury having a car to take the groceries home in.
When we got back to the marina, Roy and I went for a little stroll along the waterfront. Southport is a really nice place. It combines the charm of a lovely southern town with the beautiful scenery of a waterfront village. There are a great many huge oak trees that spread their branches way out. There are also some small palm trees. This is known as the place where "the palms meet the pines".
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