Myrtle Beach

     We're at a marina in the North Myrtle Beach area now. Why?

     Welllll, it's been an adventure getting here. And it's cold. Cold means not wanting to shower on the boat. Sooooo.... we're paying for a marina to have access to a hot shower, laundry and other amenities. We also had to get some paperwork notarized so a stop was in order.

     We had nice passagse from the Solomons. Pretty calm conditions. We stopped at Portsmouth, VA so Carol could get off the boat to go earn some $$$$ to keep us going. I spent 4 days at a free dock at Great Bridge, VA in the town of Chesapeake. Chesapeake is not on Chesapeake Bay so who knows why it's named that? It is a site of an important Revolutionary War battle so I was able to learn about that, get groceries and fuel and do laundry while there.

     Of course the weather took a turn for the worse while sitting. And it was worse for a while. A storm parked itself off the Carolinas and stayed. And stayed. And stayed. This made for very strong northerly winds and rough seas in the open water portions of our passages. Albemarle Sound wasn't too bad with following seas. Neither was the Alligator River. But it would not have been fun going north in those conditions. Then we had to deal with anchoring in 30+ knot winds as well as crossing the Pamlico, Bay and Neuse Rivers in atrocious conditions. Four or more foot seas, heavy rain, gusts to 40 are not our idea of fun. Yet we pressed on. Can't get to warmer weather if we're parked. And we do need warmer weather. It's been in the low to mid 40s at night, low to mid 50s in the day. With the strong winds it felt much worse.

     Now we're getting highs in the mid 60s so things are looking up. We are only a couple of days from Charleston and from there we hope the seas have layed down enough that we can make a 30 hour passage to Florida offshore.

     We can only hope.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!