Back Home-Beaufort to River Dunes, Oct 1, 2009

Patina pulled back into her slip at River Dunes after covering 57 nm today. We left Beaufort Docks without the help of dockmaster Jeb (and regretted it) around 8:30, motored out to sea and put the sails up for a perfect beam reach to The Bight at Cape Lookout. Although the winds were light (4-7) Patina was able to cover the distance in short order.  Gay handled the helm for most of the day.

As we approached the entrance to the Bight, we were surrounded by 100's of cavorting dolphins. We dropped the jib and stayed around to play with them for almost an hour. This experience convinced us that Patina needs a video camera (add it to the list of things Patina needs--isn't that what "BOAT" means?--Bring Out Another Thousand?).

We went on into Lookout Bight. We debated spending the night there and motoring quickly back into River Dunes on Friday (we want to meet Josh and Lauren at the New Bern airport on Friday afternoon) but decided to leave the Bight around noon and head back to RD. Went along Shakleford Banks searching for wild ponies and were rewarded with the sight of 4 of them on the banks.  Back around Radio Island (why is it called that?), back under 2 bridges and through Adams Creek. More dolphins in Adams Creek. With light winds on the Neuse, we motored on home so we could pull in before dark. 

A photo of "Otto" at the helm for the last leg home------------------->

After docking and taking care of rudimentary necessities, we decided take-out from the Food Emporium was the best option for dinner and ran into Oriental and brought it back to the boat. (You might have noticed that Gay has not used the galley much lately--although that killer cup of coffee first thing in the morning is quite good).