Beaufort, NC!!

 After parting with Cerca Trova near West Palm Beach, we headed mostly north, staying in the gulf stream.  On long passages, the days tend to run together....by Wednesday we got our weather maps downloaded using the single side band radio and made the decision that we could continue north past Jacksonville before adverse weather.

Not a lot to report - we had pretty good winds and the push from the Gulf Stream to push us - 700 nautical miles since we left the Berry Islands Monday morning. 

Passing freighters give a few minutes of interest.

 

And a huge pod of dolphins swam with us for about 15 minutes.  Amazing.

Pretty tired after several days of interrupted sleep doing night watches.  

Rounding Frying Pan Shoals - this is the weather station that gives offshore data.

About 8 hours from Beaufort, NC the winds and waves started to pick up.  Once the winds stayed consistantly above 20 knots we turned into the wind and put in the 2nd reef in the main.  Yucky maneuver since we had to turn into the large waves that had been behind us (and much more comfortable!)  

Photos of waves with my little camera are never very good - the water always looks flat....but this does give a bit of a perspective.

The waves from behind were "lifting" the boat.  

 

Not a comfortable ride at all!

The entrance to Beaufort Inlet was very nerve-wracking.....no photos because we were very busy keeping the boat on course!  

Anchored at dusk just inside the inlet and we were very protected from the winds with just a little surge.   Soooo glad we made it into the inlet in daylight.  Coming in after dark would have been scary!

The view this morning - we'll clear customs, have some breakfast and head north to our home dock.