Pure Lunasea

Day 18 - Up the Bay The forecast was for sunny skies and light winds out of the south. Our plan was to do 90 miles up to Solomons Island and then decide if we wanted to duck in there for the night or continue the remaining 40 miles to Annapolis. Everything was going great when we got to the mouth of the Patuxent River (Solomons Island) so we decided to continue on. A short time later I noticed that the wind had switched to coming out of the north- interesting... that wasn't in the forecast from the Windy app. Perhaps I should have checked my other weather sources.  Soon the wind began to build and before long it was over 15 knots with 3 foot waves crashing on our bow. We thought Mother Chesapeake was going to give us a warm welcome home, but I guess she wanted to remind us how nasty she could be! We were totally exposed out in the middle of the bay so decided to head towards the eastern shore and possibly get some protection from Poplar Island. It helped a little bit, ...

Day 14 - Beaufort to Bellhaven Once again the weather dictated our itinerary. We had planned to spend a full day in Beaufort, N.C.,  but a cold front was moving through the next day with high winds and storms so we wanted get some miles in beforehand. We decided to check out Beaufort, have lunch and then continue north. Beaufort is a compact and historic town similar to it's southern sister, but perhaps a bit more nautical due it's proximity to the ocean. Beaufort, S.C. is definitely more southern and stately, but both have their charms. We had a nice lunch in town before hitting the farmers market to score some local grits and seafood. Michelle wanted to try to make a low-fat version of the shrimp and grits we had at previous stops. Gathering the goods. The 70 miles to Bellhaven began to look a lot like the Chesapeake Bay. The Neuse, Pamlico and Pungo Rivers are wide and large. There are small canals that connect them to make the ICW so you go from a big river...

Day 13 - Osprey Marina, S.C. to Southport. N.C. The 63 miles to Southport seemed like nothing at all after knocking off several 150+ mile days, but we soon found out what it is like to do the ICW at sailboat speed. This section of the ICW has many homes with floating docks and it seemed like there was someone in a fishing boat around every corner. Pure Lunasea puts off a pretty large wake at speed so we had to keep it below 7 knots (8-9 mph) the whole time. We really enjoy going slow and would love to do it more often, but as you know we are on a tight schedule and we wanted to get to Southport early enough to spend some time there.  It took eight hours to do the 63 miles. Really cool dock!   We arrived around four and got a slip at Southport Marina. We walked into town to pick up some new stereo speakers to replace the blown ones on our flybridge (the long day off-plane made us hanker for some music!). Afterwards we went to the funky Silver Coast Winery for a ...

Liberated! Jimmy was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. It was a relief for all. It is a shame Jimmy is not going to be part of the crew anymore, but we were glad he is well and heading home. On the Road Again We got an sunrise start the next day. Beaufort Bridge The weather and sea conditions forecast looked great so we decided to make another outside run. It was shame to skip Charleston, but we had been there before (by land) and we also had heard docking there can be a nightmare because of the currents. It was strange to be heading south again, but that was the way back to Port Royal Sound Inlet. Once outside we started north again and passed Charleston Harbor in a couple of hours. It was such a nice day in the ocean we almost kept going up to Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC), but decided we shouldn't skip anymore of the ICW.  After about 100 miles outside we ducked into Winyah Bay Inlet and the Waccamaw River.  After passing Georgetown, SC (another pl...