Oriental, NC

Good grief!

Another day of strong winds out of the NE, which meant rough seas on our nose all day long. Some of the protected waterway was quite tolerable, but much of the open rivers and sounds continued to beat us up. Even the local folks throughout the Carolinas can't believe how miserable (and how long) the wether has been,

We left Wrightsville Beach, NC this morning at 730am trying to plan our travel to hit the three bridges (with restricted times) that we needed to have opened "right on time". Between the distance between the points, the speed of the boat, the winds and the number of boats on the ICW (even on a lousy weather Saturday) that we had to slow down for, it was indeed a challenge. But make them we did, and with as much a 5 minutes to spare! 

One of the more interesting places we crossed today was the LIVE FIRING RANGE at Camp Lejune. This is where they fire real munitions over the ICW to hit practice targets on the outer reef islands. Large warning signs, flashing lights and well armed patrol boats always make this section of the waterway a bit surreal. Fortunately, today we went through without issue and without any "close calls"!!!!

One of the more "challenging" moments was after we passed Moorehead City, NC and had to traverse a narrow cut between Beaufort and Oriental. When we travel at "idle speed" ENCORE typicallly moves at about 6 mph. Today, the tide in that cut was coming in at max flood, which meant for us the current was running against us at about 4 knots. The wind was also blowing on the bow at 20 knots, which created an additional opposing force. So as we had to navigate much of the cut at "IDLE SPEED - NO WAKE ZONE" -- the boat was actually sitting still, if not going backwards!!! Needless to say, I quickly determined that today was a "screw the no wake zone" kind of day and increased the throttle enough to at least move through at 6 mph. 

As we entered the Neuse River, we were once again faced with head seas, rain and strong winds out of the NE that caused us to take the course at a much slower, but more tolerable pace. The boat was covered in salt spray and we were both exhausted from the days travel. 

But the reward is a wonderful first class marina called River Dunes in Oriental, NC, where we have tied up for the night. We plan to enjoy some cocktails in the club house watching the Kentucky Derby and dinner overlooking the river.

And as a little "thank you" to the Admiral for the past week of putting up with all this, I booked a "marina cottage" for the night  -- on dry land, with a nice bath tub, big comfy bed and no sounds from the waves or marina. Now, I just have to hope she let's me join her! 

Tomorrow we head for Coinjock NC. Yes, Coinjock :)