Still not decided whether to leave or not, Mike decides to borrow the strange and wonderful courtesy car and go in search of a West Marine or Radio Shack to get a new antenna for our VHF and AIS system. Although the radio works as it is, the range is probably reduced and it is important that we get as much range for our AIS system as we are going offshore.
Before he goes though, we have hot banana bread baked by Maggie who is ecstatic about having an extra day in a lovely marina – the weather system means that it would not be a good move for them to leave today or probably for next few days. It’s a lovely start to the day – yummy.
Bob and Nate go with Mike – it’s nice to have the boat to myself for a while and I sweep, clean and generally have a tidy up just in case we leave. They are gone for ages, eventually returning after Maggie and I have decided to go out. Apparently the opening hours of the shop they needed were in reality different to the advertised ones on the internet and they had to hang around in Morehead City.
Mike says we are definitely going when the current changes to allow us to leave the docks easily so Maggie and I still go out for lunch and a glass of wine, accompanied by Nate. Mike stays on board putting an antenna together and Bob is down the engine room.
At 2.30 pm the water is just slack enough for us to leave without it being a major effort and Maggie and Bob come over to say goodbye and untie our lines. It has been a great 10 days and having them around through some difficult stretches of water was great in more ways than one. I will miss them.
We get off the dock with little problem although Maggie and Bob do have to push against our starboard side as the wind keeps pushing us back against the dock.
We head out to sea through the Beaufort Inlet. Going offshore to Charleston will relieve us of having to go under 13 fixed height bridges where tide boards may or may not be present and even if present may not be accurate. Whatever the sea can sling at us for this short distance will be infinitely better than the heart stopping anxiety of going under all those so called 65-foot bridges!
Apart from when the usual idiots in fast sports fishing boats go past too close and cause an unpleasant wake, the sea is calm. By the time we are 6 miles out to sea, the idiots have disappeared and we just have dolphins for company.
We quickly get into our little sea-going rhythm – and have little naps in turn to compensate for the reduced sleep tonight. We have crab linguine for dinner and a beautiful sunset to accompany it. There is almost a half moon and as the sun goes down, sprinkles of moonlight dance on the water. With no high wind there are no high seas and we glide along with just the throb of the engines to distract us. We have over 200 miles to go to Charleston and I think the going will be easy.
Position: 34 deg 00 min N, 77 deg 16 min W
Distance so far: 3115 miles
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