We pulled the anchor at 0645 and were underway at 0700 bound today Belhaven. NC.

A lot of cruising boat traffic today that kept the VHF humming to the point that it became as annoyance... people hailing to negotiate passing one another... it got old real fast.

After the first 15 minutes we had a great boost in speed from the flood tide... carried all the way to the Neuse River... Even after that we had a favorable current just not one pushing us over 8 knots.

We arrived to Dowry Creek Marina our destination for the day at approximately 1515... we were securely docked with power at 1530... our position for the night N35°31.984', W076°32.122’. We traveled today for 8.5 hours covering 61.9 nautical miles averaging 7.3 knots.

We left from Wrightsville Beach anchorage at 0745... left a bit later than normal... the Wrightsville Beach Bridge opens on the hour and we would have had to leave by 0645 to make it... safter being up so late last night was not getting up any earlier than normal....

SAILS ran fine all day... did not notice any ill effects from last nights disaster.

Had a delay at the Figure Eight Bridge... it has 21 foot clearance at high tide and that is when we arrived... only issue was they were doing maintenance on it and had a cables strung under it hanging down 10-12... we are actually 20'-6" inches of structure so that extra 10-12 the cables were hanging down was not going to let us under... had to wait about 25 minutes for the next opening at 1000.

Another delay at the Onslow Beach Bridge... maybe 10 to 15 minutes... so todays average speed is low.

We had planned to go to the Swansboro Town Dock for the night... we actually docked and then another boat arrived and hailed us on VHF... found out they now take reservations for docking here.... there was a dockmaster on the dock and he confirmed the other boat had a reservation and we would have to leave.... always thought this dock was first come first serve... they were going to move another small boat out an inner double wide slip but we opted to continue to Morehead City.

We arrived to Morehead City our destination for the day at approximately 1915... we were securely anchored off Sugarloaf Island at 1930... our position for the night N34°42.933', W076°42.605’. We traveled today for 11.75 hours covering 71.75 nautical miles averaging 6.0 knots.

We left Barefoot Landing at 0715... it was the coldest morning we have had so far this trip... need to slow down a bit getting to CT...


Seemed like we fought current for most of the day but our average speed for the day says we had more boost than slow downs... Weird!


We arrived to Wrightsville Beach our destination for the day at approximately 1645... we were securely anchored at 1700... our position for the night N34°12.457', W077°47.901’. We traveled today for 9.75 hours covering 69.4 nautical miles averaging 7.1 knots.


Posting this blog entry at 2330... after stopping we had an issue with an anti-siphon valve sticking and flooding the engine room and starboard engine. 10 inches of water in the bilge and all four engine cylinders full of water. Spent the evening removing the water from the engine and bilge... NOT A FUN JOB!

All seems great now... bilge dry and engine cleaned out and running fine....