April 2-4, 2023 Myrtle Beach to Cape Lookout

 We slipped away from our place on the dock after three nights at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and turned into the ICW heading north. An hour later we turned into Little River Inlet to pass into the open Atlantic Ocean.  

We sailed north about 30 miles before returning to the ICW via Cape Fear River. 

The Cape Fear River was in flood tide, which was very helpful making 15 miles north to Carolina Beach.  We took a mooring provided by the city of Carolina Beach after talking on the phone with Larry the Dockmaster who is just about the friendliest guy you ever met. He was very welcoming.  Sam was anxious for some shore time, so we dinghy-ed to the town dock and walked 1 block to the ocean beach. She seemed happy to ve back near the surf.

On our last visit Larry told us the best burger in town could be found at the gas station next to the dinghy dock. We enjoyed it last time & it seemed like a good way to shortcut dinner while also filling our fuel jugs. But alas, the burger bar was already closed for the night and there was no gas at the pumps. We walked another block to the next gas station/quickmart to get the fuel and made an easy dinner back at the boat. I guess it was a reminder that cruisers must be flexible.  

One of the burning questions in my mind has been whether we would make it home before our supply of kosher salt ran out.

We use it in our bread baking and in cooking. I thought we would be able to stretch it out, but Brent took pity on me and bought some table salt as a backup.  There are very few things we've run out of, but there will also not be much food that needs to be carried back to the house. I feel like our provisioning was pretty spot on. We continue to eat  well.

Monday morning we slept in a bit, and were surprised all the other boats in the mooring field had already departed. We don’t know where these early risers were headed, but our timing was perfect to catch the tide north up the ICW about 8 miles to Masonboro inlet were we took to the Atlantic Ocean again heading offshore northward.  

The wind was a little weaker than the forecast causing us to motor through early afternoon.  Then the wind filled in very nicely providing as pleasant sail up to Cape Lookout.  The sun had left the sky a couple hours earlier, and clouds were minimizing the glow from the moon, threatening rain, but we found our way using GPS and radar to the entrance of the basin and then followed our tracks from our previous visit to safely locate a nice secure spot for the anchor, very close to where we dropped it on our way south.  

(I think I've taken this same shot every time we've been here, under different lighting conditions.)

We slept very well with the boat quite steady in this sheltered bay even though a full breeze was blowing.  A hard rain started just as we were dropping anchor and lasted through the night, washing the deck, leaving the boat soggy but not salty.  We ran the heater for an hour in the morning to dry things out a bit. The sun came out and gave us a beaufiful day to walk the beach, change the oil in the motors, and pull together some meals that could be easily heated under way during our passage home.

That's where we're headed next!  This is our last anchorage before we get back to the Chesapeake and our own dock.  We have another 40 hr sail ahead of us, but there's no place like home.