This was a long day on the water. We got underway just as the sun came up around 7AM, motoring out of Wanchese harbor and picking up the narrow channel that the fishing boats use to get out to Oregon Inlet. As we were leaving the harbor, the fishing vessel "Vickie II" was just pulling up to the dock. Seemed appropriate somehow.
Heading south, we passed the Bodie Island Light House and then picked up the bridge over Oregon Intlet. The channel going south splits near Oregon inlet.
We took the channel to starboard which heads SW across Pamlico Sound. From this point, the trip would be about 8 1/2 hours to the Neuse River where we planned to reconnect with the ICW around MM "173". The channel is shoaling and the day markers have been replaced with nun buoys in several spots so that they can be easily moved as the shoaling grows.
As we were negotiating around a shoaling channel, Steve took this pic of me as I was trying to avoid running aground.
About 5 miles SW of the channel split, we passed an island to starboard which must have been pelican utopia. I have never seen so many pelicans anywhere.
I guess there was too much excitement for the rest of the day because we did not see another thing (other than this marker) until about 3PM. In fact, this was the very first time that I have been out on the sailboat and could not see land in any direction. At this point, I think that we were about 22 miles west of Cape Hatteras. This is one big body of water.
What is really intriguing to me is the number of pelicans on this marker. They had to fly at least 22 miles to get here...why?? Guess everyone and everything needs someplace to veg once in awhile!
The winds continued to increase during the day. Around 1PM they were 17 gusting to 27. The chop got pretty serious on the Sound and we spent the next 3 hours just pounding the bow into the water. The boat is covered with salt residue. I will be glad to get into a slip in a day or so that I can wash things down.
We had made reservations to stop at the River Dunes Marina on Broad Creek (isn't it strange that this would have been the third time in 4 days that we had spent the evening in a "Broad Creek"?). However, we were passing it around 4PM as we entered the Neuse River and wanted to get a few more miles under our belt. At this point, we have reconnected with the ICW at MM "173".
In these chart plotter pics, we are in the Neuse River and will be turning to port (left) to enter Adams Creek shortly The ICW breaks off from the Neuse River at Adams Creek. We decided to head down this way before we finally anchored at MM "187". In the pic above, the crosshair is where we started this morning.
We dropped anchor just before 6PM. The anchorage was just off the channel in a fairly exposed spot to winds from the south and southwest, but it seemed to be the last that we would find before Beaufort. There was just not enough sunlight left to get any farther. We did about 100 statue miles today and finally reconnected with the ICW on our journey south.
The sunset was around 6:30PM. It was beautiful as it dropped across the water and behind the trees.
We are in a fairly isolated spot. Cell coverage is spotty, but the night sky is awesome tonight. It has been awhile since I have seen the Milky Way. It is just popping out of the sky this evening.
Dinner this evening was a prepackaged turkey breast that popped into the microwave. Steve and I are both pooped this evening. He is already out and I am heading to bed shortly.
We plan to get an early start tomorrow. Our goal is to get into Wrightsville Beach. We have 15 miles into Beaufort and then the plan is to go out the inlet and head outside down the Atlantic Ocean to the inlet at Wrightsville. It is about 65 miles outside between the inlets. We hope to be out in the Atlantic by 8:30 and back in at Wrightsville Beach by 5:00PM.
I am really excited about getting Vic on board tomorrow! We can finish this trip together.
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