Betty finally woke up at 1am to relieve John at the wheel. We both decided to sleep in the cockpit just in case we were needed for an emergency. The only challenging time was at 4am trying to go around the “frying pan” which is off the coast of Cape Fear. It’s a shoal of shallow water out in the ocean. We needed to adjust our course and we had to go out a little further. We were always about 28 to 31 miles off shore. We came across a foreign tanker at daybreak and we let the tanker know that our intentions were friendly and that we were going behind his stern. After our submarine experience, we did not want to engage with any more large vessels!
Then the waves started to build but to keep our minds off the building seas, bottlenose dolphins came and treated us to a wonderful show. There were more than we could count. A group of three or four would charge the boat, quickly jump, and then dive under the boat. All four boats had the dolphins doing the same things. The ocean water was now a distinct blue and was much clearer than the night before. We had obviously left the north Atlantic. Pekabu thought the waves were a steady six feet with a few possible eight footers. Andiamo took it well and we survived.
Picture of dolphins coming our way
We were trying to get to Charlestown SC via the ocean but the weather didn’t sound good for the second night at sea so we went in to Georgetown at twilight. We muddled our way up the river for 11 miles to the Georgetown Marina which was very dark. We gave Brunelle a lot of credit for leading the way. We tied up to an outside dock and our friends, whom we had dinner with at M&M Restaurant in Oriental, were also docked on the same dock! Small world!
Dolphin right next to Andiamo!
These dolphins were truly too fast for our camera!
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