stolen photo

I just stole this photo from my friend Seth's blog. It is a Pathfinder under construction. Nice work Seth.

steve

on to the next trip

I'm glad to have the daily log done. I enjoy doing it, but it is a lot of work. The cruise log will continue to be listed over at the right side of the blog, along with the Weekend Walkabout, Crab House 150 and Skeeter Beater 126 logs. That sections is becoming my online scrapbook, on cold winter evenings it is fun to go back and look at a day or two from a nice cruise.

Now I'm starting to think about the fall Chesapeake Bay trip. Right now I suspect it will be a solo trip and it will probably start somewhere on Tangier Sound and go north. But I'm not sure of the path or even the dates yet. It could be just about any week in September, probably middle or maybe late in the month. Got to talk to the boss about that. September is of course hurricane season, but I'll take my chances.

On the list of places I want to visit are Tangier Island, above, and the Honga River, below. I've been to Tangier Island several times, including sailing there on my first cruise on Spartina back in the spring of '07. But I would like to go back and anchor out in Cod Harbor, the sand hook at the southern end of the island (last time I anchored on the sand flat near the town). Bruce and I bypassed the Honga River last fall when we sailed from Smith Island to Punch Island Creek on Day 2 of the Crab House 150. Maybe this time I'll sail up on the Honga River and when I come back down a few days later sail outside of the Hooper Islands on the bay side.

This is one of the fun parts of cruising - the planning and dreaming ("if dreams were lightning thunder was desire, this old house would have burned down a long time ago" -- John Prine)

And then at some point I'll get technical and use a piece of string cut the length of 25 miles on the map to rough out starting and stopping points.

My friend and co-worker Corinne had her parents in town for a visit. At the end of the visit they wanted to download the photos they shot to Corinne's laptop so they could email them to other family members. They mentioned that while on a walk one day they had photographed this "cute little sailboat" (below). What are the odds that my friend's parents would take a photo of Spartina? Weird.

Corinne recognized the boat because I had shown her a photograph of it last winter while we worked in Haiti, she was my travel partner for that trip. There she is on a rhib (rigid hull inflatable boat) at an old Haitian coast guard station on the edge of Port-au-Prince. That all seems like a long time ago. Even the Tag Team 200 is starting to seem like a long time ago.

steve

Day Eight - fresh breeze to New Bern

We had the anchor up at 6 a.m. on Beard Creek. It had stayed warm all night. Almost no bugs so I slept outside of my Bivy. It looked liked there were some thunderstorms south of the Neuse River, but clear skies over our anchorage. Below you'll see Dawn Patrol anchored 50 or 60 yards away.

We motored around the sand spit and out of Beard Creek, past the shoals covered with crab pots, and raised sail for the last day of the trip. Wind was out of the southwest. Bruce caught a little more sleep once we were out on the river.

The was an easy sail. I always like to have the first day and the last day of a cruise short. On the first day this give us time to check over the gear, get adjusted and get comfortable on the boat. For the last day, this gives us time to get tied up, cleaned up and then time to relax.

By 6:40 we could see New Bern through the binoculars, the Hwy 17 bridge and the big sign for Outback Steakhouse. We were moving along at just under five knots. For the only time of the trip we were leaving Dawn Patrol behind - the breeze must have failed them once they got out on the river.

We sailed from Beard Creek all the way to the New Bern Grand Marina dock with our ladder dragging through the water. If that didn't slow us down our lack of any haste and relaxed laziness certainly did, as we sailed the entire 12 miles on a single port tack. "Honey did you bring in the sea anchor?" "Why no, Dear, I thought you brought in the sea anchor." "Well in that case, Honey, we should remember to bring it in when we arrive in New Bern."

(I mounted the ladder on the outside of the transom low enough so that I would not have to see it from the cockpit. The down side of that is that it is not obvious when it is down in the water.) -- Paul

We sailed under the high rise bridge and then contacted the swing bridge at the entrance of the Trent River. I called the bridge tender on channel 13 and requested a lift. "Do you have auxiliary power?" he asked. I said yes, we might leave some sail up but we'll have the outboard going. "I appreciate that" he said.

By this time Dawn Patrol had caught the wind and was making fast time up the Neuse.

We passed through the swing bridge and called the marina at Hilton New Bern. They directed us down to the A dock and we were met there by the dock master. Just as we tied up we could hear the horns sounding on the swing bridge as it prepared to open for Dawn Patrol.

