day seventeen - crossing the Sound, painting the harbor red

A buggy night.  Usually a few mosquitoes show up at dusk, then leave.  Last night they stayed and stayed and stayed.   Most nights I put out the Thermacell mosquito repeller, a butane powered repeller, for a few minutes and I don't even notice the bugs.  Last night they decided to hang around all night - very unusual - so I left the repeller running all night, and got a good night's sleep.

Sail off anchor 6:20, clear skies and a steady north wind.  Ten white ibis fly in a line from starboard to port.  2.8 leaving the anchorage, 4.0 as the wind fills in.

6:55 on Pamlico Sound, slip on foul weather bibs and boots for crossing the Sound.

8:00 with a heading of 120 degrees, making 5.0.  

8:50 a steady 5.0 crossing waves rolling down from the north, sealing east-southeast.  A little bit stronger wind, we round up and tuck in a reef.

Just before 9:00 the tree-line to the stern disappears, nothing but water in every direction.  Moments later  a vertical shape appears off the bow.  And then a second shape.  From past crossings, I know the first shape is the water tower on Ocracoke, the second is the 1823 lighthouse.  We are halfway there.

9:30 the shape of the island emerges from the water.  9:45 I can see the entrance channel markers. Sunny overhead, overcast to the north.  10:00 a red buoy in sight, 10:20 in the entrance channel just west of the shoals.  Calmer water and we make 5.6 in the channel.  I look up the channel to see the ferry Carteret coming my way up the channel.  I call the captain on channel 13, identify myself as the small sailing vessel coming off the sound, tell him I'll cling to the green side (to my starboard) on the way in.  He responds that I am approaching the narrowest part of the channel, they will slow down  and let me get to a wider part of the channel before he passes me.  I thank the captain and wish him a good day.

At marker "SL" we turn up into the wind and make four tacks towards the Silver Lake entrance jetties, then one more quick tack inside the jetties before slipping onto the calm water of the harbor. 

One lap around Silver Lake, known to the locals as "the ditch," before I head to the National Park Docks.

I find that the park office is being remodeled and I can't figure out how to pay for a slip.  One of the contractors shows me a sign laying on the deck that explains how to pay online.  I decide to worry about that later, I'm hungry.

I walk a couple of blocks to Dajio where I enjoy a perfect shrimp po' boy.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Back at the docks I go through the machinations with my phone and pay $33 for a night at the dock.

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Evening, I cast off and raise full sail in the steady breeze, then begin tacking back and forth across Silver Lake.  I call it Painting the Harbor Red as I watch my red gps track fill the harbor.  After about an hour I covered most the harbor save for the spot where a catamaran is anchored out.  I smile,  sail back to the dock, lower the sail and tie up for the night.

 22.70 NM