On The Move

We stayed put in a very well protected cove for the reported Nor'easter. We saw nothing more than 10 knots. It must be the tropics, right? We saw some palm trees and dolphins again. But we froze our @sses off! It got down into the low 30's. We ran the generator to power the electric heaters, but not all night.We are vowing to make sure we head south a month earlier next year.

So we hustled down to Beaufort NC today because the weather is looking good Fri/Sat/Sun. We're going to do at least one overnight to Charleston SC and hopefully the weather holds and we can do 2 nights to St. Simon's Island in southern Georgia.

We'll have the spot tracker running.

Freedom to the Rescue

Today's weather was much nicer. Sunshine makes a BIG difference. Our cockpit is fully enclosed and the sun warms it up very nicely. The last few days were cloudy & cold, no fun!
As we motored along the Alligator-Pungo Canal we came upon a sailboat that had strayed onto a sandbar in the canal. We slowed down and Chris chatted with the 2 guys aboard the sailboat. They asked if we could pull them off the bar by their stern. One guy was already in their dingy with a line so it was quick work by Chris to grab the line and tie it to our stern cleat. They came off easy, thankfully. If they were hard aground I'm not sure I could have helped. We were surprised how many other boats had passed them without an offer of help before we came along. Our good deed for the month. Sorry, no pictures, we were kind of busy.

New rag!

Although there was some liquid sunshine this morning, the wind was calm. So we bundled up and got to work hoisting me up the mast early before the wind picked up. The pin that worked itself out of the furler foil was easy to press back into place. I was also able to retape some rigging while up there. I decided to skip replacing our anchor light with our new LED light. Cold wet hands could have led to an expensive masthead tri-color light fixture taking a nose dive for Chris' head.
So finally, down came the old sail and up went the new, crisp Mack Sails Genoa. No drama, piece of cake. We were done early enough to still get underway back on our track south. Another storm is reportedly headed for us mid-week and we want to be inland again for better protection from wind & waves.
We were able to unfurl the new sail while motorsailing and we could definitely see a big improvement. Rasberries to Doyle in Detroit for telling me our old sail was fine and didn't need recutting. Cudos to Craig H for cluing me in on the advantages of getting a new sail.
We were motorsailing today so the engine would radiate heat this evening at anchor! So far, so good. Much warmer this evening than yesterday.
While underway today, we passed Jeff & Mary on Echo again! They are former dock neighbors from Jeff Beach Marina. I'm sure we'll be seeing them again as we move south. It's hopscotch cruising!