There's Paul at the tiller, above, and Dawn Patrol with the Hwy 17 bridge in the background.

The dockmaster had them tie up right next to us.

And once we had both boats secured the dockmaster was nice enough to take a photograph for us, smiles all around.

After docking the boats and cooling off in the marina's showers, Dawn and I explored the town on foot to find a cool place for lunch and rehydration. It was a very hot day. Ah... New Bern, the city of...... bears? It seems the founder of Bern, Switzerland named that town in honor of a bear he had hunted and killed nearby --"B„r" and "B„ren" are German for "bear" and "bears". A bear is prominant on Bern's coat of arms. In New Bern, artistic bears dotted the cityscape Dawn and I strolled along the streets. We found an air conditioned seafood grill, and enjoyed lunch while cooling off there. On the way toward the marina, a scoop in an ice cream shop was a good excuse to hang out in air-conditioned comfort for a while. Back at the marina we checked out interesting boats, large and small, and then found some cool and shaded places to relax and read a book. It was close to 5pm when the passing rain and thunder rolled through. "Dress for dinner" meant putting foul weather gear. -- Paul

Bruce and I had noted that we had not worn our foul weather gear at all during the trip. Just one rain storm on Core Sound and it had been too hot to put the gear on. But that evening in New Bern a thunderstorm came through just as we got ready to walk to The Chelsea for dinner. So finally, a chance to put on the foul weather gear.

Paul and Dawn joined us for dinner. Bruce had shrimp and grits, Paul had shrimp and fried green tomatoes (talk about southern cuisine) and Dawn and I each ordered the crab stack appetizer plus a salad for dinner. Great food, check out The Chelsea if you are ever in New Bern.

The next day Bruce, Paul and I took a rental car back to Potters Marine to get our cars and trailers, then back to New Bern to haul the boats out. Bruce and Dawn drove the cars and trailers over to the boat ramp, Paul and I motored through Lawson Creek towards the ramp.

Now I tell all these stories about high winds, rough water and great sailing - but somehow I always return to form. Heading up the creek I followed the green and red markers towards the ramp. And then up ahead I see two white buoys and I think "oh, that must mark the area for launching boats." So I'm heading towards the white markers and I feel the centerboard bump against the bottom just as I make out the word "danger" inside a red diamond shape on the white buoys. This is classic me: 200 miles of sailing and I almost put the boat on the rocks 20 feet from the ramp. D'oh!

Hard left turn to get back in the channel to the last red and green markers that I had earlier missed. Look behind me to see Paul pretending not to notice my near mishap (though later on shore Dawn did hold up her thumbs and index fingers in a diamond shape while saying "danger" with a laugh.)

Yes, Steve, I saw that you were leaving the marked channel, but as I was following "that guy who's been here before and knows where he's going" I was tentatively giving you the benefit of the doubt for the brief moment or two you left the channel. Hey, at least you didn't sail with your ladder down. -- Paul

So that was the trip. The gps numbers are below for the day and the entire trip, but they don't begin to measure the amount of fun we had on the trip (I hope Bruce, Paul and Dawn don't mind me speaking for them when I say "we"). Thanks Paul and Dawn for joining us on the trip, I never would have guessed we would have such a great cruise based on one conversation and some emails. And thanks Bruce for being a great sailing partner. That was our fourth trip together, I can't wait until the next one.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to look at this log. I hope you enjoyed it.

steve

for the day...

Distance 11.9 nautical miles

Max Speed 5.6 knots

Average Speed 3.7 knots

Moving time 3 hours 14 minutes

for the trip....

Distance 188 nautical miles (215 statute miles)

Max Speed 7.8 knots

Average Speed 3.4 knots

Moving time 54 hours 45 minutes

Day Seven - riding a heat wave

I was up about 4:45 a.m. carrying the first load of gear down to the docks. A heavy thunderstorm had passed through Beaufort the night before. Since I had failed to set up the boom tent I knew that I would have to get down to the docks early and pump out Spartina. It wasn't too much trouble to get most of the water out, then Bruce joined me for the next run from the hotel to the docks.


We were looking at passing through the drawbridge in Beaufort at 7 a.m. Fortunately Paul checked his notes and noticed at 6:15 that the bridge would not open from 6:30 until after 8 to let the rush hour traffic through. So we threw off the lines in a rush and headed around the corner to the bridge. I called on the vhf and requested a 6:30 opening with six minutes to spare.


That's Spartina passing through the bridge below, a nice photo from Dawn Patrol.


