The wind blew out of the west for awhile, the NW, and finally the NE. I was surprised that there was enough current to keep us held between the 20 kt wind and the current. Where we were anchored was pretty calm, and great holding. Good thing, because I think we swung 480 degrees during the course of the night.
The tides were high with the supermoon, October, and the NE winds.
The Wilmington Office of the Corps of Engineeers has figured out how to make documents that are easy for boaters with tablets/iPads to use. Their link http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/HydrographicSurveys/InletsCrossings.aspx provides recent survey results for lots of places, including the channel to get out from the opposite direction than I came in. Sigh. My weakness has always been, a new boat and a new place to go.... We looped around through Topsail Sound and up Topsail Creek to where it joined the ICW channel. It was fun to go a different way, but, it would have saved time if I had back-tracked out the way I had come in!
Our trip down the Cape Fear River was the fastest I've ever made! With the wind on our stern, and the dam still releasing massive amounts of water, and the tide falling... our trawler was a speed boat!
We turned into the ditch again at Southport, and continued westward. The local sheriff's boat had a USCG boarding team aboard, and they were boarding a lot of boats. They met us, turned fell in beside us, then along side us, and then went on their way. I was glad for the 2015 Vessel Safety Inspection sticker in my port window!
We eventually pulled into the Little River, to the south of the ICW, and anchored in a deep area, to the bank side of #18, out of the channel. We were in an area protected from the seas, though not the winds. The winds were forecast to blow NE @ 25kts, and we arrived late enough that I wasn't expecting much more traffic going through.
We watched the high water on the marsh as the skies darkened. We were in a good spot.
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