Thursday, October 27th, 2011 Wrightsville Beach

  There were 14 boats in the anchorage.  Katja and Geoff came in just before the sun set behind them.  It had been a beautiful night in a very protected anchorage, but we could hear the wind in the rigging.

  We agreed to leave early, 7:45am, to make the 11am hourly opening of the Surf City Swing Bridge, a whole line of us.  And then Figure Eight Island Bridge, opening on the hour and half-hour, and, finally, the Wrightsville Beach Bridge, another hourly bridge.  To time these bridges was tricky so as not to have too much time circling waiting for them to open.  We were early for the Wrightsville Beach Bridge, not wanting to take any chances, because last time coming south they didn’t wait for us to get through, and we had to anchor and wait an hour for it to open. So we circled; some boats would edge up in line and not leave us too much room to circle.  One time Ken jerked the helm to port, not realizing he had got so close to the edge of the channel and was in 4’6”.  The trawlers and powerboats came right up front, no matter what, and one was in front of Blue Planet, then stopped right in the middle of the bridge opening and sidled over to a dock, using their side thrusters, with total disregard for the boats behind him.

  We slowly proceeded through the Motts Channel and to the anchorage at Wrightsville Beach.  Blue Planet went through Shinn Creek and came up the Banks Channel to the anchorage.  The wind was still blowing from the north; we were fairly protected in the anchorage.