Last dock day, we think. Here's the river whipped to whitecaps by the wind. It's blowing in the 30's, gusting higher.

I'm not used to seeing rivers with whitecaps rolling down them.

But the wind is blowing straight down the river, providing maximum fetch to create waves.

We think Mon8 may lay down enough to get off the dock and start south.

We're glued to our daily https://www.mwxc.com email.

The weather from NWS has backed down to this:

STORM WARNING IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING

That's better than a gale. The Zone forecast for New Bern on Mon8 looks like this:

"Sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. North winds 10 to 15 mph."

That would be nice.

We'd like to leave Beaufort late in the afternoon of Tue9. But. The following forecast is something we'd prefer to avoid.

"N winds 10 to 15 kt. Seas 5 to 8 ft, subsiding to 4 to 6 ft after midnight. Adjacent sounds and rivers a moderate chop."

Here are our choices:

• To avoid 5-foot seas, go down the ICW on Tue9 and Wed10 to get to Wrightsville beach. This gives us a shot at Thu11 going outside to Charleston. 28 hours at sea. Less risk of nastiness. Arrive Fri12 in the early morning.

• Wait a day, depart, Beaufort Wed10, sail Thu11 and arrive Fri12 in the morning.

The problem with both of these is Thu11 forecast:

"SE winds 5 to 10 kt, becoming S 10 to 15 kt. Seas 2 to 4 ft. A chance of showers through the night."

Wind (almost) on the nose and rain.

Friday's forecast is too far in the future to be very accurate. But.