Sunrise – I wasn’t even sure I was going to head out today. I was concerned about my repair yesterday and not sure it was the only issue I had – also, the weather forecasters were way off about today’s weather. It was supposed to be blowing 13 mph, but instead it was 18 mph. I left anyway, believing (per the weather men) that conditions were only going to get better…I got through the relatively protected waters near Beaufort without any issues – engine ran fine and no white water over the boat. This guy was not so lucky…Heading out into the open water of the Neuse River – over 3 miles wide. My goal yesterday had been to go to Oriental – almost directly across the river from here, but with the day’s delay, I decided to head for my next destination (where I should have gone today), Belhaven NC. To minimize my time on the open water, I headed straight across as if I were going to Oriental, even though my destination was North – up the river.The bridge across from me is Oriental – I visited there last year when I brought Catitude home, so skipping it was no problem. I knew the wind was going to increase slightly before it decreased later in the day (per the weather men), so getting close the other shore quickly was a priority to lessen the impact of the wind on the waves in the river.Here I am passing Oriental. I couldn’t go straight across to there because the size and direction of the waves coming across – I had to head more South and get as close to the shored as I could, then head North. The shoals go far out into the river, so I could not get as close to shore as I had hoped.Instead of decreasing as predicted, the wind was actually picking up. It was also changing directions more to the West as I went.This wasn’t actually the worst I encountered today – when that was happening, I couldn’t even hold the camera and spray from the boat hitting the waves was going all over the boat.When I left the Nuese River (I basically got SLAMMED there) and got into more protected water, I looked for a marina to stop at and found this one – just up the waterway. I was so tired, I just couldn’t handle the next large body of water which was coming up before Belhaven with the wind ever increasing. Whats great about this place is that it is very well protected, and is only 40 cents a foot ($10 for me) which INCLUDES electricity. Also they have relatively inexpensive diesel.So, I pulled in here and filled up with diesel (a little over 24 gallons, which means since the last fill up, I have gotten 16.3 MPG!).My dock spot behind the shrimp boats, with free electricity – which I don’t really need, but is nice to have to fully charge everything.This place is in the middle of nowhere, on its own street by the bridge. To do this post, I had to sit at the extreme end of the dock and point my phone a particular direction to get one bar, and use it as a hotspot for my computer. The connection was so slow, it took me over an hour to complete this.This is my route today – about 45 miles in 6.5 hours. Tomorrow, I’ll leave early and make Belhaven.
