Thursday

After a relatively restless night, we awoke before dawn on Thursday morning. The water was flat calm and the sky was beautiful with few clouds, the moon setting in the west, and the sun rising in the east. About sunrise, the motor yacht to the east of us raised anchor and ghosted down the river channel. Most likely a snowbird heading south.

Forespar Stove under way.

We witnessed literally dozens of yachts heading south along the ICW during the trip. We could see four or five at a time trailing each other by a couple of miles. It reminded me of being at the Atlanta-Hartsfield airport at night and seeing landing lights for as far as you could see on the jets lined up for landing stacked one behind the other.
Rich fired up the generator (yes, I said generator. You thought we were just a little dinky boat, didn't you?) to charge up his cell phone. Actually, that was the only time the entire trip we used the generator. Rich had brought it just in case we needed some power out on the hook.
I brewed some coffee on my new Forespar galley stove in the percolator. Forespar had fashioned this gimbaled stove after the old Sea Swing stove. I wish I had the Sea Swing, because unlike my Forespar, it utilized rolled aluminum plate for a gimbal and would reflect some the heat back toward the cooking area. The Forespar throws a lot of heat sideways and had a detrimental effect on my varnished companionway door.

Anyway, back to the story. The two sailboats left sometime later, and we followed one out the river channel. Once we reached the Neuse proper, we shut down the engine and raised the sails. There was barely a breath of wind at that hour. Rich went below and turned in for some continuing rest, and I sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the lovely view and quiet. A little breeze stirred from time to time and the boat would move a bit and then stop. I dug out the 170 genoa which I had never hoisted before. After about thirty minutes, a stronger  breeze began to materialize and we started to move.
The weather for Friday was forecast to get rough, with 25 to 30 knot winds and the waves on the Neuse predicted to be 3-4 feet. If you have ever been on the Neuse, and I now had two days experience, you know you don't want to be out in 3 foot waves. They are often referred to by people in the know as "square waves" as they are of such short duration that they generate a washboard effect with a constant pounding on the hull.

With this in mind, I steered west intending to stay in the general vicinity of Oriental as I knew the wind would pick up in the afternoon and it might get rough. We planned to get a slip at the Oriental Marina before conditions deteriorated too much.

Self portrait near Janiero.

Within an hour we were humming along at 6 knots with a southerly wind. Blues Image was heeled at about 12 to 15 degrees and it was just great. Being based on Watts Bar Lake in East Tennessee, it is rare that we can sail more than two or three miles on a tack, so this was thrilling for me. We sailed about three hours passing Oriental and continuing all the way down to Minnesott Beach in sight of the ferries running back and forth.
Rich stayed down below pretty much all this time. He had not slept much the entire trip and was trying to get some rest. The 1/2" plywood storage covers and filler panels under the bunk cushions would squeak mercilessly on their fiberglas ledges every time one of us would roll over or move. Rich had the V berth and I had the dinette berth. They both squeaked loudly with every move, and when you only have 2 inch thick cushions to sleep on, you tend to move a lot trying to find a comfortable position. So neither one of us was particularly well rested.
It was now early afternoon, and rather than dodge the ferries and continuing towards New Bern, I elected to turn around and head back to Oriental. The wind was picking up rapidly, and the 170 was now too much. I pulled it down and put up the working jib. It was no easy task, as the waves were getting up and the bow was bouncing around. By now you have guessed "we don't need no stinking roller furler!" Although at times it would be nice. However, to install one would cost one third what I paid for the boat! I am nothing if not cheap.
As we traveled back east, the wind and waves kept building. In about two hours we were outside Oriental Harbor, and we fired up the Honda and turned into the wind so I could drop the sails. I bought everything I needed to install lazy jacks, but didn't have time to make them up and installed them, so it is a little tougher in a blow. We had to run the engine at half throttle. The waves had already built to 3 feet, and were breaking over the bow when she nosed into the trough. Rich held us into the wind, and I fought with the dancing boat and the mainsail, trying not to fall into the water. The jib has a downhaul line which helps greatly, and the previous owner had laced nylon line from the lifelines to the toe rail which kept the jib from blowing overboard. I finally got the mainsail tied to the boom and we turned around and headed for the channel marker. It was getting scary rough quickly. We got into the channel, and I radioed ahead to arrange for a slip.