Detour Day

Last night we actually had to turn the heat on the boat as the temperatures dropped to 43 degrees at Wrightsville Beach. When morning came, it was clear, sunny, windy and rather "brisk" as we departed for our daylong trip to Georgetown, SC.

Since it was Monday (and cold), there were fewer boaters on the water, so we were able to move along quite nicely without many "no wake zones", fishermen or homes and docks with boats still in the water. As the sun rose and began to warm things up, we opened the sky-roof hatches on ENCORE and cracked the side windows to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather and salty air.

We were making great time when we reached the first of two bridges that we would need to have opened to continue south for the day. The Little River Swing Bridge is only 7 feet off the water, but normally opens "on demand" for boat traffic. Accordingly, we hailed the bridge tender and requested an opening -- it was 1145am. He said he would open it as soon as traffic cleared. About ten minutes later we saw him drop the traffic barriers and sound the alarm for the opening. We got ourselves ready to pass when all of a sudden, we see the barriers go back UP and traffic starts to cross the bridge again. What was that all about? So we patiently waited another 10 minutes when the bridge tender went through the exact same process. Stops traffic, barriers lowered, alarmed sounds...... and yep, once again he raises the barriers and traffic crosses the bridge yet again. I finally couldn't take it anymore and ask as politely as I am capable, "what the hell was going on?" (well, I didn't really say that, but I'm sure the tone of my voice sounded that way). He said he was having trouble getting the barriers lowered and locked which were required before he could open the bridge. He said he had called the "main office" but it would be at least two hours before they could have someone there to try and fix it and wasn't sure how long it would take to repair.

Not having many alternatives available to us, we decided to back track about 5 miles and go out the Little River Inlet into the Atlantic Ocean. I called Capt Keith to confirm this was doable, and he gave me the green light (and a few tips for both inlets) for the offshore run. While it was a longer distance, if we could get outside we could try to still reach our destination for the night by coming in the Winyaw Bay Inlet and head north to Georgetown. Because the wind was coming from the NW, we stayed reasonably close to the shore line (about 2 miles) to try and minimize the waves. It actually ended up being a beautiful run down the Atlantic with 1 foot following seas, music on the radio, windows open and happy to have the "trouble" behind us.

We arrived in Georgetown around 5 o'clock, refueled ENCORE and after a quick wash-down, we walked into town for dinner at the River Cafe where we enjoyed some Carolina Shrimp n'Grits, Collard Greens with pepper sauce and a well deserved cocktail (or two) for the Captain and Admiral.

Tomorrow is one of our scheduled "long" days as we head to Beaufort (this one pronounced "BEW-fert") South Carolina. Hopefully, it was not be as eventful as today!