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…
We took a quick 30 minute boat ride from Wilmington to the Bald Head Island marina. This was definitely a resort stop, but we knew that from the beginning. There are ferry rides every hour from the mainland, but other than that the only way to get here is to use your own boat. There is a whole community on the island, with emergency services, mail, grocery store, hardware store, and restaurants. The slip we rented for the two…
It has been a while since we left the boat, but we have taken care of all the interruptions and we are really looking forward to getting back into the trip. We are picking it back up where we left off in Wilmington, NC. This is what we are calling phase three. In this phase we plan to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Our path will be somewhat circular as we intend to return to the south at the end so…
This is the Greatest Show! AirVenture is known as the World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration. It is an annual event held on the last week in July at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The week leading up to the show triggers a giant migration of airplanes and pilots from all over the globe. This results in the busiest airspace in the world for one week of the year, as over ten thousand airplanes of every variety vector in to the…
Signs. Markers. Buoys. Lights. Aids to Navigation. I may have mentioned these over the past few weeks. There is a lot of information presented on signs along the ICW. I thought I might describe them in more detail because it was difficult for me to envision what to expect when I first started the trip. Markers Along the ICW there are red and green channel markers. They are positioned at various intervals and act as guideposts, telling us where we…
Home is ever changing for us and means many things to me. Home is where your heart is. (Texas) Home is where your house is. (Orlando) Home is where you park it…(especially Fort Wilderness) We got a site at Disney’s Fort Wilderness to get the trailer ready.
We departed from Southport around 8am and headed into Cape Fear. Right away we had to contend with several large ships. There was the ferry going to Bald Head island as well as a car ferry. We tried to stay out of their way by traveling just outside the channel markers. Eventually we passed the turnoff for the ICW at Snow’s Cut. This day we would be going off the beaten path for about 15 miles up to Wilmington, North…
We left the boat in North Carolina to come home to get ready for Oshkosh so I’m going to backtrack & post a few more photos.
We departed early in the morning from Barefoot Marina because of concern about rocks along the ICW in this area. Our plan was to traverse this part at high tide so we could have a little extra safety margin. Since the tide was highest at 7am, we got up extra early. Fortunately we didn’t see or encounter any rocks. It was pretty busy on the water for a Monday, but this is a boating area. We arrived at Southport Marina…
We stayed at two marinas in the Myrtle Beach area. Although they were both along the ICW, they were very different. The first one was Osprey Marina, and the second one was Barefoot Marina. But first we have some photos from when we left Georgetown. The terrain has definitely changed from even a few days ago. Instead of swamp and grass, we now see trees, and lots of them. Osprey Marina was a quiet and secluded spot that was down a…