North Carolina

  Dear readers, we left off upon the arrival at Beaufort NC. Tim Cote' and I stopped for a much needed rest showers and unfortunately, some repairs as well. The starter battery was fried and needed replacement. Don't worry, the engine can start from the house batteries too, you just have to make sure you don't run them down too far, we didn't. 

   When you sail on a boat named Kismet, I guess you should expect certain pleasant coincidences to occur, you just can't predict what they'll be. Shortly after we docked in Beaufort Tim says, hey that's a nice Cabo Rico sailboat that just went by. Ten minutes later there is a knock on the hull, a couple is standing there and asks if I bought the boat at Yankee Marina in Lancaster Virginia?  I say, yes I did. She says, hi I'm Gale Montague, I'm the broker that did the sale. Nice to meet you in person Gale, I say. You sir look familiar, do you sell boats too? Yes says Dale. Thought so I said, I looked at another Passport 40 with you before I bought this one. Dale and Gale are married and sailing their Cabo Rico to the Bahamas for a month. What a small world, kismet.

   After being underway for about 44 hours with short, fitful bouts of sleep, usually next to an operating diesel engine on a sea berth too short for me, sleeping while tide firmly to a dock while in my normal bed was the height of luxury! The next day Tim kept busy driving around town looking for a bolt that went missing from the headsail furler, an important bolt, and know idea when or where it went. While I fixed the other electrical problems, Tim delivered, figuratively and literally the bolt we needed. With Kismet back in order we filled the diesel and water tanks and moved off of the lovely but expensive dock and anchored in the river in full view of Beaufort's main street. We were visited by birds and dolphins, Tim even heard the wild horses on the far shore, but we never saw them.

Next was a single overnight run to Georgetown SC where Tim would have to head back home. This leg had good winds for the first half but not so much after dark, so we motored a fair bit. The interesting thing was our heading, 180 degrees is due south, we were on a course of 216 degrees. There is a lot of westing while sailing "down" the east coast. 

   It was very pleasant, warmer weather and plenty of visitors. The dolphins seem to come check out the boat when we are motoring, more than when sailing. They come and play in the bow wave for fifteen to twenty minutes and then, zoom away off to other things. This happened pretty much every day and twice for me on night watch. I would hear a splash that didn't sound like the normal waves, and look, sure enough dolphins visiting again!!!