RETURN TO NC

Hello Everyone
We are now in Morehead City, NC and very excited to be back in NC and with Will,
Stacey & Jackson. I will Back up and let you know how we arrived here so soon and ahead of schedule.
On Friday, April 24, we motored out of St. Catherine’s sound and sailed the ocean from 6:15 am till coming back inside at St. Helena Sound and anchored at 8:15 pm which is beyond Beaufort, SC. The day on the ocean was wonderful. The weather was perfect. We had winds to motor sail and the temperature got up to 90 degrees. If we had been in the ICW, we would have covered 103 miles. But, traveling the ICW we could have not been as far because there are too many turns and curves and we might have gone aground as the tides get very low in Georgia. The ocean is a straight shot and when it is calm, you can really make good travel time.
On Saturday, April 25, at 6:30, we ran the ICW to Charleston, SC. We had a great day of motoring. There was no good outlet into the ocean. We had another beautiful weather day. We arrived in Charleston about 3:00 in the afternoon. We found an anchorage right beside the City docks and there we met our friends, Chris & Marie on “Spirit”. They had returned from the Bahamas and we finally caught up with them on their return trip up north. We had dinner together on Last Boat and heard all about their adventures on their trip to the Bahamas and them on our trip to Western Florida.
After one night in Charleston, we all decided to leave the next morning and go the ICW to Georgetown, SC for a night. On our way out on Sunday morning around 6:30am, Chris called us and said they had decided if we agreed to enter the ocean instead of ICW. We agreed so out to the inlet we go. The oceans were so calm, we could not even sail.
Later, we got another call from Chris saying that they thought we should try to make up some time and stay in the ocean and travel all the way to Beaufort, NC. We were shocked but he said that we could make it in 40 hours which meant we would be in the ocean all night and not get to Beaufort until the following night around 9:00. I was not exactly excited about this but liked the idea of getting here sooner. The unknown can make you very uncomfortable and nervous. Well, we did it and did make good time and did arrive in Beaufort by 8:30 pm on Monday night. I was so glad to see land again. We were about 40 miles out in the ocean and saw nothing but a few fishing boats during the day. On Sunday during the day, we tried to sail but we had very little wind and it was on our nose most all day. We did motor sail all day and all night. Nelson and I both stayed outside on the deck all night and took turns steering the boat to keep Chris and Marie’s boat lights in sight as we were following them. Their lights were the only lights we saw until early morning when we saw the lights of a large freighter further out on the ocean than we. It appeared to be going the same direction as we were. Thank goodness, it was not close to us. We took turns napping; however, I do not think me or Nelson slept very much at all. I was very glad to see the sun rising the next morning around 6:30am. We had to motor sail all day as the winds were not blowing and the ocean was very calm. I prayed to God to keep us safe and keep the waters calm and my prayers were answered. The ocean was just like a lake. Everyone else said they were too calm because we could not sail. I didn’t mind. On Monday, our last day on the ocean, we ran into a pod of dolphin and they stayed at the bow of our boat for at least thirty minutes. I got some neat pictures of them swimming with the boat bow. Sometimes, there would be five of them at the same time. We enjoyed watching them from the boat. I told Nelson, they made being in the ocean worth while. They were really fun to watch and did not seem to mind that we were standing right over them on the boat talking, laughing and just being excited about seeing so many of them at the same time. We have really seen many of them on our trip but never that many at one time. We also saw several turtles and two sunfish. Boy, are they weird looking fish and very big. Someone told us they eat jellyfish. What an adventure on the ocean! Nelson thought he did not have enough fuel to make Beaufort, so we hooked up with Chris’s boat just long enough to get his five gallon fuel tank. Just as we were passing it, our boat got too close to his and Chris dropped the tank into the ocean. Lucky for us, Nelson was able to retrieve it with the boat hook before it got too far away from the boat. Yes, it was floating as the fuel was lighter than the water and also in a plastic bottle. Also, we were glad we did not do any damage to their boat when we ran together. What a day! We went over 160 miles in the ocean before arriving in Beaufort, NC.
On Monday, April 27th, we had the pleasure of meeting Jackson at the docks on our dinghy. Susan, his babysitter, brought him to us after school and he stayed with us until he and Will went back to their house around 8:30 that night after having dinner with us at Clawson’s here in Beaufort. Chris and Marie also joined us. We loved seeing that sweet little boy come running to us with open arms. We were as glad to see him. It was a wonderful reunion for us all.
On Tuesday, April 27, we moved our boat over to the city docks in Morehead City. We also went to spend the remainder of our time in Morehead with Will, Stacey, and Jackson in Swansboro, NC. We like having the boat at docks when we are not on it. The winds have been awfully strong every since we have been here. You know we are having a great time with our son and his family this week. We hope to get back to Jordan Creek next week.