Boating with Sunset Delight: South Harbour Village

Saturday 11/11/2017 (Veteran's Day)
Depart: Harbour Village Marina 7:45
Arrive: South Harbour Village Marina 1:15
Distance: 38 NM

Desiring to make the 9:00 opening at the first bridge and the 10:00 opening at the second we would encounter today, Clark said we should leave as early as possible and eat breakfast along the way. We arrived at the first bridge at 8:45 and found a 24-foot clearance greeting us. We need 22 feet, so we did not need to wait and just kept going.

Upon hearing that the bridge offered 24 feet of clearance, a boat that had been waiting for the 9:00 opening, Capricious, let the bridge tender know that he only needed 20 feet if he dropped his antennas. He did that and continued on his way to the next bridge at a high rate of speed to try to make their 9:00 opening.

I piloted the boat through the bridge as Clark stood on the seat-back on the upper helm to spot the clearance. We had the current with us, so if we had insufficient clearance, we would have to respond rapidly to back ourselves away. After we passed under the bridge, Clark called the bridge tender to thank him for his help spotting from the bridge to let us know if he saw a problem with clearance. Their humorous conversation over the radio went something like this ...

Clark: "We had at least a foot of clearance."
Tender: "Glad you were able to make it through."
Clark: "Roger that, the alternative would have been quite messy."
Tender: "Yeah, I hate when that happens ... too much paperwork."

Having gone under the Figure Eight Bridge at 8:45, we only had 15 minutes to get to the Wrightsville Bridge for their 9:00 opening. Clark maintained about an 8.5 knot speed while we did some quick calculations to determine what speed we needed to reach the bridge in time. The calculation yielded a whopping great 24 knots. Since the boat does not go that fast, Clark backed our speed down saying, "There's no sense rushing to get there if we have to wait an hour anyway."

We could see Capricious waiting at the bridge for the 9:00 opening. Precisely at 9:00 the bridge opened, and they passed through. As we approached, Clark called the tender on the VHF radio, but the operator said that the bridge was already going down. The bridge closed just as we arrived! We got the 10:00 opening.

Wrightsville Bridge

Finally open!

Other than the excitement / boredom of the bridges, the rest of the day offered a typical day on the water.

Boat Traffic ...

Coast Guard Boat

Fishing Boats

Tow Boat U.S.

Sea Tow Twins

Live-aboard Boats -- Little Red Tug

Houses / Marinas / Buildings on the water ...

Wrightsville, NC

Dockside Bar

Water Scenes ...

A very small island on the waterway near high tide
the result of shoaling near bridge.
As Clark waited for the bridge opening,
the wind kept pushing him onto this island!