We sailed up the Newport River with the wind over the port quarter. Easy sailing on a pretty morning. We moved along at 3 or 4 knots. Not particularly fast, but after three days of hard sailing this felt pretty good.


Sailing side by side it was a nice opportunity to shoot some photos. There is Dawn Patrol below.


And there is Spartina as we approached Core Creek on the ICW.


As the creek narrowed the wind was blocked by the tall trees on the western bank. Just a hint of a breeze and a running tide carried us up the ICW. Spartina eventually ended up sailing (drifting, really) along the east bank of the ICW just off the small piers of homes lining the waterway.
At one point Bruce spotted an eddy in the current that began to carry us directly towards one of the piers. I pushed the tiller over but we continued heading towards the pier. Bruce jumped up and ran forward on the starboard side to push off from the pier. As he moved forward the shift of weight inside the boat seemed to give us a little traction and Spartina turned out and away from the pier. I realize that shifting weight within the boat changes the shape of the hull exposed to the water, but I still don't completely understand it. I was just glad it helped us out this time around.



A minute later I heard a shout from Dawn Patrol. They had been caught in the same eddy and were not as fortunate as us - they hit the dock. Some comments from Paul.....

Fortunately in this particular case the smooth port side of our hull glanced off a smooth part of a post without causing any damage whatsoever. We bounced off into the mud bank of the marsh. The lesson I learned is that it's good to stay well away from obstructions when trying to sail in very light winds. In this case several things happened at once: the wind died, the boat slowed so that the rudder was ineffective, a devious eddy drew us too close to that dock, and we were not ready with quick appropriate actions. I never got a good look at the eddy, so I can't be sure that there were any appropriate actions once we were "too close". Backing both sails (hard) might have effectively served as "air brakes". Putting the rudder hard over and leaving it there might have provided helpful drag. Starting to turn away sooner might have helped. Not sure. But certainly prevention (staying well away from the obstruction) is to be prefered over finding a cure at the last second. - Paul


By we 8:45 were under power, mainsail and jib had been lowered. We had about a 10 mile stretch of the Adams Creek canal where we would not get much exposure to the wind. It was a fun ride for us on Spartina. We had passed through this canal three years ago on the first cruise that Bruce and I had together. It brought back a lot of good memories.


And then the ICW began to wind back and forth as we left the canal and entered Adams Creek at 9:40. The wind picked up and both Spartina and Dawn Patrol raised sail. Above you'll see us crossing on opposite tacks. And below you'll see that the wind was right down the mouth of the canal. Dawn Patrol caught a nice breeze and worked their way out of the creek onto the Neuse River. Spartina was not so lucky. We lost the wind on a port tack and got caught in the doldrums for a while. The wind was light and began to shift back and forth. We struggled for almost an hour trying to get out of the creek. And it was getting hot.



At "A" on the map above we started the outboard to get on the Neuse River. No sense in drifting along at just a knot or so on a hot day that was getting hotter by the minute. We finally caught a breeze and had a nice four mile run along the southern shore of the river ("B" on the map). We were sailing along at a good four knots and the wind seemed to be shifting in our favor. We could see Dawn Patrol further out on the river with light wind. Eventually we ended up just a hundred yards or so from each other at "C". And then the wind died.

And then the wind kicked in from the southwest. "This is it," I told Bruce, "we'll catch the afternoon breeze." But it died again. And we sat there not too far at all from Dawn Patrol. We would have the wind for a minute then lose it. They would have the wind for a short while and then lose it. And it was getting hotter and hotter and hotter. Weather radio said the heat index was about 105 degrees. I just can't describe the feeling of the sun beating down, no wind, no air to breathe. It was going to be a long afternoon. And we were still a good six miles from our anchorage at Beard Creek. So Spartina cranked up the outboard to motorsail ("D" on the map above) with a goal of being anchored by 5 p.m.


At some point Dawn Patrol made a similar decision. Why sit out on a windless river and bake? This is supposed to be fun, right?

The wind finally did show up late afternoon, above, just off a summer camp about a mile from Beard Creek. It was nice to finish a long hot day on the water under sail. We entered the creek and worked our way into a nice little protected cove with tall woods to the south and west and a sand spit to the east. Dawn Patrol arrived about thirty minutes later.

We were all worn out from the heat, hungry and just glad to be at anchor.

Dawn Patrol rafted up alongside and Paul spent considerable time positioning the boat so the sails of Dawn Patrol gave us some shade. And then we broke out the beer, a six pack of Carib packed in crushed ice kept in a cooler within a cooler. Boy was it cold and boy was it good.


