Jo and I got the anchor up about 9:30 on Thursday morning and were followed out of the anchorage by the last two boats still there. A sailboat called "Windsong" out of Annapolis and a large power vessell called "Amazing Grace" out of Chappel Hill, North Carolina.

The three vessels were joined by several others as we waited for our first opening bridge at Onslow Beach. Things were a little crowded but we all got through with no problems.

Even though it made for a short travel day, Jo and I decided to stop at Casper's Marina in Swansboro. After three nights of "camping out" at anchor, we were ready to enjoy a little civilizatioin. Besides, its a really cool little town with an Irish pub and a great breakfast diner called Yana's.

We visited both of these before pressing on to Oriental on Friday morning. Once again, we had great weather conditions which allowed us to motor-sail at a good pace. We arrived in Oriental at about 3:30 Friday afternoon and spent the night here before heading to New Bern on Saturday.

The picture is some of the LARGE commercial traffic from the Cape Fear River.