We left the marina this morning at 6:05am. Since we no longer had to wait for a scheduled bridge or lock opening we could get back to our early departures.

Quatuor II at sunrise (PICTURE YET TO BE COPIED OVER)

Today was definitely not our average day of cruising. A sustained 20knt southerly wind with gusts up to 25knts hammered us all day.

We earned every foot of the 79 nautical miles today. Although we’d seen worse conditions, this time we were into the wind, into the tide and into the chop. Before, in the Chesapeake, we were going with the tide and with the chop. We didn’t even have time to eat breakfast bars and barely had time to make half a turkey sandwich it was just that rough all day start to finish.

Despite the conditions, we managed to travel 78 nautical miles and were pleasantly surprised when we found out we’d went that far. By no means a fast day but not as slow as we’d thought.

The checkered flag is where we started as the red arrow is our current position. (PICTURE YET TO BE COPIED OVER)

It ended up taking us 10 hours almost exactly to reach the marina tonight ending at 4:08pm. We were so beat up from the constant chop and soaked to the bones with ocean spray from the boat we needed to call it a little early.

Quatuor II as she sits now. (PICTURE YET TO BE COPIED OVER)

Despite a rough day our spirits jumped exponentially as we were able to take hot showers and had our first non freeze dried dinner of the trip. Just a short 1/4 mile walk from the marina were a bunch of restaurants. After walking around the town for a little we settled on a place and I ordered a burger. Hh my, that first bite was astonishing. It most definitely hit the spot but I still miss moms home cooked meals.

Unfortunately there is a tropical storm that was then downgraded to a tropical depression headed straight for us. It’s planned to hit Sunday night and Monday morning (I’m writing this Saturday night). The plan for tomorrow is to move 30 nautical miles south to a more protected marina with floating docs that should be a perfect place to ride out the storm.

After the storm, the weather continues to look grim later in the week. That’s alright, we were due for rain after a week straight of sunshine, but hopefully we stay dry.

Well I hope the storm doesn’t strengthen and we can continue south soon 🙂

Day 7, June 19, Aoura NC to Swansboro NC