We're remiss in keeping the blog up-to-date but here goes.

The weather cleared and we left Bock Marine north of Morehead City early on Saturday. The tidal range varies along the east coast from our 26 feet in Saint John (actually up to 40 feet in the upper reaches of the Chignecto Bay) to a miniscule foot or so in many places like the Chesapeake. In North Carolina, in places it is three feet and a bit more. In any event, when began backing out of the slip Sea Sharp had been in for three weeks, we couldn't move. It was only going to get worse, so we put the power on hard and inched out way out of the muck into the channel. It was time to go.

The first hour was very sad for us as we retraced our steps to the place where we found out about the tragedy home. After that, we lightened a bit. Our destination was a place called Mile Hammock Bay. It is a man made basin carved out of the side of the intercostals waterway built originally for the purposes of training military landing craft and other marine manoeuvres. Actually, we passed through a military base called Camp LeJeune (I don't think any relation to the folks from Jacquet River). It's a bit freaky 'cause this is an active firing range and if there is live artillery fire boats are prohibited from going through. Fortunately there was none today and we proceeded. We did see, however, the carcasses of various old military vehicles used in target practice.

We arrived at Mile Hammock along with about 12 other boats, all making the trek south. We had a very quiet night.

Up very early and underway around 7:00 - destination Wrightsville Beach. We had to transit various bridges which do not open on demand but on specified schedules. We got a bit screwed up and ended up losing about an hour because we did not time the speed to maximize the bridge characteristics. Not to worry, we got to Wrightsville Beach shortly after 2:00. We anchored in a very nice place smack, dab in the middle of a highly developed beach area. Judy and I go to shore to explore. We walk the Atlantic beach then back along the road. We drop into a couple of places and note three things of minor significance to us:
a) There are many young people (as in teens/early twenties)
b) They all smoke
c) They all have big dogs. Yeah, labs, rotweillers, boxers, etc. And they take their pets into the bars and shops.

We found out that the adjacent town, Wilmington, has a university which explains the young folks. We also realized that Virginia and the Carolinas is where tobacco is harvested, hence the lax by-laws about non-smoking. We don't know the deal on the dogs.

We head out today for a short hop to Southport. In order to get here, we have to come down the famous Cape Fear River; yes the one of movie fame. It was pretty tame today, fortunately and we had a great current helping us along the way. We had to do some very tricky channels where the buoyage system changes three times and we had to transit some very narrow ranges. But, with Judy and the helm and me giving her course adjustments, we did fine.

We got into Southport early, shortly after noon and tie up to the end of the municipal dock in a very small yacht basin. It is a little clunky but the price is right (free) and the downtown is very attractive. We take a couple of long walks in this very pretty town. It is milder than it has been (65 degrees) and the foliage is lush and beginning to look somewhat tropical.

Judy takes me out to supper at a restaurant with the improbable name Fishy Fishy. It is casual but the fare is great. We eat well and roam around the very quite downtown for an hour or so. I feel guilty for not having updated the blog so this is what I do while Judy takes the dog (sorry, I mean cat) for a walk.

While I don't make much fuss about birthdays, least of all mine, today was a milestone. I turned 55 today and am now retired. Don't feel much different but think I'm gonna feel a lot poorer.