It was a warm night at anchor. With the passing of a cold front, the winds grew still and there was little air movement through the v-berth. No complaints, though. It is our current opinion that any night at anchor beats a night on land.

After a breakfast of coffee and fruit, we pulled up the anchor and motored out of the creek into the Neuse for the sail home. We had great sailing conditions for most of the trip, and both of us got a fair amount of practice with tacking, light winds, and sailing close hauled with strong winds. Yes, the winds were flukey out there today.

At one point, I was sailing along, trying to stay in a narrow channel of deep water when I got just a bit more wind than I wanted. We heeled over and heard a huge 'CRASH' from below. Sheryl went to take a quick look, and said, "Don't worry, it's just the oven." Assuming that the entire stove had come unhooked and flown across the cabin, I marveled at Sheryl's ability to understate the situation, just to keep me calm. Only upon further inquiry did I realize that it was only the contents of the oven (pans and fiddles we had stored inside) which had made an escape. I guess we will have to come up with a different storage solution. It is much to Sheryl's credit, though, that only those items came loose. All of our worldly possessions are stowed securely on the boat, and nothing else was disturbed by our extreme angle.

On the route back to the slip we passed a milestone. Sheryl and I have sailed our boats (first Ashiya and now Prudence) a combined total of over 1000 nautical miles, 1008 nautical miles to be exact. Not a bad grand total in slightly less than two years of boat ownership. If one assumes an average speed of about 4 knots, which is probably an overestimate, we have spent at least 250 hours together en route to somewhere. Someone once said, "It is not the destination, it is the journey which is important." When I am with Sheryl, I tend to agree.

It was a great weekend away from the slip. We learned more about the boat and related our leanings through discussions of what we still need to do in order to be ready for a full-time life at anchor. For now, though, job one is for me to keep earning the Kitty dollars, so tomorrow morning it is back to work I go. Figuratively speaking, of course, because the office is, after all, right here on the boat. Until next time, dear Reader.

CLICK HERE for photos of our sail back to the slip.