Cold

The wind blew like stink all night. The boat was rocking and rolling and we were up multiple times during the night, but the anchor held, as I knew it would (I had invested in a new anchor last year, and its a wonder (a Rochna, designed by a fellow in New Zealand).

When we awoke the wind was  still blowing,  and the temperature had dropped. It was 47degrees outside, and a balmy 61 degrees inside the cabin.

The big question, of course, was "would the engine start?"

We waited till 6:30am, turned the key....and nothing!!

I checked the battery voltage and  it read 12.6 volts, indicating an essentially full charge (the beauty of having 7 batteries). So I picked a large screwdriver from the tool drawer, went to the starter, and rapped it soundly with the handle of the screw driver, to get its attention.

The engine started immediately!

We raised the anchor without incident (yes, the deck wash system worked perfectly)..the only problem was it was awesomely cold working on the foredeck to get the anchor in.

And so we set off to River Dunes, a resort/marina on the Neuse river in North  Carolina, near Oriental North Carolina.

It was a beautiful day, but it was cold and windy.

The first leg was down the Alligator-Pungo canal, a 28 mile long canal joining the Alligator and Pungo rivers. It is tree lined, which was great because it was pretty and mainly  because it blocked the wind!

The next two legs were down the Pungo river and across the Pimlico river, both beautiful, but both lacking the trees that block the wind..it was cold!!

Then into Campbell Creek...nicely tree lined
Then into Bay River, nice, but no trees
Then into the Neuse river - an amazingly wide river (some say the widest in the country), which to us simply meant that the trees were far away!

Did I mention it was cold?

Molli in the cockpit, perfectly illustrating how cold it was!

Finally, after a 9 hour motor sail, we were tied up in River Dunes...a most elegant resort/marina.
We plan to stay till Tuesday morning, taking a well deserved break.