A Day of FIRSTS on Dagny!
17 April 2017
The anchor was lifted on schedule at 7:30 and we were off on our FIRST overnight passage alone; it was a beautiful morning to start out but unfortunately very little wind. The 205 mile trip would take us along the Carolina coast to Morehead City allowing us to bypass about 250 miles of the ICW. In the company of 2 Outrageous we made great time but, once again, had to motor sail most of the way in 5-10 knots of breeze with 3-4 foot rolling seas. Rather then follow the coast we sailed a basic straight route to Morehead City that would take us right through Frying Pan Shoals, and of course, this would be in the middle of the night. Fortunately,the moon rose around midnight helping us navigate the 1/4 mile wide channel through the middle of the shoal. With the help of Paul's radar, our chartplotters, and a big spotlight all went well; with a sigh of relief we were through. Instead of anchoring in Morehead City we decided to go to Cape Lookout and anchor in this beautiful well protected harbour. Basically this is the bottom of the Outer Banks and the scenery is amazing so we'll spend a couple of days here before moving on.
The other big First of the trip was Bev caught a fish that was a keeper. She has lost a couple of lures to sharks and caught one small fish that we thought was a Barracuda and threw back, but this time she was not denied. We had dragged a line for 2 days from Charleston and were about 5 minutes away from taking it in to prepare for anchoring when pow, she got a hit. After a few minutes of fighting she landed her trophy which should provide a few good meals, if we can only figure,out what it is. After a filleting lesson from Paul we returned to Dagny for an early dinner and some much needed sleep.