Passage's Progress: Waiting in Wilmington, NC

Last night where we anchored was just off the Atlantic Ocean. It was really nice to sit in the cockpit looking at the stars, and hear the waves breaking a little ways away.

Today was a relatively short day for a change. We had a couple of bridges to wait for. The first opens every 30 minutes. By making the bridge a GPS waypoint you can see when you are going to arrive, and then adjust your speed so you don't have to wait in the channel. Some of the channels are quite narrow, with current sometimes blowing you into the bridge, so it's nice if you don't have to wait too long. We realized we were going to miss the first bridge so we motored as fast as we could to get there on time. It turns out there was a medical emergency on the outer bank islands so we ended up waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance to get back over the bridge. The second bridge only opens on the hour, so you really don't want to wait for it. It's only about 5 miles from the first bridge and we realized we were going to be WAY too early! We ended up at idle speed for over half an hour, but didn't have to actually stop and wait.

Karl Anderson's parents live in Wilmington - remember Karl, and my "new" shorts? It turns out Karl's folks are just as nice as he is (maybe that's how he ended up that way, you think?) At any rate, Karl's mom jumped in the car, picked us up at the boat and took us sightseeing in Wilmington. The old central business district, and waterfront is really nice. And across the river is the battleship North Carolina. She then took us to the grocery store. She also noticed the shorts I was wearing and offered to take me to a clothing store. I didn't have the heart to tell her...

Right now we're waiting for another friend of ours to show up. Matt Schaedler met us 15 years ago when we were racing our Frers 33. Since then he's helped us out with lots and lots of home and boating projects - not too many people I know could get a 50 foot mast from our boat club, 35 miles to my shop so I could paint it. Matt's going to spend some time with us - at least until he realizes he won't have cell phone coverage every day, and has to go home to see what's happening with his business.