No 18/13 Fernandina and Cape Lookout

Hi from Clare,               Sunday 19th May 2013

We spent another day sightseeing at Fernandina Beach. It is a very pleasant town but it has no public transport. So we walked across to the beach on the other side of the island. The sea water is a bit murky but it didn't stop the locals. As you can see by the photo the water was flat calm and we were amazed to find that the life guard on duty had the red flag up. This is for 'large surf and or strong currents'. I thought of Bondi Beach and I wondered how they would cope with our Australian surf beaches. It took an hour to walk to the beach so when arriving back in town we rewarded ourselves with another frozen yogurt - just delicious.

 

Treacherous surf and treacherous icecream

RUNNING OR RESTING
We set off Tuesday lunchtime to sail 158 miles to Charleston. It was a bit bumpy for the first few hours but then the wind shifted behind us and we had a good sail in 15 -20 knots. We arrived into Charleston late Wednesday and rejoined our friends in time for drinks with Carol and Peter on the Aussie yacht 'Jack Tar' and Kiwi friends Brenda and David on 'Bandit'.
After a good night's sleep we all headed out on Thursday morning to sail 197 miles to Cape Lookout which is near Beaufort, North Carolina. Once again we had a terrific sail with the wind behind us averaging 6 knots for the trip. Eye Candy arrived first mid Friday afternoon giving us time to tidy up and shower before hosting drink that evening.
Along the way, we managed to catch two small Tuna. Not at succulent as Mahi Mahi and certainly more bloody. Andrew caught the first one while I was asleep. I woke to the smell of blood - if one little fish can give off such an odour I can now understand why fishing boats stink so much. Anyhow we have had tuna everything for the last few days and tuna mornay on toast for lunch today will be the last of it.
Yesterday we had a quiet day resting. We did a few boat chores and then went for a walk along a beach that stretched for miles. We took our swimmers but we didn't go in as the water temp is 19 degrees. The daily air temperature is around 25 degrees and the nights are cool.

 

Small Tuna and the gang at Cape Lookout



SO WHAT'S NEXT
We will leave tomorrow and motor up the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) to Norfolk. We came this way last year as it is more protected than going around Cape Hatteras and negotiating the Gulf Stream. We will motor in the day and drop anchor each night and sleep - woo hoo!
Love Candy xx

At 12:30 PM19/05/2013 (utc) our position was 34°37.16'N 076°32.85'W

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