On The Road Again!

After a week in Oriental, our engine was running like new thanks to the awesome folks at Deaton’s Yacht Services.  With our engine purring we set out to make up some time.  First hop was pretty short, just down to Beaufort.  We could have bypassed it, but I really wanted to check out the town.  We briefly considered heading out through Beaufort inlet and hopping offshore for a bit, but a cold front was coming through bringing some heavy rain and wind, resulting in 9-10′ short-period waves offshore and gusts in the high 30s.  Not exactly the conditions we wanted for our first offshore passage.  So we continued on through the Bogue sound.  We dropped an anchor just outside of Swansboro, but after a bit of deliberation we decided to go into town and grab a dock to wait out the weather.  We certainly could have stayed on anchor but it would have been bumpy, wet and nasty sailing the next day.  This way I was able to plug in and get some work done while we stayed (relatively)dry and cozy!

This turned out to be a good decision, as not only was the weather absolutely miserable, but Sawnsboro is a super-cute little town with some nice restaurants and a great beer shop!

Right now it looks like we’ll be leaving at first light tomorrow to make the 50 mile hop to Wrightsville Beach.  Little nervous about this hop, as it’s right at the limit of miles we can make given the daylight and there are 2 bridges that only open on the hour, which could delay us.  Oh well, we’ll have to just see how it goes – at least it should be sunny tomorrow!