Alligator River Marina

We woke this morning to fog. Seems we are going to bed earlier each night and getting started later each day. After a delicious breakfast of bacon and sweet potato frittatas, we started sailing about 8:30 with a reef in the main.

Winds were still NW, 15-20, we continued to hug the western shore where the winds were more 15, still with fairly big swells. We sailed about 10 miles then pulled over close to shore near the Alligator River Bridge where we decided to take the masts down and motor under the bridge to the marina located right beyond the bridge. The bridge is a swing bridge, in the middle of the river about 3 miles wide.

At the marina, at lunch at their grill, a man came up and asked "are you the sailors in that small sailboat". When we said yes, he said "we'll I'd like to shake your hands". Evidently he was on the ditch with us, and had passed us, once out of the ditch, he kept motoring towards the marina (we had already tucked out of the weather and anchored). He found conditions worsening and worsening, his wind meter clocked 49 kts and he said the waves were so large he was going vertical more than horizontal. He was in a Catalina 34. He finally decided to turn around and sail back towards our position, though he said that was no less scary. He said he worried about us in our small boat, and saw us leaving that morning. That was yesterday when we didn't sail long before sheltering again for awhile. He didn't see us sailing on the western shore. Seems he stayed put and motored to the marina today.

By the time we'd had lunch and showered, then got invited for cocktails that evening by our new Catalina friends, we decided it was so late in the day we would just stay the night. We are on vacation after all. So... Only 10 miles today. Tomorrow winds shift both south and mild.