 Bob
and I got up at 0730 and took a walk around town. Toby had a bit
too much to drink the night before and was in no shape to lift
his head from the pillow. Bob and I filled up our fuel tank with
three 5-gallon jerry jugs. We had run the engine 25 hours since
Coinjock. We went back to town to the Hardee's for lunch and then
to the food store. Stopped by a bookstore on the way back and
bought Bob Bitchin's book "Letters from the Lost Soul".
Of all the boating rags out there we enjoy his "Latts n
Atts" the most. We can't wait for it to come every other
month and flip a coin on who gets to read it first. When we
returned Toby had made his way off the boat and to the land head.
As we were coming down the dock we were greeted by our fellow
cruisers saying that our first mate was 'decorating' the
restroom-the ups and downs of the cruising life. By 1530 he was
feeling much better and washed the deck for us while Bob and I
took a tour of the 'Bonnie Lynn'.
 Tuesday
at 1134 we left Beaufort Docks and headed for the Atlantic. At
1300 we passed our first sea buoy and a saw huge sea turtle on
our port beam just 'hanging out'. Winds were 5 kts with 1-foot
seas so we decided since we had time we would put all sails up
and turn off the engine. At 1545 the little wind dissipated to
nothing so we doused the main and turned on the iron genny. Our
night watch schedule was 2 hours on helm, 2 hours on watch and 2
hours sleep. During the night the winds increased to 9 - 13 kts
with 2' seas.
 It
was a beautiful night, the sunset was spectacular, and we were
motorsailing. The moon should be with us until 0300 to give us
some light. The presidential election was on the radio that night
but the signal would fade in and out. We could not understand why
they kept changing who won Florida. We would have to wait until
we get in port to find out the results. The first shifts went
pretty good but when it came time to take the second it was
murder. No one really wanted to get up. It seems 2 hours was not
quite enough.
 At
0700 when the sun was due to rise we were hit by heavy fog.
Visibility was about 25 feet. At 1000 Bob was still at the radar
looking for boats, buoys and obstructions while Toby and I were
out on watch. We were close to the Frying Pan Shoal Slue (a 100
foot opening in the shoal) that provides us a short cut to Cape
Fear. We knew the red and green buoys had to be close but due to
the fog just could not see it by necked eye. Bob kept telling us
where they were since he could see them on the radar. I went up
to the bow to see if I could get a better view and all of a
sudden the red buoy came into sight. It looked like it was at
least 200 feet high and confused me a bit on what I was looking
at exactly. At 1030 we were through the slue and the fog had
lifted. We had a family of dolphin's come up on the starboard
side of the boat. Winds dropped to nothing and the sun beating
down on us at 80 degrees. By 1100 the fog returned with a
vengeance and we couldn't even see the bow of the boat. The
current in the channel was running 5 kts which made radar
navigation very difficult. We dropped anchor outside the channel
at 1430 and waited for the current to decrease. At 1535 the
current was down to 2 kts so we started the engine and headed up
the channel for Bald Head Island Marina.
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