The joys of unusual days and holding in Holden

After a rainy start to Sunday, and a loss by the Detroit Lions, the weather calmed enough for us to take a long walk on the beach; making all the trials and tribulations of past days all worth it.

Dophins were playing in the waves, while small pipers picked at the edges in the sand in search of food, and pelicans glided just above the water in flight. Absolutely magical and calming. The food at MOJOs was again wonderful and we met owner John, who is also friends of previously mentioned and missed Ann and Gary.

 Wind switched to the SW overnight and the swells in the harbor became even more rolling during the night; but we departed Monday am into the teeth of 15-20 for the short 2 miles back to the ICW and then south, planning to reach Little River. However the morning fog didn’t burn off and while we made it through Foley’s shoals at high tide just fine, by the time we were about 3 miles from the even more unpredictable Shallotte inlet our visibility had diminished to less than 100 ft. So while we could navigate the ICW channel with instruments only we were concerned about not being able to see the movable buoys marking the shoals at the inlet and so turned around and went back to Holden Beach Marina to wait it out and hope for better conditions tomorrow.

 Right now we are parked directly underneath a bridge on the gas dock and happy for the accommodations, even without power or water. And it isn’t every day you can experience a mostly empty plastic bottle of soda fall out of the sky and hit your boat, obviously some auto bridge passerby.