Monday May7, 2018 - Oriental to Goose Creek

It's interesting how you can get closer to home and yet feel further away from home.  Once you leave the coast and go inland (at least in North Carolina), you begin feeling more remote and isolated.  Phones don't work, no data, etc.  And you can travel several miles without seeing a house or even another boat.  I'm anchored in a little creek off Goose Creek which is just south of the Pamlico River.  In the morning, I'll motor about 4 miles north to enter the Pamlico.  I'll cross that and enter the Pungo River.  It is a long and windy river that leads to a long canal that joins the Pungo and the Alligator River. 

I got a slow start today.  I was up early but I changed the engine oil and tightened the shaft packing again.  In the middle of that, I moved the boat from the free dock to the fuel dock -  about a 70 foot move. Then I moved back to the free dock and finished my engine work.  I met a guy from Havre de Grace while I was getting fuel.  He had just purchased an Islander 28 a week before in Oriental.  I felt bad for him - he has a long trip home and had told his wife he would be there in a little over a week.  Unfortunately, the boat was sitting in 3 feet of water with a 5 foot keel.  Today was the first time he was able to move.  And I felt really bad later because he was motoring and it was ROUGH. 

I left Oriental at around 10am and expected 10 to 15 knot winds - from the north.  The direction was correct but the speed was more like 15 to 25.  It didn't take long to realize I needed at least one reef in the main.  I ended up sailing 14 miles from Oriental to Bay River and taking 4 hours to do it.  The wind was right on the nose the entire time.  It's been a while since I sailed in conditions like this and I obviously did not have things stowed properly below - you could barely walk forward below with all the "stuff" that had relocated to the sole (floor).

I only hope that the guy with the Islander turned back to wait for another day.