One of my least favorite offshore runs is over. Faune and I came into the Beaufort Town Docks today at 10.00 am, having left Little Creek, VA two nights ago. We waited longer than we originally planned (by 12 hours) in order to let the 30-35 kts breeze die down to the forecasted 15 kts. We saw 31 kts out there, and it wasn't pretty. Part of my concern beforehand, was that whenever you take a huge ocean river (Gulf Stream) that is moving in one direction (north) and then superimpose a wind that is North or Northeast (moving to the south, southwest), it is like rubbing a cat's fur the wrong way. It is the reason that Hatteras and our Sable Island are both called the same thing " The Graveyard of the Atlantic". We stayed inshore as far as we could, we had a Northeast wind, and it was still like going down one of those steep olympic mogul runs. Iolite made noises I've never heard before, and get this...Faune's snack stash was untouched!! In fact we ran under a tiny storm jib doing 8-11 knots, and felt overpowered at that. I can not imagine doing that run into the seas/wind rather than with us as this was!! Faune was a trooper but two nights offshore (read really long nights at this time of year) was too much for me.

We got in a little later than I wanted because we were both so tired after 3 am this morning that I hove too (parked at sea) a ways outside the Beaufort entry channel and waited for day light. As they say...... "when in doubt, stay out".

I spent an hour hosing the salt off the outside of the boat. We bagged all the bedding/clothes to be washed and we had a small nap. Faune's smile is back!

Now to hunt down some of those noises....