Wild pony at Cape Lookout

We'd nudged our keel into the mud at Oriental to fit into the deepest of their town docks. Transients are given 48 hours and with provisions needed we liked the access. A few hours later the wind blew a foot of water out of the bay and we couldn't have left if we'd wanted to. The next day the wind brought the water back and it was time to go.

Thistle is an ocean boat and she'd been feeling a bit out of place in the swamps. So we pointed her south through 20 miles of meandering grasslands and sailed her back to the Sea. We reached it at Beaufort, pronounced "Bofort", which has the feel of a refined and prosperous town but one with something of a wild side.

Our nephew Tobias drove out and spent a day and a half with us. We sailed out of the inner harbor, down the channel and into the ocean. With 20 knots of wind and a double reef in we sailed North, parallel to the shore, and anchored behind Cape Lookout's outer banks where pelicans, dolphins, bluefish and wild horses were our companions.