And we started to talk about dinner but said let's have an appetizer first and out came the smoked oysters from Spartina and the cheese rounds from Dawn Patrol. Then the anchovies wrapped around capers and two kinds of crackers. And then tinned herring and next thing you know cheese crackers and more cheese rounds and then some just plain anchovies and then some cups of fruit.


And that became dinner, all washed down by ice cold Carib beer. It's funny how the unplanned things are often the best.


So it was the last night of the cruise. We sat in the shade of Dawn Patrol's sails, ate good food, talked, relaxed and enjoyed life. It was an evening I'll remember for a long time.

steve


Distance 28.8 nautical miles
Max Speed 5.9 knots
Average Speed 2.9 knots
Moving time 9 hours 54 minutes

Day Six - back road to Beaufort

I woke up early and the wind was strong, maybe stronger than the night before. I stayed in the bivy for a while looking up at at the predawn sky and just listened to the wind blow through the rigging.

When I finally did sit up I looked over to Dawn Patrol and saw Dawn looking west into the wind. We were probably thinking the same thing - the wind is strong and it had swung to the west. It would be a long, hard sail out on Onslow Bay to reach Beaufort Inlet. The wind and the ocean chop would be on our nose.

I woke up Bruce and we talked about our options. Then I waved to Dawn Patrol and held up the vhf radio. I told Paul over the radio I thought the weather was not good for a sail outside on the ocean, we were thinking about heading to Beaufort the back way through Barden Inlet, Back Sound and Taylor Creek. "Fine with us" was Paul's reply.

So it wasn't the sail out on the ocean that I had hoped for, but that didn't mean we wouldn't have a great day of sailing. Spartina tucked a reef in the mainsail for the first leg, a downwind run across Cape Lookout Bight and into Barden Inlet. I'm really glad we had the chance to pass by the lighthouse one more time, it was beautiful in the morning light. The photo above doesn't capture the pastel colors we saw that morning, it really looked like a painting.

Our sail for the day, the backway to Beaufort, sent us up Barden Inlet to the channel leading to Harkers Island then west across Back Sound past the Middle Marshes and then to Taylor Creek.

But before we left Cape Lookout Dawn Patrol made a point of sailing past us and getting up forward so they could get a nice shot of Spartina and the Lighthouse. Thanks Paul and Dawn for the photo below, I really love it! And check out the water. It was kind of bumpy in the bight, I wonder what it was like on the ocean.

The wind was on our beam through Barden Inlet, Spartina moved along with the reefed main at 4.8 to 5 knots. It was an easy shot up the channel with Dawn Patrol, as usual, leading the way. Bruce and I, while not serious birders, enjoy watching and trying to identify birds. It was a real treat passing Morgan Island and watch flocks of American White Ibis flying to the island. Those exotic looking birds with pink faces and curved beaks just added to the tropical feeling of Cape Lookout.

Here are some comments from Paul about the sail across Back Sound to Taylor Creek...

We closely followed and retraced our GPS track back to the eastern tip of Harkers Island. Where's the "That was easy!" button when you need it, eh? Then we cruised along the Harkers Island waterfront more-or-less successfully following the markers to Taylor Creek. Getting past Harkers, I noticed that the GPS said we were moving at 5 knots but visually it was obvious that we were moving through the water at only about 1 knot. We were riding a conveyor-belt of current to Taylor Creek. - Paul



What Paul doesn't mention in his note is that he made a great decision to skip from the channel that runs right alongside Harkers Island to another channel that is more to the south in Back Sound. We had been looking at that channel wondering if it was a good way to go when we saw Dawn Patrol make a long tack almost due south across some shallow water to reach that channel. And, as usual, we followed Dawn Patrol. That channel, angling to the west northwest, gave a direct run past the Middle Marshes to Taylor Creek. This was good decision making and great sailing.

So now I've got to ask you Dawn, just what did you think you could learn from sailing with Spartina that you could not learn from the guy sitting across the cockpit from you? See Dawn's response here.

The channel past the Middle Marshes was well marked but very shallow and narrow. Spartina flew through, tide aided as Paul pointed out, at over 6 knots. Then we started tacking towards Taylor Creek.

Some more comments from Paul....

The entrance to Taylor Creek looked a little crazy with the red can buoy sitting high and dry on a shoal, the current going our way, and sudden lack of wind due to trees on Carrot Island. Dawn had previously had concerns about sailing/rowing in Taylors Creek so I conceded to starting the motor and starting to drop sails as we approached to within ten yards of that red can.

