November 1, 2011.

Happy Birthday Mom.

We had planned to consider today as a lay day if the weather forecast proved accurate. They were predicting 25 to 30 knots from the north with rain. Screw traveling in that. But we woke to clear skies and 15 knots out of the west.

We had to motorsail for a few miles until we turned south into the Pungo River.

At one time I was able to count 29 other sailboats underway all around us.

It seems that we've caught up with some of the pack.

It ended up being one of the nicest sailing days we've had in a while. Of the 30 sailboats we saw I could count on one hand the boats that were sailing. Most were motorsailing while a few were even underway sans sails. I just can't understand it. This Pearson 36 came by us under full sail with a beautiful wing and wing spread.

The wind did build to 25 as the day wore on but we just reefed a bit and barreled along across flat seas.

We arrived in Oriental by 1500 and are tied up behind a friends home on Whittaker Creek. We'll be here a few days while we await a window to jump outside at Beaufort.