unaddressed

a few things I have not yet mentioned about the trip.....

Dinners.  My freeze dried meals cooked in water from a jetboil were perfect.  I enjoyed them all, save for one which I believe I cooked incorrectly.  My favorite was beef stroganoff.  Lasagna was also a favorite, though it took a little extra work to clean the cheese off the spoon after dinner.  Curried rice with chicken made an excellent bed for serving fresh filets of speckled trout.  Jamaican jerked rice with chicken was my only failure.  Either not enough boiling water or not enough time, or maybe both - my fault I'm sure.  Tamale pie with black beans was fantastic.  

I boiled the water, usually two cups, poured it into the pouch and while the meal was cooking I cleaned up the pot and jet boil, packing it back in the cook kit before the meal was ready to eat.  It was easy enough that even on my 12-hour sailing day, a long and tiring day at the tiller, I did not mind taking the time to fix a nice hot dinner.

Power.  My Goal Zero solar panel and storage panel worked just fine.  I kept all my camera batteries and even my cell phone battery charged (txt's sent to family and friends from the thick of distant marshes proved to be an extra delight on this trip.)  Above I was charging my phone while having lunch at The Big Trout Marina in Engelhard - I always carry a battery charger in my pocket when on land.  But I also successfully charged several batteries with the solar panel while both sailing and anchored.  I used the panel when sailing only on calm sunny days, but there were enough of those that I had more battery power than I needed.  

Ocracoke.  I had hoped to sail to Ocracoke on this trip.  But sailing north on Core Sound the weather reports told me I would not sail across Pamlico Sound to Ocracoke.  Three days of small craft warnings with strong winds and gusts to 25 and 30 miles per hour.  Here is a copy of one of the forecasts....

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE THIS WEEKEND INTO
EARLY NEXT WEEK...

.A TIGHT PRESSURE GRADIENT BETWEEN HIGH PRESSURE TO THE NORTH AND
 LOW PRESSURE MOVING NORTHEAST WELL OFF THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST
WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE STRONG NORTHEAST WINDS AND HAZARDOUS 
SEAS THROUGH THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK.

AMZ135-292000-
/O.CON.KMHX.SC.Y.0070.000000T0000Z-130930T0000Z/
PAMLICO SOUND-
354 AM EDT SUN SEP 29 2013

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS 
EVENING...

* WINDS...NORTH AROUND 20 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 KT.

* WAVES...2 TO 3 FEET.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY MEANS THAT WIND SPEEDS OF 25 TO 33 KNOTS
AND/OR SEAS OF 6 FT OR GREATER ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE HAZARDOUS 
CONDITIONS TO SMALL CRAFT. INEXPERIENCED MARINERS...ESPECIALLY 
THOSE OPERATING SMALLER VESSELS SHOULD AVOID NAVIGATING IN THESE
 CONDITIONS.

So I will save Ocracoke until next year.  I'm thinking about Belhaven to Cedar Island to Ocracoke, then north to Manteo and back to Belhaven by way of the Alligator River and Alligator/Pungo River Canal. It is never to early to start thinking about next year.

steve