Good morning from Wrightsville Beach, NC. We moved north from Georgetown, SC to North Myrtle Beach on Tuesday, and then again north to Wrightsville Beach on Wednesday. We did not get to explore much in Myrtle as I was once again dealing with the transmission when we arrived.

Another early morning departure from Georgetown. They have a very active shrimp fleet here.

A lot of slow moving and no wake areas on Tuesday.

It is not much of a leak, more of a really slow drip, but with a new transmission we should not have any drips at all! We now need to stop in Chesapeake so the transmission company can get a guy on the boat to solve it. We hope it will be a quick fix, but we will see.

We never even left the marina in North Myrtle, but I have been to Myrtle before, and I was ok with that. Besides, they had a great restaurant on property.

Our boat is all the way out on the end of the harbor right on the ICW. We got waked until about 9pm and then it was calm. We once again left at sunrise so the fishing boats did not wake us anymore.

Great seafood restaurant with really fresh fish.

Fish was right off the boat and into the truck and restaurant.

Wednesday was a much more enjoyable run up the ICW. The channel had a lot more to look at and the traffic was light. We also had plenty of water for most of the day.

Our first swing bridge that had to open for us in a long time.

Almost thought we were in Louisiana with these next two pictures.

This was a large, at least 10′, alligator that crossed in front of us. This was Amy’s first alligator on this trip. She missed them in Alabama, and we did not see any in Florida.

We are now out of the low country and into a part of the ICW with trees along the bank. This also means we have run out of the trees covered in Spanish Moss, which Amy loves.

Anyone know which way to go???

When we departed North Myrtle on Wednesday, we only had a reservation for one night at a marina in Wrightsville Beach. We have called marinas for the next 60 miles and, as they say, the inn is full. There is a blue water fishing tournament and they have over 200 boats involved. They have booked all the slips from Moorehead to Wrightsville Beach. We had a reservation to spend Wednesday night at Bridge Tender Marina and then would have to move north and look for an anchor hole for the next two nights before they can open a broken bridge we have to go under. The bridge should be able to open again Saturday. Our other option is to go back outside in the Atlantic for 65 miles, but the wind and waves don’t look good for that until Saturday. Amy and I were a little concerned, but we got a call about 20 miles before Wrightsville and another marina had a cancellation, so we have a slip here for three nights. That was great new for us with the storms Thursday into Friday morning.

We will spend some time here with our friends, tour the area a bit, relax, resupply the boat, and be ready to move again on Saturday morning early. We plan to move outside to Moorehead City, and then inside up to Oriental, NC. This will be a 110+ mile day so going outside will save us almost 5 hours in the ICW. It will also mean we skip the broken bridge!

Then it will just be one-night stays in Belhaven, Coinjock, and then Chesapeake or Norfolk for the transmission leak repair.

Until the next post, I hope you all have a great week.