Guest Blogger Here!

Lynn has done such a fantastic job doing the blog EVERY day (except a few) that I thought I'd give her a break.  She spent the day cleaning and is now in the head that fits 12.

This is me.

 How 'bout the pink sunglasses! 

While traveling 7 knots, the wind was gusting to 

30 knots from the north giving us 37 knots on the nose.

Lynn's big glasses (she bought them right off the face of a 

10 year old at Fishtails in Ocean City - (mom's permission,

of course).  The big glasses kept my eyes from watering

too much.

I know no one will feel sorry for us.  This is the

coldest day we've had since November - 39 degrees

this morning !!!

 Out in the middle of nowhere on the Bogue Sound, NC.

I can only assume that a duck hunter was doing some

extensive renovations to his duck blind.  We'll catch

his progress in the fall on the way down south.

 A 14 bedroom, 28 bathroom house?

 The haaaabaa at Morehead City, NC

 Thar be oil here mateys!!

 m

 The only thing remaining on this island just north

of Morehead City is this chimney.  It was an old

rubber chicken factory.

 Oh, my lordy.

Look at this old beauty.

You just don't see these old wooden boats anymore.

 "Emily, Will You Marry Me?"

Just north of Morehead City.

I will assume she will continue to like to fish

after she gets married?

 Another Cheap, Cheap, Yacht!

Real nice touch!

Our sunset tonight 

Well, after traveling almost 3000 uneventful miles, I almost got us aground today.  The stretch from Wrightsville to north of Morehead City is some of the most "dangerous" areas of the ICW.  There are many inlets from the Atlantic that join the ICW.  At many of these inlets the current brings sand which deposits in and around the ICW.  The Army of Corps of Engineers is responsible for contracting out to dredge these areas, but like everything else, there are budget cutbacks.  Some of these areas don't get dredged as much as they probably should.  So, while piloting north, there were red and green markers inline in front of an intlet.  They were properly numbered; however, the way they lined up, it appeared they were markers for boaters coming into the ICW from the Atlantic.  Wrong dodododododo.  They were for the shoal area on the ICW.

I keep my hands on the throttle/transmission controls and live in the depth finders (we have one on each side of the boat near the bow) so when the depths hit 7 feet, 6 feet, 5 feet I backed off.  I went around the wrong side of the green but it was high tide.  No problem.  But learned (another) lesson.  No problem, mon.

But it was cold, cold, cold today.  Starting out in the upper 30's (we waited until 1000 hours to leave), with the wind blowing 25-30 knots, the wind child was around 110 degrees below zeros.  My lips were blue, my hands were numb, and my toes jumped off, dove in, and started swimming back towards Key West.  

We do have a real nice anchorage this evening.