Day 224: Tuesday, April 16 , 2013

Port to Port: Southport to Sloop Point

Underway: 8:55 am      Motor Off: 6:20 pm      Miles Traveled:       Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First time hearing the surf crashing onshore from our anchorage; first ICW Mile Marker #290 (there are supposed to be more of them but we have missed them all until now).

Mile 309 to Mile 264: Our first goal this morning was to get through the wide open part of the Cape Fear River and back in the more protected channel of the ICW. (Cape Fear just sounds a little scary doesn’t it. It doesn’t help that we have seen a movie by that name which was a suspense thriller to say the least). Conditions were ideal for our transit but that doesn’t mean we didn’t stress out about it for a couple of hours. What if?

In case anyone is thinking this journey is all sunshine and rainbows, you would be mistaken. We worry (some of us more than others) about lots of things. Our worries are a little different from our normal life but the list is long non-the-less. Rain, wind, electrical malfunctions, cold, hot flashes, sinking, leaks, our kids, family, getting hit by a car walking along busy roads to get gas, storms, will the anchor hold, will we hit something underwater, will something hit us, mechanical problems, injuries, falling overboard, where is the next buoy, what’s that noise, getting lost, can we make it before dark, where are we going to stay, when should we leave, waves, tides, will someone hear us on the radio when we need them to, and what is there to snack on are just a few of our worries. We wouldn’t trade this life for our normal life at this point – we have never felt more alive but we do have worries that keep us busy.

We chatted with Slow Churn on the radio as they passed by us in the morning. Fun to meet people you know as you travel along. The scenery didn’t vary much all day – lots of houses and docks along the mainland and marshland and woods along the barrier island side. The wind was on the nose until about 3 pm when we were able to raise the mainsail to give us a boost for the last 3 hours mostly against the current.

Tomorrow we plan to stop at a small marina just before the next large body of water – the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound – we need to navigate to get to Beaufort, North Carolina where we will probably stay for a couple of days to rest and relax. Hey man, no worries.