Back at Matthews Point Marina

We are back where we started.  On November 24th we left and on May 5th we pulled into the slip next to the one we left.  The circle is complete.  Our trip to Virginia was very nice.  We spent several days with Cori's parents and brother and attended Don's retirement party.  We drove back to Charleston on Friday in a driving rain but came out of it about the North and South Carolina border.  Everything was fine with the boat.  Since we still had a car we spent Saturday sightseeing.  The weather forecast was looking favorable for  the trip to Morehead City so we opted to leave on Sunday.  Since we had rented our slip for a week and had stayed an extra day I went up to the office to settle up.  I was told not to worry about it, they were not going to charge us for the extra day.  More Southern hospitality.  We left around 10:30 am on an outgoing tide and after clearing the breakwater turned Northeast.  The winds were still too light to sail and continued that way until mid afternoon when they rose to 10 knots.  Up went the sails and off were went at 4 knots climbing at times to 7 but settling in at 5.5 to 6.5, perfect sailing.  The sun went down and the full moon came up and it was a perfect night for sailing offshore.  About midnight the winds died and it was back to motoring.

We arrived at Beaufort Inlet around 7:30 pm and started trying to make a decision on whee to anchor for the night.  We finally settled on a spot, dropped anchor, had dinner and went to sleep.  We woke up with four other boats around us in the morning.  We needed to make an early start to take advantage of the incoming  tide and motor up the ICW to the Neuse River.  As we entered the Neuse we caught up with our friends Barb and Jim on Skat.  They had left the islands before us and had traveled the ICW with various stops along the way were almost home also.  About 10:30 we pulled into the marina and tied up.  We spent the evening visiting with friends.

We plan to spend a couple of weeks here getting some projects done, installing some new gear that we are ordering and spending time with friends.

What next you ask?  We are planning to be out at Ocracoke Island the first weekend of June for the music festival and if everything is ready we will start our trip North.  How far we do not know but the charts show lots of options.