After a quiet ride up the Intracoastal, a turn into the Cape Fear River cut from the North Atlantic Ocean presented us with some challenging winds.  Upon arrival at the Joyner Marina at Carolina Beach, between cross-currents and wind, we were pushed well off target of the marina entrance (which was surrounded by large rocks).  Upon our second try, with engines fully engaged, we shot into the marina’s more protected harbor.  The winds continued to push us around but with slow and steady adjustments we were able to settle into a tight slip.  This proved to be our second most challenging docking since we left Nashville last year.

    

    

With wind gusts over 30 mph, for the first time our wine glasses where clanging against each other…..keeping beat with the waves, they played a rather interesting chime…..AND – not a one broke!

We’ve met people from all over the world.  Here we met Howard and Maria from Guadalajara, Mexico on their 43′ Gulfstar sailboat “Ariel”.  The map below shows how we keep up with loopers we’ve met.  America’s Great Loop Cruiser’s Association has an app we can log on to to show our location.  You can see a number of looper boats heading up the east coast.  Springtime is the time to head north for the summer.  After Canada in the summer months, we start heading south for the fall and Florida for the winter!  Thus – The “Great Loop”.  If you click on any one of the red pins, a pop-up will reveal the boat and Captain, along with their location.

    

We also officially crossed from South Carolina to North Carolina today….

The beach was only a short walk from our marina so we left out on foot.  Not sure why there is a “road closed” sign where there is no road, but it was amusing to us all the same.

  We walked the beach and picked up “Ocean Coins” to send to the grand-kids…..ocean coins are shells that have been washed by sand and sea into smooth round “coins”.  And – they can only be spent at the beach…..

We are also learning to take “selfies”…not bad for two old farts!

    

We stopped at the “High Tide Lounge” for dinner.  It was a hike up to the third floor, but it was well worth their claim to “The Best View on the Island”.  Although it was quiet windy, we sat on the porch and enjoyed burgers and fried macaroni and cheese – not healthy – but yummy!  And the view was breathtaking.  We watch the ocean waves, a few visitors, and a surfer that had braved the chilly seas to catch a few waves……..

    

    

    

    

We hiked back to the marina where we would await the next morning for higher tide and calmer winds……

    

…..Another “don’t know exactly where to insert this pic into the blog”…….

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