Surf City at Topsail Marina - at a dock

There was no live firing today but we were met with this sight after going through the Onslow bridge

We left on a high tide and took the shortcut route out of Beaufort which carried 6.3 MLW although it's marked with a shoal icon on Active Captain. That saved us about 1/2 hour at least. The current was with us on the trip south with speeds up to 9.2 kts! It was another beautiful day, a rarity on our trip south this year. We ran through Brown's Inlet without a problem by favoring the red side of the channel. There's shoaling to 3 MLW on the green side.

Like an iceberg, most of the amphibious tank was underwater

The surprise was at the next inlet, New River. The ACOE survey was not accurate. I found out that it was replaced with a new one on the very day I went through the inlet. I ran into a 5 MLW shoal not shown on the old survey but was shone on the new one dated 10/20/2017. Since I draw only 4 ft 9 inches, I survived the shoal without touching bottom. I updated Active Captain for both inlets.

Nice docks

Other than the two inlets, the rest of the ride was fine. Surf City is again open for business and has been renamed Topsail Marina. The owner is not on the premises so you pay over the phone and he assigns you a slip in advance. The docks are 40 ft long and easily accommodate our Fleetwing. There's no current and very little wind, at least today. Surf City still has the IGA store in town for minor provisioning which is very handy and, of course, there's tons of restaurants to visit if you're in the hunt for one. Don't forget the fish market just up the street if you desire something from the sea.

We have more challenges ahead of us with the Surf City bridge only opening once and hour but at least the bridge operator said the 15 min prior notice in the Notice of Mariners was not needed. Just show up and he'll open the bridge.;

On the other hand, the Wrightsville bridge will be close on Saturday until 10:00 am due to an Ironman event so we'll be delayed there too. We are aiming for St James Plantation marina for Saturday night for a two night stay, then it's on south again if the weather holds.