The timing was not right to go into Carolina State Park so we decided to continue on up to the anchorage at Masonboro Inlet, in the Wrightsville Beach area. This is a very well protected and large area where several boats are always anchored. It is always a busy area on the weekend but all the recreation boats go home by sunset. It was a full moon that was well up at dusk.
Next anchorage along the way home is Hammock Bay but first we needed to stop for gas at New River. The problem is there is only room for 2 boats at the fuel dock and this trawler did not pull far enough forward for us to pull up behind him, so we had to wait out in the channel.
Meanwhile, the 3 Navy patrol boats came motoring up. They proceeded to pull in up in front of the trawler since they have a shallower draft. They also fueled up from different pumps than we use and they were finished fueling before the trawler, so when he finally left we were able to pull in.
Another quiet and pretty night at Hammock Bay. One interesting story - we watched a large power boat attempt to anchor about 10 times trying multiple areas around the anchorage. His problem was that he never put out enough anchor rode to allow the anchor line to settle into a horizon pull aspect. Because his bow was so high (at least 8 ft) and he didnt let out enough line, every time he backed up on the anchor he just pulled it right out of the ground. Holding is actually good in Hammock Bay, perhaps a little soft, but not a problem if you put out enough anchor rode.
Next anchorage was Ceder Creek off of Adam's Creek. We had read this was an excellent anchorage but the two times before when we tried to enter it got very shallow and we chickened out. But the ICW boaters say it is over 6ft so we decided to trust them as we needed a protected place to anchor from the wind. The wind was strong from the south so we had to get deep into the anchorage to get protection from the point of land you can see under the moon.
It turned out there was a boat in front of us also heading in to anchor so we just followed him in. It was very shallow, between 5.5-6ft for a good part of the way in, then got deeper as described to about 7 ft. We were able to just get in far enough for some protection. Later in the day another Island Packet also came in and anchored beside us.
