Humm, what did we do today? I tried a networking trick to get my AIS to talk to my chart plotter. NOPE, didn’t work. Speed incompatibility. And, I’ve wondered why there are no standard wire colors. Every manufacturer has their own take on what color wires they want to use for data ports. Anyhow, the chart plotter has only 1 port that can be configured and I have configured it for the autopilot which is the most important thing to interface with. I’ll have to wait until our trip is over to get more of those specialty cables to connect everything together. And, then I have to cross my fingers.

We had lots more wind and a bit of rain sprinkles in the morning. But most of the day was just cool wind. Very nice no A/C needed. We went to the local coffee shop for breakfast. I haven’t had a latte in over a year because of Covid and the latte was a real treat with blueberry muffin. Susan and I discussed the rest of the trip and the weather forecast. I realized I needed to revisit weather forecasts and route selection to our next destination to the South, River Dunes Marina, Oriental NC.

We have two route choices and they both will take two travel days. One route we have to backtrack around Roanoke Island and head down the Alligator River to the Alligator canal. We will have to anchor for the night prior to entering the canal. That is 48 miles. That makes for a very long 2nd day of travel 71 miles or so. The first route total is 119 miles.

The second route takes us down the Pamlico Sound with only 1 marina that we want to skip. There are not many sheltered coves to anchor in the Pamlico. I have picked West Bluff Bay which is a very isolated area but may shelter us from the predicted southeast wind forecast. West Bluff will be a long day of 62 miles too. The Pamlico Sound will have only a few course changes and that makes this route a bit easier. On autopilot you still have to look for crab pots and anything else that may pop up in your path. But, pretty much it’s just standing watch and letting the autopilot handle the steering. The second day will only be 34 miles making 96 miles.

We generally try to keep under 50 miles / day which is about 8 hours. I think all of us can relate to driving a car 8 hours without stopping a bit of a long day too.

We ate dinner at the Lost Colony Brewery. I had the Mahi fish and chips and Susan the soft shell crab dinner. We are eating local seafood and it’s really good.

Today’s picture is moonrise over the bow of Liquid Therapy.