Mile Hammock Bay

We are anchored in Mile Hammock Bay after a 40 mile run.  The interesting thing about this anchorage is that it is part of Camp Lejeune Marine Corp Base.  There are numerous helicopters passing by and a variety of loud noises off in the trees.   We wanted to go further than 40 miles but that would have put us in an area without a place to stop for the night.  The sun is rising around 7:00 and sets about 5:00 so we are limited by how long we are able to travel each day as compared to the long days of summer.  We encountered our first bridge opening today.  We had to wait twenty minutes for its scheduled opening.  The bridges on the ICW have an opening schedule.  It seems that someone decided that cars take precedence over boats.  You need to schedule your arrival just before opening so that you can quickly run through when it opens and continue on your way until you reach the next one.  Today’s bridge opened on the hour and the half hour.  If we had been ten minutes earlier we could have passed through instead of waiting.  Tomorrows bridges are only on the hour, can’t be late of one of them.  It is all about adjusting your speed to work out the timing.  We will get better at it.