Lily woke us up at 0400 wanting to go outside... she had to poop... Susan took her out and did not realize that the rear deck was filled with mosquitos... Lily pooped and wnet back to sleep... then we spent the next hour and a half killing mosquitos... we both tried to go back to sleep but I don't think either of us actually got any real sleep... we finally got up at 0630 and started our day.

Took a few minutes to get the anchor up as the chain was really muddy... came up inches at a time so I could wash the mud off. Besides the muddy chain the anchorage worked well... very close to the ICW and peaceful... I even had an open WiFi signal that I was able to us... we had no cell phone service at all. We are in the "Dead Zone" for cell coverage. At 0730 the anchor was up and we were underway heading north up Hobucken Cut.

A couple of boats passed us today that we had never seen before... we are in a whole new group of boats moving north... yesterday it seemed everyone that had been moving around us stopped in Moorehead City/Beaufort area.

We did have some commercial traffic in the A & P Canal...a tug pushing a barge... the canal is sort of narrow and the edges full of old stumps so passing a tug and barge that is taking is taking up a good portion of the available width could be a little hairy... but he did move over some and allow us to pass so we did not have to get too close to the stumps along the edge.

We were not making a lot of speed with a slight current against us all day so we ran at 6.0 – 6.8 knots most of the day... this would put us in the Alligator River Marina area around 1700-1730... that's where we decided to stop for the night... not the marina but anchor somewhere near there.

As we approached the Alligator River Bridge we had a nice thunderstorm approaching from the NW... this bridge won't open when winds reach 35 mph... a half mile out the line of the storm hit us... winds went from 20 knots to 30 knots plus and it started pouring down rain and even some hail... and of course some lightning to make it complete... the bridge operator had already started the opening and was swinging the bridge open... he hailed on the VHF... "Captain... the bridge may not swing all the way open with this wind... just wanted to give you a heads up..." I acknowledged and we watched it slowly swing open as we approached... about a 1/3 of the way open it stopped... bridge operator hailed again... "Captain... that's it she wont's swing any further... be careful..." I acknowledged and proceeded forward... looked like we had about 30-35 feet open between the end of the swings bridge and the fender system... Susan said some choice words and said I can't watch and left the pilothouse... we cleared with plenty of space on both sides... it was just the wind gusting at 30 knots that made it a little hairy... ?

We then proceeded north toward where we had chosen to anchor for the night... it was up the Little Alligator River a couple of miles to Southshore Landing... N35°55.555', W076°02.958'. We were anchored securely for the night at 1830. We traveled today for 11 hours covering 70.4 nautical miles averaging 6.4 knots.

The wind changed directions after the storm passed and switched from NE to NW... not a good direction fro the anchorage... got a little choppy... winds to 25 knots... anchor held well.

We did have a nice treat with a a glimpse of a sunset...