July 2006 Vacation Cruising in Coastal North Carolina
Thursday, July 13th

Today we enjoyed a late breakfast and then got ready to go kick-around the beach for a while. The application of morning sun screen has become an integral part of our daily routine, and these forays to the beach would not be possible without this measure of protection. In addition, copious amounts of water are always loaded into the dinghy in order to stave off dehydration. We both rode in Puffin and took advantage of the high winds by mostly drifting (using the oars only to steer) to the tip of the bight. We played in the water around the sand spit, there by our good friend flashing buoy #4 (who guided us in under the cloak of darkness only two days ago). We then decided to take a long walk along the beach with the dingy in tow through the shallow water. Owing to the crescent-shape of the bight, a one-mile walk would save us a tough row back against the wind. We easily drifted back to Ashiya and enjoyed an afternoon of high winds, white-caps stirred up, and a fair amount of pitching and rolling aboard the boat. I used our wonderful little pressure cooker to make split pea soup. We distracted ourselves with a few boat chores throughout the afternoon, then enjoyed sundowners before heading below.

We listened to NOAA before turning in, and learned that strong thunderstorms were hitting the outer banks just north of us (with winds approaching 40 knots!), and crossed our fingers that they would miss us, as we were already getting bounced around enough in the current 20 knot winds. Fortunately, we dodged the bullet once again, and the winds died down just enough to allow for a really good night's sleep.