We left Dudley’s marina in Swansboro at 6AM while it was still dark. We wanted to get to Bald Head Island marina and knew it’d be a long day. The depth gauge was showing 0 feet at the dock, and we did bump a little bit on the bottom as we were leaving, but the depth increased as soon as we were a few feet away from the dock. 7:15AM – Entered Camp Lejeune. Thankfully, the firing range wasn’t active. We read on ActiveCaptain that sometimes they close the ICW for the entire day if it’s active so we were really glad it was open. 8AM. Cleared Onslow Beach Swing Bridge, the first of many swing bridges of the day. 11AM Cleared Surf City Swing Bridge. Luckily we only waited a few minutes, but waited with a half dozen powerboats. 1:30PM Cleared Figure Eight Swing Bridge. 2PM Cleared Wrightsville Bridge – we had to work the engines hard to get between Figure Eight and Wrightsville in 30 minutes to make the opening. Otherwise we would’ve had to wait until 3PM to get through. 3:45PM Entered Snow’s Cut. 5:30PM. Arrived Bald Head Island Marina. We encountered some fairly large waves near Southport, but with 3 knots of current coming down the Cape Fear river, it was a quick trip from Snows Cut to Bald Head.
Firing range not live. Luckily. Tied up safely at Baldhead Island
