I've fallen into a daily routine which goes something like this: Wake up, make coffee, dingy the dogs to shore for a long walk, back to the boat to feed everyone clean up and get ready to travel, put up the dingy and store the outboard, head off to next destination (usually 15-30 miles away), arrive early afternoon and anchor, relax onboard listen to music and NPR news and write in log book and make sure holding is good, lower dingy and install outboard, take dogs to shore for afternoon and sometimes again for sunset walks, make and eat dinner, get ready for bed. Repeat. It's a good way to slowly make progress while enjoying every place we go. I counted and including the Oriental Harbor, Deatons Marina (remember that first night on the boat) and Whitaker Docks, we've stayed at 10 different anchorages/docks so far this trip and we've slept on the boat 20 nights. We've cruised about 170 miles in the 10 days since we left Oriental on July 24, 2008. We're presently at mile marker 320 in the ICW. Only 600 or so more miles until the Bahamas. At this rate, I could be in the Bahamas by September or earlier. I get a lot of mixed reactions about that, ranging from don't worry to stares of sorry disbelief. I've read about hurricaines hitting North Carolina in October that were disastrous. What if I had waited until October to cruise through NC. I was going to bypass Southport today since it was only 15 miles from my previous anchorage and I wanted to get some miles under me, but my main cruising guide (the one in the picture with the food) said definitely spend some time here. They were right, this town is great. There's so much to say about it but the bottom line is that it has been a haven for mariners for hundreds of years and has a little of everything a cruising sailor and his dogs could want. Another cruising guide (Skipper Bob's) explained that there is a free town dock with power and water. I couldn't find it at first and anchored in the yacht basin. The weather report spoke of heavy thunderstorms and wind this evening (which only marginally materialized) and I was worried about my holding since there isn't room in the basin to lay out enough scope. I looked over and there was a sign for the free and empty town dock space. Those guides are so worth it. We try not to skimp on cruising guides and they almost always deliever their worth and more. I called and reserved the space and managed to land with the help of a kind local. The tide range here is 4 feet, which means we sometimes climb up and sometimes down to get from the boat to the dock. And I do believe my sailboat is the coolest one in the Southport Yacht Basin tonight, which hasn't done much for me yet tonight, but still.