Slow Cruise

Apparently, there are no good protected anchorages along this stretch of ICW. Found Broad Creek anchorage, couple miles off the main ICW route.

Quite windy night.

One night stop at Alligator River anchorage.
Replaced fuel lift pump filter before dinner. As they say - cruising is about fixing your boat in exotic places. Well, we will get to (more) exotic places, some day, but for now it's about fixing the boat to get there.
Some pics from the Alligator River.

Docked at Belhaven dock for couple hours while walking around town, visited hardware store. Not much else is there.
Asked twice for directions - both times happen to be similar boat cruisers as us... (wander where are the locals).
Did not have need or desire to walk a mile+ and back to more stores/groceries/shopping.
Got grounded while leaving the dock!
Anchored in the harbor overnight.

The town's small courtesy dock was occupied, so anchored in a harbor.
In the evening, walked around the town, picked up groceries. BBQ chicken for dinner - yammy.
Next morning, filled up fuel at the nearby marina and left further southbound along the ICW.

Just a quick overnight stop along our ICW' southbound route.
Didn’t go ashore - just did some work on the boat, dinner.

Stayed overnight at the Mile Hammlock Bay Anchorage.

This one was entertaining. Apparently, the bay borders with the military training range. We heard gunfire, tanks, there were airplanes in the sky, etc. Fortunately, it all ended at sunset and we had a quiet night.

Tomorrow is a long ~ 45 miles run to our next anchorage.

There are two restricted bridges just before Wrightsville Beach. One of them opens once an hour - our arrival had a bad timing and we just missed the scheduled opening, so we had to wait and do the "bridge dance" for almost an hour.

We arrived Friday afternoon, and from the water, the city is quite crazy - numerous motorboats driven by bear-drinking youngsters zooming at high speed along the waterways. I guess it’s just the kind of lifestyle people come here for. Nothing wrong, really...

Stayed at anchor for a day and another night. Dingied to shore for a walk (long), had chinese food lunch, picked up some groceries, had strawberry smoothies in the way back.

The engine is staring to have some problems. Diagnosed, posted question on the ’Net, etc. Trouble-shooted. Looks like the fuel tank needs flushing and cleaning - the primary fuel filter collects sludge quickly. Will have to go to a boatyard for a service - don’t have tools to do this messy job.

Scheduled our arrival to do the fuel tank service at the Hewett Marine Boatyard. It's a low key place. Mostly for do-it-yourselvers.

It took almost a day with the help of a mechanic to service the tank. Pumping out the fuel, vacuuming the sludge from the tank, filtering and pouring the fuel back into the tank, treating with biocide. Messy job, but it had to be done.
Stayed two nights at the place.