October 12. We left the beautiful Pungo River anchorage at 0700. The wind was already up and blowing about 20 knots. After a quick 2 miles south we turned west and dead into the wind. We were only on the wind for 6 miles before turning due south again. Out came the sails and we were able to sail down the Pungo and across the Pamlico Sound at about 7 knots. It was perfect sailing for a few hours before the wind slowly petered out and died.

We motored through Goose Creek and headed for the Neuse River where the wind did pick up enough for some motor sailing. We made it to Oriental and were safely tied up behind Ken & Carol Small’s home by 1500 hours.

As usual, Ken & Carol were wonderful hosts. I spent most of Friday doing boat chores including replacing our tired water pump. Christy food shopped, bathed the dogs and did laundry, monopolizing Carol’s laundry machines for the better part of the day.

Our hosts made us dinner; we also attended a gathering with them and their friends and then went to dinner together on Saturday evening. Our good friends are eager to help anyway they can and do their best to make sure you don’t want for anything. I’m surprised they’re not listed in the Skipper Bob’s cruising guide as a great place to stop.

We’re still in “barreling south” mode. The weather reports for the near future are for light and variable winds. On Saturday morning we bid adieu to our hosts and left Oriental and headed for Beaufort NC. In Beaufort there’s a class “A” inlet, the tide was ebbing so we decided to head out into the ocean for a quick overnight to the Cape Fear inlet.

If we stayed in the ICW it would have been a 2 day trip of about 130 miles. The trip from inlet to inlet is about 90 miles but by the time you factor in traversing the inlets and going around Frying Pan Shoal it was pretty much a wash. We did save a day this way and avoided a lot of the shallow spots that gave us problems in the past due to low water levels so it was worth it.

Sunday the 14th. The overnighter from Beaufort to Cape Fear went off without a hitch. The ocean was alive with fish. We saw several schools of fish in feeding frenzies so I dropped in my lines and caught the biggest lumps of seaweed you’ve ever seen. Which is it, white or red with algae? We were able to sail until just after dark. The wind of course was from exactly where we wanted to go so we made a series of long tacks until the wind slowly faded. After dark we rolled in the genoa and started the engine so we could motor sail the rest of the way.

When it was time to put on the running lights we found that the bow light was out. It was only Mr. Corrosion, but it was invigorating disassembling and cleaning the fixture while plunging headlong into the darkness without dropping anything into the depths..

We were about 25 miles off shore as we headed out to round Frying Pan shoal which extends for more than 20 miles just before the Cape Fear inlet. There was no moon and the stars were spectacular. The horizon disappeared into a veil of fog providing us with no horizon to focus on. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.

Christy and I take turns doing 4 hour shifts when we’ve had to sail through the night. It works out very well for us and gives Christy a chance to become more familiar with the radar and chartplotter. Christy doesn’t sleep as well as I do on the boat so I napped for an hour until sundown, she went below from 2100 to 0130 and then I was off from 0130 until 0600 and then she napped for a couple of hours in the cockpit when I came back up.

We saw several commercial fishing vessels, listened to several exchanges between boats that we never saw, but otherwise had a very easy night of it. The ocean off the Jersey shore was a lot more alive with boat traffic and monitoring the other boats positions does make the night go faster.

We’re now tied to a dock at the Provision Company. During docking the unthinkable happened. SPLINTER! I went to secure the spring lines and rammed a splinter about the size of a baseball bat up under the nail on my typing finger. I thought I was gonna die while removing it. There’s definitely alcohol in my immediate future since it’s got magical antiseptic qualities and I’ve heard that it may even dull the pain. We’ll see. The Provision Company is waterside restaurant that has a few slips where you can spend the night in exchange for coming in and having a meal. Works for us.

The food was really good and the bar was self serve. The place is pretty crowded with locals and it’s been a non stop parade of people walking out onto the dock to strike up conversations with us. Tucker was a little stressed at first as all these people kept coming close. He didn’t know whether to bark, bite or what. After a while he mellowed out and started to relax a bit.

It’s a bit noisy but we can barely hear it down inside the boat. We’re all dog tired so sleeping tonight should be wonderful.