TIM PATTI RILEY BIG ADVENTURE

Sunday 5/20/2018

We left Southport on Sunday 5/13. While there we ate at the Provisioning Company. A quirky place. Order at a counter when entering, give them something of yours, which they put on a table to mark your place, & serve yourself beverages from a cooler. When you are finished, go back to the counter tell them what you drank & pay for meal & drinks.

Did I mention I don't like traveling on the weekend?? Can not remember seeing so much boat traffic. As we travel, the waterway is busier & busier. There was also a good chop. Even with all that we made it to Bridge Tender Marina.

The Bridge Tender Marina is on the ICW just before a bridge (hence the name?) on the west side meaning we had to turn into all the traffic heading south. As luck would have it a tow pushing one barge was just coming thru the bridge. We had to wait for him ( read: get out of his way) while dealing with current & who knows how many other pleasure craft in this narrow channel. My solution....get my lines & fenders ready & let the captain deal! He did a fine job as usual. As it turned out, this was the most entertaining dock we have been to. As Tim put it, "well worth the cost of admission." It is hard to describe, but I'll try.

Across the channel was a restaurant with a dock to tie to for lunch/dinner, so constant traffic. Also several marinas. On the north side of the bridge there were beaches where boats would anchor to swim & sunbathe. Center consoles too numerous to count, kept running back & forth from the restaurant to the beach. Not to mention bigger boats making the trek either north or south. Tim said the boats doing the back & forth reminded him of McDonald's parking lot back in the day. All I could think of was the bumper car ride at a carnival, without the crashes, thankfully. That was how we spent our Sunday once we were docked, watching the show.

Monday 5/14 we continued our trek north. We traveled about 54 miles & had to wait for one bridge to open to get to Casper Marina. It is right on the ICW. With the wind & current, it made for a bumpy night. Two things of note on this run, we again saw a deer swimming across the channel & the ICW Mile Markers(MM) are back. The MM are a big help keeping me oriented!

Tuesday 5/15 we arrived at Homer Smith Docks & Marina in Beaufort, NC. It is a short walk to town & they have a courtesy car & free laundry!! All of that is much appreciated as we plan to stay here to wait out the weather. Storms all up the east coast. The docks are well protected & the people are nice. We even got some fresh swordfish from someone on the dock. Tim was able to change the oil due to the use of the courtesy car & an oil drop off at this marina.

Rain has been a constant companion. Didn't make the music festival in town d/t the rain. We did spend time in the maritime museum & learn about Blackbeard, boat building & whales. Also walked the cemetery. Some of the head stones are so old, they are unreadable.

There are lots of dogs here, so Riley has had some entertainment. Also a boat next to us has a CAT! Riley & the Cat have a stare down on a regular basis. The Cat gets bored first & turns his back to Riley.

The plan is to leave tomorrow & run every day (weather permitting) until we land in Hampton,VA (just north of Norfolk) on Friday. We will stay there for the weekend. If regular weekends are busy, I can only imagine what the holiday will bring.