Another picture of a sunrise - today.

We managed to travel 68 NM in 12 hrs, and considering that we had to start an hour late due to dense fog and fought a foul tide for the better part of the day, that's pretty good. There were a few scattered T-storms, but they missed us. I considered stopping well short of this anchorage due to the tide, as there is no place to anchor for about 20 nm once you get near Myrtle Beach, but then the tide turned in our favor so we took a gamble we could make it before dark, and we did. However, it was about 10 minutes past sunset and I spotted what looked like a good anchorage about 1 nm short of the planned anchorage. I checked the tide table AFTER we set the anchor and of course, we were going to find the keel in the mud at low tide if we stayed there, so we weighed anchor and moved the extra mile to the original planned spot and anchored there. A bit of a delicate move around some channel markers found only with my 2 million candle power man spot light in pitch black darkness and we were fine. I have to say that uncle Animal is a natural at the helm and we have made an excellent team, particularly when arriving and departing at anchorages.

We will make it past Southport at Cape Fear today. We are carrying the tide as I write this but will soon be dealing with a strong ebb on the nose, to the tune of about 3.5 kts. Considering that we only motor at around 6.0 to 6.5 kts, that will feel like we are dragging an anchor. We'll see - I think we will likely end up at Wrightsville Beach, north of Cape Fear about 20 nm.