We motor sailed a bit early on, for about an hour, then the wind picked up, SW, which was our direction. Tacking, and tacking, until the winds shifted S and we started heading more W.
We were making really good progress and started to think we might actually finish the trip today. We were missing our puppy, and our daughter who was looking after things while we were gone would enjoy having her life back. And my fresh vegetables and most of the fruit was now gone, neither of the marinas or places we stayed had accessible groceries.
With the S winds we decided we were tired of fighting headwinds, and we'd sail more west into the ICW on Goose Creek Island rather than continue down the Pamlico. Then a funny thing happened just as we past the North East tip of the island, the wind stopped. It had built though the day to a good 13 mph. Now the water was flat, and no breeze. Time to start the motor.
As we neared the ICW channel into the Island, we found ourselves sailing downwind, NE. Made no sense, but we liked it. This continued for an hour or so, then switched on the nose. We motored through the channel, and realized we'd make it back by 6pm, so decided to keep going.
Twice we raised the sails, and twice we lowered them as motoring was easier and faster with the wind conditions. We pulled into the dock at B&B Yachts where we had launched and Alan was there to help get the boat on the trailer.
Full circle we are finishing the trip going out to dinner with Taylor and Alan in New Bern, and drove on home from there.
58 miles today, our longest. The overall trip mileage was 261 miles over 8 days.
2 comments:
Thanks for the trip reports. All from your iphone? Incredible. I bet the horses won't be in the barn long before they are ready to go out.
Thanks Dawn! I really enjoyed reading you and Paul's sailing adventure. Makes me realise I need to head back down that way again soon...
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