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Voyage 2009: Chapter 5

North to ...

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2009 Home     Map                         Chapter 1     Chapter 2     Chapter 3     Chapter 4     Chapter 5    

22 Apr 2010, Waiting for Friends - Part 2, 34 02.562 N/ 077 53.496 W

We received a call from our mooring mates from Vero (SV Endaxi) that they would be in the area in a couple of days. Weather and current were in their favor and they beat their estimate by 2 days. We rushed to Snow's Cut to take a portrait of Endaxi. They looked great as they past us on their way to our marina.
We convinced them to stay a day or two and we drove all around Wilmington. As we had tiny VW cars (diesel Jetta and diesel Bug), we drove both cars (one with Bob, Bob, and Lilli and the other with Ann and Sally) everywhere. We went to the Cotton Exchange, the local marinas, a few fine restaurants, local home at Lipscomb. Sadly, we had to say goodbye today as they left Mona Black at 0800 today. We hope to see both Endaxi and Talisman when we head to the Chesapeake in June as we plan to visit the mysterious city of New Bern.

03 Jun 2010, Heading to Homeport, 34 37.96 N/ 076 32.60 W

We planned to leave yesterday from Carolina Breach but Bob was not feeling too good and the weather looked stinky. So we waited until today. Many of the Mona Black crew were awake at 0530 LT to see us off. And off we went, but very, very, slowly. Something was not right. We guessed that the prop was fouled much like the speed logs were. We got about 1 nm from Mona Black when we decided that this would not work. So back to the marina for Master Wayne's excellent cleaning. Within 90 minutes we were on our way again. Not bad.
Winds were lighter than predicted as we headed up the ICW to Masonboro Inlet. The shallow places must have been dredged 'cause the depth sounder did not protest. We were a bit surprised at the easterly swell coming into the inlet and further puzzled that it persisted all day. It must have been from a Gulf Stream storm that has been hanging around for several days.
Forecast for 20 % chance of showers and thunder showers. They lie! A pretty significant squall chased us up Onslow Bay and dumped a bunch of rain and lots of thunder and lightening around us. It was a bit scary but we said 'what the hey'. After the storms, we saw dolphins and a sea turtle. Our reward for being brave, I guess.
We knew we would enter Cape Lookout bight at night and we were right. We arrived at R2 at 1000 and hook down at 1030. Lots of other boats beat us here so we had to be cautious where we placed the hook. We put out 100 feet of chain for a 20 ft anchorage. Everything is calm until our departure tomorrow at 0630. Nite-nite.

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