Started: Midway Marina 36°21.10′N 075°56.85′W

Anchored: ICW Mile 103 Newport News Point 35°40.45′N 076°03.34′W

Log: 52.1 nm. Time 7¼ hr. Engine Hours 7¼.

Anchored next to Motu and Hold Fast. We last saw them in Deltaville.

We find that we might be getting a little better at this.

We elected not to pass by Manteo. The weather looks like it's going to become snotty on Tuesday night and Wednesday, so we'd like to be in some anchorages we are already familiar with.

We covered 50 miles today. If we do a similar distance tomorrow, we'll be near some nice-looking creeks around mile marker 150.

We could have — perhaps — covered another 25 miles today and slogged through the Alligator River Pungo Canal to some anchorages just past mile 125. But it would have added another 2-3 hours to our day. Anchoring around 1800 this time of year is risky. It's dark. And cold.

Beaufort is mile 200. That means another 50 mile day on Monday. If we can make Mile Hammock Bay on Tuesday, we can sit out the potentially bad weather there on Wednesday, and move to Wrightsville on Thursday.

Since we'll be inside, the N winds on Wednesday will actually be helpful. It will be right cold, but. If the waterway remains reasonably calm, it's better to freeze moving the boat (with the engine heating the interior) than to freeze just sitting around.

Once we're in Wrightsville, we have to decide if we're going inside or outside to Charleston. It's a comfortable, roomy anchorage. Lots of amenities including cell phone coverage and internet. We can easily wait there for clement weather before going offshore.

Anniversaries

Last year (on this date) we were sailing to Charleston. We're only about a week or so behind last year. Last year it was a hurricane. This year it was two engine repairs.

Last year, each maneuver — each one — was a sphincter-clenching exercise that required both of us. Just turning to follow the marks across the Albemarle Sound and into the Alligator river was fraught with fear. We'd heard so many stories of people who'd missed a mark and run aground. We didn't want to be That Crew — you know — the one the ran their new boat hard aground because they misread a simple channel mark.

Finding each mark and steering to it was real work.

This year, CA could work on Floating Leaf Tiny Quilts when she wasn't driving. Between the chart plotter and binocular, I could find all the marks without much sweat.

Last year we got to this location on the 25th of October. We'd only moved aboard five weeks before. We'd spent most of those five weeks tooling up and down the Chesapeake. We'd only left Norfolk on the 22nd of October. Our first ICW overnight was tied to a bulkhead in South Mills between the Dismal Swamp lock and the bridge. Our second night was tied to a dock in Elizabeth City. Our first real anchorage was at the N end of the Alligator river.

This was just our second real anchorage. It's a kind of anniversary spot.

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