Home

Our last few days were big mileage ones for us and yesterday afternoon we found ourselves in Ceder Creek tucked around back where almost nobody goes. It was a good thing because last night big thunder storms and winds to match rolled in around midnight. By 2:00 am I was wide awake counting the interval between flash and bang. It was always quite a few seconds. Traumerei did a little dancing on the end of her chain and our sleep was pretty spotty.

This morning we left as soon as we could see the crab buoys and got into our slip at Blackbeards just before the winds on the Neuse turned northwest - the worst direction for heading home.

In our travels people we have met a number of cruisers who have a great respect for the Neuse River - acknowledged as one of the two or three worst patches of water on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway. Today Carol and I both wore our PFD's for maybe the third time in over 3,000 miles of travel which included 140 miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico and some pretty wild sounds in Georgia

Wrightsville Beach Again

We "enjoyed" a slow motorsail up the Cape Fear River today. It was against the current all the way with a brisk following wind. Boaters will understand that this means some spectacular following waves. Fortunately we were able to get a pretty comfortable ride with varying amounts of jib sail rolled out. With 6 hours of adverse current, you are pretty stuck with duking it out, traveling at night, or waiting about a week. Anyhow we pulled into Wrightsville Beach the scene of our big anchoring scare last fall. We stopped for some diesel fuel and it was fairly easy to dock against the current with 20 knot winds blowing us into the dock. Carol and I looked at each other and decided to spend the night pinned to the dock and not anchor out.

Homeward Bound

We are now in North Carolina - Saint James Plantation Marina and feel like we are almost home. The long pennant below the Blackbeard Burgee is the Homeward Bound flag. It was a long day very much out of phase with the tidal currents. Tomorrow we need to wait until about 11:00 to catch a favorable current on the Cape Fear River. We are now paying for the sleigh ride we had through Georgia and most of South Carolina.

It is pretty cold here and we are happy to have shore power and electric heat.

We were lucky to make the Sunset Pontoon bridge before they shut it down for low tide. We stressed our 25 year old Westerbeke at top speed for about a half hour to make the noon opening. The bridge was then shut down until 3:00. Some people in a small power boat were going the other way. They must have been listening to our radio conversation with the bridge tender. They gave us a cheer as we passed through the bridge.

We passed by Lockwood Folly Inlet just after low tide. The new dredging was great 16 ft all the way!

Homeward Bound

Myrtle Beach

We are in Myrtle Beach at the famous Osprey Marina riding out a pretty windy day. We had a real treat today, Bill and Karen Gaughan from Blue Moon drove up from George Town and took us out to lunch! We met them in Marathon and it was great catching up and sharing sea stories with them. We are posing next to a dead marlin we didn't catch outside the restaurant.

There are many good and some painful aspects to cruising. But it is the great people you meet along the way that makes it a terrific experience.

Tomorrow we head north into NC and a stop at the St. James Plantation.

Soggy in Charleston

We are at the City Marina in Charleston and it is raining, raining, raining. But we feel fortunate at the moment. We got a call from our former neighbors in Boot Key Harbor. They were sailing outside North from Ft Lauderdale and a major storm came up so they headed into the inlet near Lake Worth and were struck by lightning. Right now they are on the hard which is a little difficult because they are traveling with a full size Golden Retriever.

We expect solid rain for the rest of the day today and all of tomorrow. Then we will take advantage of a promised respite of two days to push north as fast and as far as we can before the next cold front and gale force winds arrive. The tour is over, it was a great trip, but now we are in delivery mode and just want to get to our dry house and automotive transportation as soon as possible.