There was a freeze warning out this morning from 3 am to 9 am and definitely frost on the pumpkin and ice on the boat! It was grueling getting out of bed to make coffee and I was shivering while wiping the windows off getting ready to leave. I swear the further south we go, the colder it gets! I'd heard that it got into the 30's in Florida too (ready for us Wendell & Di?). It's following us... I hope not.

As the day went on it got better and a bit warmer. I made grilled cheese sandwiches and Wayne had the helm all day while I snapped pictures. I saw my first bald eagle this trip perched atop a dead tree. I'm not sure if the picture came out or not. I miss my old camera with the hunormous telephoto lenses at times like this .

The marsh areas were beautiful. We passed various cypress, sweet gum, holly trees, oxbows, saw black skimmers, ducks, cormorants and the water is very brown, almost like coffee, due to a lot of tannin from decaying vegetation. We saw a lot of Osprey nests in the channel markers but not really any ospreys in them.

We pulled into Coinjock around 3:30pm and tied up at the Midway Marina and got a nice hot shower then dinner at the restaurant here (Wayne's birthday dinner finally). The captain's platter had an assortment - clams, oysters, scallops, flounder and shrimp and I had HUSH PUPPIES! The first in 3 years since my fieldtrip here with MSS! So a classic seafood birthday dinner! Tomorrow we'll head for the Alligator River. I'm full & sleepy... nite - nite...