Captain's Choice blog: It's all about the weather

Playing hit or miss with rain drops seems the norm as we continued to head north on the east coast. Unfortunately Saturday morning we were thrust into the game of hit or miss again as we started out with grey skies as we made our way up the Cape Fear River and along the ICW. Could we make it to our anchorage at Mile Hammock, 65 miles north without rain? Nope...an hour into our trek the sprinkles started (forecasted for later in the day), not much boat traffic and really just misty rain so we kept going. About 90 minutes from our anchorage the skies opened up and it poured. I kept watching the weather app, no dodging these rain drops until late afternoon when the rain was suppose to stop. Of course it stopped after we were anchored and settled in. Neither of us are fans of traveling in the pouring rain but this section of the ICW doesn't offer the options for anchorages like Georgia or South Carolina so once you start you are pretty much committed to keep going. What we know is that all this rain will make us appreciate sunny days that much more!
When we anchored in Mile Hammock, just outside Camp Lejeune in the fall there were 22 boats anchored there, Saturday we were the first to arrive and only 2 other boats joined us.

Our initial plan was to anchor out for at least 4 nights but there was another storm forecasted to hit the coast Sunday - Monday bringing the potential for severe storms. With that in mind we headed 44 miles Sunday to Beaufort, NC. We stayed at Homer Smith Marina, where we stayed in the fall, as it offers a courtesy car, free laundry, free ice and they just finished adding new transient floating docks. The town is just a short walk from the marina and offers several restaurants and small shops to browse. The storm was a fast mover but did hit Beaufort with rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph.
We were glad we were secured at the marina and ended up staying 2 nights as the winds were sustained at 20+ on Monday. It figures, once the sun came out the winds kicked up, we always hate to waist a sunny day not traveling but Mark got some waxing done while I roamed the town.

Finally a couple of sunny and not to windy days were strung together Tuesday to late afternoon Thursday as we traveled 75 miles Tuesday from Beaufort to an anchorage in the Pungo River. The anchorage is a popular stop just south of the Pungo/Alligator River Canal and we were joined by 7 other boats.
With winds around 10 mph Wednesday it made for a pleasant ride across the Albemarle Sound and 79 miles to Coinjock Marina. We've decided we've gotten ahead of the current year of loopers, we aren't seeing many at this point and there was ample room at Coinjock, which really fills up during "looper season".
The next storm that is forecasted to hit the east coast was suppose to start Thursday afternoon and last until Saturday. We made the trek to Norfolk, VA today (49 miles) and the winds have increased substantially since we arrived...Welcome to Virginia...where we will stay until the winds calm and we can move on. As we arrived in Norfolk, we again give thanks to those that have served or are serving in our military.