We took advantage of the great weather and headed north. Our trek was long but rewarding. We retraced our path as far as Snow’s Cut, and then we were in new territory on the ICW. This was mostly an uneventful trip but there were three low bridges along the way. The first one we had no trouble with, as it had 16 feet of clearance. The second one, the Surf City Swing Bridge, has 12 feet of clearance. We were able to arrive just at the top of the hour, so we were able to go through during the hourly opening. The third one was also 12 feet. I confirmed the clearance with the bridge operator while we were still a ways off and then with Melissa driving I lowered the antenna mast to get us down to our minimum height of 10 feet. It felt like we were doing the limbo as we passed under the bridge. Good times.

The next adventure was the military base that traverses the ICW. There are apparently some times where you can’t pass through because of the live-fire exercises that they do. There is a sign on one end that has flashing lights that warns you not to cross. Interestingly, we didn’t see the flashing sign until we were already through the area. 

The Swansboro city dock was in good shape but it was the first time we had to handle docking all by ourselves as this was not a full-service marina and there was no help at the dock. The current was pretty swift and I had a bit of trouble getting into the slip. Fortunately there were no other boats and we were able to enter the slip at an angle while the current pushed us up to the finger pier. Not pretty but we didn’t hit anything, so  we will call it a success.

The most interesting thing that happened was soon after we tied up we noticed another Ranger Tug coming into the dock. Turns out it was a local guy who also owns a Ranger Tug R-29. It was the same year as ours and the same color, so it was interesting to talk to him and compare the two boats.

We ate at the Ice House restaurant, walked through the town, took some pictures, and found an ice cream place. Overall it was an enjoyable stop.