Sunday 5 July 2020

Jan has seen the sun rise two mornings in a row. Alert the media. We're trying to make Beaufort Inlet before dark so wanted an early start. As we're now at large in the North Atlantic (sounds dangerous) she's enjoying a wee nap. Actually sailed (that is to say used those expensive white flappy things for the first time since arriving in St. Augustine) for half an hour on port tack until wind gave up. Have been promised a switch to starboard after noon at which point hope runs rampant that sailing will again allow diesel eater to be silenced. Contemplated a naughtier expression starting with "shut the...", but decided to avoid shocked comments from less salty readers. Note the possibly unwarranted assumption.

Carolina Beach anchorage is very nice. Mooring ball at $20/night was not unreasonable (compared to Lady's Island Marina where dinghy dock usage was as much), beach is short walk over dunes to the east and other side is littered with bars and restaurants. Both lengths of the triangular bay are wall to wall houses or apartments and docks, mostly for runabouts and tuna towers with only a smattering of sailboats. Nearby Carolina Inlet is too shallow for deep draft and Masonboro Inlet, by Wrightsville Beach where we departed ICW, is eleven miles distant.

St. Augustine to Wilmington has been serious MAGA country. Huge American and Trump 2020 flags fly from boat outriggers and nearly anywhere else possible. Our lefty cruiser friends, who drove over for breakfast yesterday and took us to market, moved an hour inland to be closer to "people we can relate to". As we departed the inlet a "Trump Train" of a hundred boats was parading the ICW as support and, no doubt, as excuse to party. I'd be more appreciative of the guys flying the Stars & Stripes if they better understood the Enlightenment ideals it represents. Since arrival in the US, as we have been immersed in tribal fixations, it's been somewhat more difficult to enjoy the entertainment value of our current political pig tussle.

But enough about minor foolishness, on to important subjects. May get new alternator and regulator shipped into Beaufort by end of week, whisker pole could get fixed for light downwind sailing and light downwind sailing is forecast - how serendipitous. Although spinnaker is still under construction and may take awhile, plan is coming together. Now if only it will stay together for more than a day.

Jack & Jan