Once in Taylors Creek, the winds were actually not too bad for sailing but I knew that with the motor puttering along Dawn was happy at the helm, enjoying the view and all the interesting boats. Maybe next time we will sail in. - Paul

On Taylor Creek we passed the old fish processing plant and the giant net drying reel. I'm always fascinated by that reel. The book The Boy, Me and the Cat - about a catboat cruise along the east coast in 1912 - has a photograph of a reel just like that, or maybe the same one. Talk about a piece of waterfront history.

Like Dawn Patrol we motored up the creek. The tide was with us but the wind directly against us.

And by 11 a.m. we were tied up at the docks. Some comments from Paul....

Beaufort Docks Marina was easy to find and the folks there were friendly and helpful. We were off the boat before 11am. The Dock Master gave us wooden nickels good for two free beers at the Dock House Restaurant. After buying ice for the cooler, it didn't take long for us to head to the marina's showers to cool off and clean up. I tried to stay in the nice cold shower long enough for hypothermia to set in but no luck. Due to that rocking and rolling feeling from living aboard the boat for several days, it was hard to stand still in the shower for very long. Walking felt better. Later Dawn reported that her experience in the shower included the thought, "Wow that's neat that they put their bathrooms and showers on a floating dock!" (The bath house was on dry land, of course.) - Paul



So now we are six days into the trip. Long days of sailing together, evenings rafted up together, mornings checking with each other on the plans for the day. So what do we do? We all get together for lunch! I guess we were getting along pretty well by this time.
The afternoon was spent cleaning the boats, doing laundry, running errands. And then we got together (again) to spend our wooden nickels on beer followed by a great dinner at the Ribeyes Steakhouse.

I will confess to having one of those very nice moments that evening as we sat on the second floor deck of the Dock House Restaurant. I was looking down at the marina and in the afternoon light a nice wooden mast with a red pennant caught my eye. What a beautiful sight I thought. So I stood up to get a good look at the boat with this nice mast and pennant. And it was Spartina.....

steve

Distance 14.8 nautical miles
Max Speed 7.8 knots
Average Speed 4.7 knots
Moving time 3 hours 9 minutes

Day Five - south to Cape Lookout

The southwest wind that we had sailed into the afternoon before stuck around through the night. Great for keeping the bugs away, no need to zip up the mosquito nets on the bivy's.

Spartina left anchor under power at 7 a.m., after 12 hours of sailing the day before we thought we would at least motor back to the narrow channel on Core Sound. As we got to open water and started to raise sail we looked back to see the sails on Dawn Patrol beyond the marsh, Paul and Dawn were sailing off anchor.

We sailed on a port tack to point "A" just off the little town of Davis then came and headed down Core Sound. I see now that Dawn Patrol started their southbound leg at almost exactly the same spot probably 20 or 30 minutes later.

From Point "A" to Point "B" is about a six mile leg, a pretty good run down the Sound at 3 to 3.5 knots. Spartina was in the channel for probably the first three or four miles. When the the channel veered slightly to the west we kept on going straight and left the channel.

Bruce and I spent a lot of time talking about water depth and draft that morning. I typically don't rely on just one source for water depth. I certainly look at the charts and the gps, but I'll also look at the natural and man-made environment. As for the natural environment I'll look at the color and texture of the water - is it choppy or smooth, it the color getting lighter or dark. As for man-made, I'll look at stakes put out as markers by watermen, lines of crab pot floats and the weir-type fish traps often built on shallow areas. And looking around on Core Sound that day the water certainly looked much deeper than the 3, 2 or even 1 foot depth MLW marked on the charts. So we held our course across what was marked on the charts as very shallow water.

(If we did come into shallow water what's the big deal? We raise the cb a little and tack back into deeper water and keep going. The bottom was all soft sand or mud, nothing that would cause a problem.)

You can also see on the map below that Dawn Patrol ran just to the west of us and it looks to me like Paul and Dawn finessed the wind (great sailing!) to stay in the channel for much of the six mile stretch.

Further south I think we both left the channel southeast of the end of Davis Island. The channel doglegs to the southwest and than back again to the southeast. My track shows we went straight and I think Dawn Patrol's was similar (but I would like to hear from Paul to see what they did at that point. In fact I wish I would sit down with Bruce, Paul and Dawn and go over our tracks for the entire trip - I think that would be a lot of fun.)

