After spending four days in Green Turtle Cay we enjoyed our last taste of the Bahamas before we sailed on to Great Sale Cay in preparation for our 400 mile ocean passage to Charleston, NC. We left on Tuesday April 19th and arrived on Friday April 22nd. It was an uneventful passage. We were able to sail some of the way, but unfortunately, the winds did become fairly light out of the southwest which meant we had to motor sail the remainder of the time. We cleared into US customs at the mega yacht dock at the Charleston City Marina. When we were ready to shove off, the winds picked up making it difficult for us to get off of the dock. But, with the help of Paul, a fellow cruiser in his dinghy, a couple of dock hands and Ron’s skillful boat handling, we got off without a hitch. We enjoyed our stay in Charleston walking among the historic homes and eating fine food. With that being said, the highlight of our stay was having dinner at the lovely home of Frank and Laurie from S/V White Wings. Joining us at dinner were Rob and Holly from the S/V Hampshire Rose and Paul and Laurie from the S/V 2 Outrageous. After a couple days of rest it was time to move on to Beaufort, NC and then to Oriental, NC. This was a shorter passage, the distance traveled was 218 miles, which took us 35 hours. During the passage the wind was very light until we got into the Beaufort inlet. At that point the wind picked up to 25 plus knots. We anchored in a protected anchorage up the South River not far from Oriental. After a nights rest we motored to Deaton Yacht Service in Oriental where we spent the next few days while we had some minor work done. During our stay here we were invited to have dinner with a group of cruisers at the home of Neville and Ann who live nearby here in Oriental. The night was filled with the sharing of cruising stories and much laughter. Between everyone in the group there were thousands of miles under the keels. It is also a sad time here in Oriental as we say goodbye to our new cruising friends with hopes of seeing them again in the fall as we travel south again.

Tomorrow we plan to move further north towards our final destination of Chaumont Bay on Lake Ontario where we will be reunited with our family and friends.