South Again

We are in Swansboro, NC, a lovely small town with historic homes and (we hope) a good restaurant. I am accompanied by my friend Paul Hamilton, the "Bosun", who is on his third trip on Division Belle. I am glad to have the help and enjoying his good company.

The Bosun

We left home Tuesday morning on election day and made the seven-hour drive up to River Dunes near Oriental, NC. Wednesday was taken up with returning the rental car to New Bern about an hour away, getting our sewage tank pumped out and our water tanks filled, buying a few forgotten groceries, and various other tasks. We departed River Dunes this morning at 9 and arrived here at 4:30 this afternoon. It was an incredibly beautiful day and an uneventful trip.

We had an alternate plan to stop early today in Beaufort, NC and go to sea tomorrow for around a ten-hour trip to Wrightsville Beach. It probably would have worked, but we should be in Wrightsville Beach anyway tomorrow night with the path we chose.

We elected to travel in the waterway further today and continue inside tomorrow because of the weather. Don't get me wrong. The weather is beautiful. However, the forecasts for being at sea tomorrow were right at the margins of what I consider comfortable. I like seas of up to three feet but I get nervous when the forecast is four to five feet and the "period", or time between waves, gets shorter than a comfortable swell. It will probably be beautiful tomorrow at sea, but when you commit to a ten-hour day at sea with nowhere to stop short, it can turn into "a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day". And who wants that? Life is short.

So we traded a really short day today and a ten-hour day at sea tomorrow for two seven or eight-hour days in the waterway, ending at the same place tomorrow night.

We are at Casper's Marina in Swansboro and I asked both the dockhand and the owner where to have dinner with outdoor service. We got the same answer from both of them (a good sign) so we plan to walk a few blocks to "The Boro", which seems to be the favorite.

Tomorrow we will head further south on the Intracoastal Waterway to Wrightsville Beach. We will keep you posted on our progress.