St James Plantation Marina – Thunderstorms!

Sunrise at Masonboro Marina

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning but the clouds forebode stormy weather. We had thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon but the morning was supposed to be fair but cloudy. As soon as I got on the ICW and turned on the radar, I could see rain coming and we ran right into it. The boat ahead of us had an open cockpit and the captain was in full raingear like we used to be but we were dry and comfortable in our full enclosure, in t-shirts. The wind piped up to 25 kts true on the nose with rain coming down but it only lasted about ½ hour. With the radar and the chartplotter, it was easy to stay on course, we didn’t to try to peer through the haze of rain to see the buoys.

St James Plantation Marina

In this part of the ICW, we’re just paralleling the coast but we can’t see the ocean, too many sand dunes in the way. Also, there’s no anchorages, just marinas but then the cost is only $1/ft so we’re not complaining – and the marinas are first rate, real luxury places. The one we’re at now features a huge condo. I saw a sign where you were charged $600 for food and/or beverage at the included restaurant/bar per year – whether you used up the $600 tab or not. I guess if you want a bar and restaurant on your condo grounds you have to support it.

Sign in Marina - Wonder what the red clothespins means?

Tuesday will be a long day, not many places to stop and we have to cover about 60 miles and go through four bridges that have to open to let us through, always fun.