July 12, 2018 SC to Wrightsville Beach, NC

We left this morning 8:00am at high tide to go out of the Little River Cut.  There are some tricky spots that are shallow at low tide.  You would never know there was a storm off the coast further north. 

Myrtle Beach from the ocean side

About noon, we had to decide whether we wanted to go up the Cape Fear River and take the Snow Cut over to the ICW to anchor at Wrightsville Beach or go around the tip of Cape Fear and enter from the outside.  We decided to stay out.   We had to go south aways to go around the Frying Pan Shoals.  This is a shallow area extending off the cape. 

We then headed towards the Masonboro Inlet aways up the coast.  About 4:30 we were heading into a squall.  We decided to prep the boat and head right through it to our destination.  We took in the jenny sail, which we had used most of the day.  We turned on our navigation lights, which you do if you are traveling after sunset, but this looked pretty dark.  We also put up our side curtains in the cockpit, so we could stay dry.  Then I prayed the rosary.  The last time we were at Wrightsville Beach in July 2014, we were hit by lightning.  I thought we might be pushing our luck, but we had no other option. 

the purple area is the thunderstorm

The rain stopped just before we reached the inlet.  We were anchored by 6:30, safe and sound.