After a bumpy night, we arrived at the entrance at 0600 and of course, it was pitch black out. I no more than lined up the heading for entrance into the inlet and the radio woke up with a call from the cruise ship Carnival Fantasy, and they were closing fast. I moved over to the red (right) side and watched them pass in near total silence and only about 75 yards away. We saw each other and all was well, but it is easy to feel very small when right next to one of these huge ships.

Our excitement last night was dodging a thunderstorm that showed up just after sunset. LOTS of lightning! We talked to the USCG to find out the direction of the storm after changing course once (in the wrong direction) and managed to out run the storm cell. Actually, it pretty much dissipated by the time it passed astern of us, but it was exciting at the time. I REALLY hate lightning. Wind and waves I can deal with but lightning sucks.

We dropped the hook at 0730 and I took a 3 hour nap after being up most of the night with small cat naps. David and I went into town at 1300 and celebrated St Patrick's day in the old market area. I took some funny pictures and they are in the photo gallery of this site if you are interested.

The eats on board are much better with David doing the galley wench duties. We plan to leave here tomorrow morning around 1000 and sail offshore to Cape Fear, arriving somewhere around 0700 - 0800. Forecast is the same as the last couple of days, so we expect little help from the wind, but you never know. We might get lucky.