The longest day 21st June 2018

The longest day    21^st June 2018

We stayed in the cockpit for quite a while after dinner watching the thunderstorms and enjoying the long evening.  If there was an element of avoiding the heat below decks, so be it.

Today we made a late start, hoping to avoid the strongest part of the adverse current.  We departed Taylor Creek outside Beaufort at 10:30.  The timing may have helped with the current but it had us travelling during the hottest part of the day.  Making our way along the Russell slough, we could plainly see how shallow the water was in some areas.  We watched, astonished, as a chap in  a power boat zipped along at high speed toward one of these shoals and ran right up onto the mud bank.  He jumped off the bow onto the mud and tried to  push the boat backward without success.  Luckily for him there is a large tidal range around Beaufort so his vessel will float again in the fullness of time.  As Mike put it, “let’s hope we can avoid a similar fate”.

After several hours of hot motoring, we emerged into the Neuse River and after a while turned onto a down wind course (my wacky keyboard gave me “curse” which seemed pretty suitable).  The six knots of breeze suddenly became zero—believe me, we did curse! Eventually, we anchored in Broad Creek not far from the entrance to River Dunes marina, where we waited out Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.  That was where we met our friends Lynn and Lee (along with many others).  If we had any decent cell phone service, we would have called them....

Gloria

Broad Creek, NC : 35 05.35 N, 76 36.5 W

Clouds above the anchorage in Broad Creek

The last daylight in Broad Creek with just one other boat anchored nearby ... then the weather turned nasty ! read the next blog "A night to forget"