Just after 9 a.m. I used the binoculars to look at what I thought was a fisherman's pvc pipe marker out in the sound. It took me a minute to figure things out but I finally realized it wasn't a pipe jutting out of the water nearby, it was the Cape Lookout Lighthouse miles to the south. Neat!

I think it was off of Bells Island that Spartina and Dawn Patrol crossed paths on opposite tacks close enough for a wave and hello. We were all smiles as it was a great sunny day with a nice breeze.

Dawn Patrol started a series of tacks working their way southwest past the eastern tip of Harkers Island to find the channel leading down to Barden Inlet. Bruce and I stayed with our long tacks south, a more direct but certainly shallower path to the inlet. The water was very clear at this point and we had no difficulty determining depth. The sandy bottom was probably four feet deep, but sprinkled about were large algae covered rocks that reached up towards the surface. Bruce stood up forward and guided me port and starboard around the obstructions.

The water did get shallow at point "A" above and we did a quick tack to get past a shoal. At "B" we could see that last shoal that separated us from the channel itself. It was shallow enough that we could see the water rippling over top of it. We tacked towards the shoal, fell off the wind to pick up speed and momentum. Just before the shoal Bruce raised the centerboard and I raised the rudder, we slipped over the top of it and sailed out to the deeper water of the channel. (It was almost like we knew what we were doing.)

Below are some comments and a chart from Paul that showing our paths and the channel (Dawn Patrol track is in green, Spartina is in blue).


My intent was to follow the channel (and channel markers). We use both the 76csx and three different waterproof paper charts: TopSpot #N239, MapTech #91, Nautical Publications #A.C.-003.

However, there were a few places where --although we were in the middle of the channel-- we could see that we were moving into very shallow water and we changed course (tacked to the west) and managed to avoid the shoals.


From the eastern tip of Harkers Island to Core Banks the channel was straight as an arrow bearing 166ø true; however, just north of Morgan Island near red marker 32 there was a detour of a half mile around new shoaling and then the channel continued straight on 166ø. - Paul

You can see our two tracks come together right at the bottom of Paul's chart. We glanced up to see Dawn Patrol just above us on the channel coming our way.

The sail through Barden Inlet was a real thrill. Light green water, the tide rushing over sandy shoals, power boats and kayaks, birds screaming in flight. And of course the lighthouse. I had wanted to sail into the bight for years and here we were.

We were still sailing into the wind so we did a series of tacks coming up to the shore then tacking away to the shoal and then back again. The wind was great, at times we were doing over seven knots through the inlet. Dawn Patrol was behind us for a while and then moved on up ahead.

We sailed right past the lighthouse and the docks and found our way around the buoys that marked the southern end of the shoal that sits in the middle of the bight, finally turning west towards a white sandy beach. Below you can see Dawn Patrol passing by the lighthouse.

We sailed right up to the beach at noon and walked our anchors up on the sand. With no discussion everybody changed into swimming suits and jumped into the clear warm water.

(This entire day was so neat. First, we knew we would have to take the more direct route to keep up with Dawn Patrol. The water was especially pretty, a really nice green/blue color. The wind was very nice and the challenge of the shallow water kept us occupied so the time just flew by. Arriving at Cape Lookout was like arriving at some island anchorage. I felt like we were somewhere off shore in the Caribbean. Beautiful water, warm breeze and water. Now this was an adventure. We had just the perfect day, wading, swimming, fishing and photography. We lounged in the water keeping cool and chatting with Dawn and Paul. Absolutely perfect. Bruce)


For me it was thrill to visit Cape Lookout Bight, it felt like we were really "out there". And what a pleasure to sail there on such a beautiful day.

Bruce and I fished a bit (no luck) while Paul and Dawn took a walk on the beach. The water on the sand flats was like bath water, just plain hot. And we saw the tracks from sea turtles that had climbed up the beach to lay their eggs.

And of course Bruce spent some time photographing the birds including this laughing gull.

And I took a photograph of Spartina anchored where I had always dreamed she would be someday.

Both boats moved out off the beach to anchor for the night. Bruce shot this photo below looking west towards the dune. We could hear the ocean waves breaking on the other side.

The plan for the next day was to sail outside on Onslow Bay to Beaufort Inlet. Conditions were good that evening, we just hoped they would hold until the next morning.

steve

Distance 19.9 nautical miles

Max Speed 7 knots

Average Speed 3.6 knots

Moving time 5 hours 34 minutes