Cape Fear River to Topsail Island Bridge - Cruising with a Dog

DAY 28 - April 28, 2017

A short one today!

Wake and wind be damned, we were really lucky to find Keg Island up the Cape Fear River - it had a wonderful sandy beach where I could land Baxter for dog duty. There is nothing on the Atlantic ICW north of the Cape Fear River that we saw today nearly as hospitable for a dog as Keg Island.

There was nothing of any visual interest between There and Here, so no photos! We did see Jonathan and Rosa on Salty again today, but they boogied on. Jonathan said they might be going as far as Beaufort some 50 miles farther along. Not a big deal when you are running at 20 mph, but a bit far when you run at 7 mph!

Topsail Sound / Sloop Point was potentially promising, but ambiguous in Active Captain, maybe there was shore access, maybe there wasn't. Anyway, we got there at 2:00 p.m., far too early in the day to stop. So we pressed on.

And on and on and on. Nothing. Until we reached the Topsail Island Bridge.  There is a boat launch under the bridge and I liked that, but Patty didn't. A little farther along, we saw a sliver of sand along the shore. Patty liked that but I didn't. We anchored first where Patty liked, then went back to where I liked, but in the end returned to the spot Patty liked - there is not a quarter of a mile separating these spots, so no big deal to go back and forth. We ended up anchored about 50 feet off the ICW channel.

We got here at low tide, took the kayak down, and I paddled Baxter to shore. No alligators, which was good. He did his business and we paddled back to the boat! Tomorrow at high tide the sliver of sand will probably be underwater. He may just have to wait a few more hours!

Tomorrow we will be in Swansboro, N.C.. We will probably stay anchored near the Hammocks Beach State Park, which has restrooms and showers. Then on Sunday on to our friends Benton and Ann Blaylocks' house in Newport, N.C., where we will stay a couple of days to do the Honda outboard service, some re-provisioning, and a badly needed grooming for Baxter! And showers and a real bed for us! Thank you, Benton and Ann!