Southport, NC - Night #14

Greetings from St. James Marina just southwest of Southport, NC - Today was a beautiful sunny day and we traveled 54 miles.  We departed Surf City this morning just before 8AM so we could catch the swing bridge that opens every hour on the hour.  Our marina was a stone's throw away from Hardees, so we couldn't resist a good old sausage and egg biscuit sandwich before we departed - YUM!  They say that you burn lots of calories just being on a boat because of all the movement - I'm counting on that because all I've done is boat, eat, and drink for the last two weeks! 

Swing Bridge at Surf City - 8AM this morning!

We've had lots of dolphin sitings in the last few days, but today, they came really close to the boat - just off the bow (I thought we were going to run over them!) and I caught a great picture - see below.  SO COOL!

Also - we timed our morning with the bridge openings.  The Wrightsville Beach  bridge was supposed to open at 11AM - so we took our time getting there and at 10:30 AM it unexpectedly opened, so Paul "hauled ass" and we barely made it - I grabbed a picture of it closing - it actually started the closing process when we were under it!  Wrightsville Beach is a really pretty area - and also a big fishing town.  Very pretty cruising through.

It was so beautiful today that for the first time in our trip, Paul ran the boat from the fly bridge - the sun was shining and it was spectacular. 

Another blue heron hanging out along the way  . . .

We passed an area today that was very much "off limits" - lots of signs saying authorized personnel only - blah blah blah.  Paul was talking with some guys at the marina and we found out that it is called Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal and basically every piece of armorment (bombs, bullets) for the US Military are shipped from here - we looked on the map in Google this evening and it's HUGE!

The village of Southport is adorable and the marina we are at this evening is a private community and it's quite nice.  Good showers and laundry facilities and we are about to go experience their "tiki bar."

We continue to enjoy this incredible journey - thanks for following along - lots of love, Jen & Paul

Today's Quote:

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances."

--Bruce Barton