17 Oct 13

We met this morning with a couple of guys from Bluewater Canvas to see about getting an Isenglass enclosure built around the cockpit.  Hopefully, they will give us a good quote in a couple of days.

Yesterday, I got the wrong anchor shackle (too big), so back to West Marine to get a smaller one. After lunch, we pumped out and then headed north again. We had to get through the Wrightsville Beach bascule bridge - 14:00 opening - followed by the Figure 8 Island swing bridge - 15:00 opening. Then, on north through the North Carolina low country and some very wealthy homes on both sides of the ditch. For the first time in weeks, we had a following wind and actually got a sail out for a couple of hours; it was the full genoa, although we continued to motor the whole way. We also passed the first barge/tug in the ditch since Florida. We went about 15 miles north to Topsail Inlet and anchored there. The “new” hook dug in straight away and held first pull @1100 rpm. We will sleep well tonight.

18 Oct 13

After breakfast, I got the kayaks down and we went for a paddle in the salt-marsh behind Topsail Inlet. We confirmed with Anchors Away Boatyard a haul-out time on Monday of 11:00, a few minutes before high tide. After lunch, we re-sorted the anchor locker (got the rodes split to either side of the locker; I will have to glass in a permanent partition at some time); now either anchor can be deployed rapidly with minimal tangles. We then winterized the outboard engine and removed it from the dinghy. Tomorrow and Sunday are going to be busy getting ready for the haul-out.