........what a difference that makes.

We are sitting in the cabin in Morehead City Yacht Basin waiting for them to open at 0830. We left Port Royal at 0630 48 hours ago but then steamed madly a grand total of 2 miles only to get yanked to a halt when we discovered that the Lady's Island Bridge just upstream has restricted openings for 0700-0900, so we got to wait! Should have done my recce, I guess.

After we got through we followed a motor sailer from Cape May called Golden Fleece and went where she did which kept us out of the skinny bits. We spoke to them by VHF and let them know what we were doing and kept a safe distance behind them in case they ran aground we didn't want to be piling into them. When we got to Saint Helen's Sound we left the ICW and headed out to sea while Golden Fleece continued up the Ditch through a small cut and promptly ran aground. It was soft so they pushed their way through but they only draw 4'9" so we at 5.5' would have had a much harder time of it. As it was we spent 36 hours at sea, mostly either motoring or motor sailing and made excellent time. In fact, we had to slow down on the last leg in order that we would arrive at the Inlet in daylight hours.

Our trip offshore was uneventful other than the fact that we gradually took channel after channel off the VHF scan, we were getting so tired of listening to Buba yapping at his good buddy Willie about where he was fishing and what he had caught. The USCG must go nuts on the weekends. That's when everyone comes out to play. This morning, for example, as the sun was coming up and we were coming into Beaufort Inlet, there were literally dozens of fishing boats, ranging from 65' sport fisherman to 18' aluminum dingys, all racing out to get their share of fish. I can't imagine taking a 20' boat with one motor out 20+ miles to sea, but there they were. We came across them from dusk to dawn while we were outside.

Here in Morehead City we will change the oil and filter on Yoki and one or two other little jobs, then we will be off again, this time up the ICW heading for Norfolk where we will await another window to continue. We should be in cell range over the next couple of days or at least until we leave Norfolk.