Nancy and I began our sail from Oriental, NC to Ocracoke, NC yesterday morning at about 10:00 AM. It was a beautiful day and we set our sails and followed the way points that Nancy had programmed into our chart plotter. We came out of the Nuese River and into the Pamlico Sound. Things were going nicely and as Nancy sat at the helm, I enjoyed a nice cigar and the scenery. Soon, we were pretty much out of land sight even though we were still in the inland waters and I thought this must be a lot like sailing outside.

Things were peaceful and the day was beautiful. The winds had been in the 10 - 14 knot range off our starboard stern quarter. Then, within a matter of about 10 minutes or less, the winds picked up to about 20 knots and the sound went from a nice, gentle, rolling water to a nasty bitch. Our boat speed increased and I had a tough time keeping it going in a straight line. The wind was coming off our port broad reach (left side).

We immediately decided to drop the main and roll in the furler. Unfortunately, we had taken the Mack Pack off the sail to get a better looking foot on our sail, since it is a loose footed sail. At the same time, as we started to roll in the furler, a line from the Mack Pack got entangled in the jib and we couldn't get it in.

Nancy took the helm, and I was able to go forward and eventually get one side of the Mack Pack up so the main would come down. Then I headed up to try to untangle the line in the jib. What an exhilarating experience. The waves were crashing over the front of the boat and I was smart enough to tie myself in using one of the jib sheets. Eventually, all I could do was to drop the jib down and get it on the deck and out of the wind.

I returned to the cockpit soaking wet and Nancy brought us on into Silver Lake at Ocracoke following her way points that were perfect..

We have a very pretty anchorage here with an option of going to the old PT boat docks that now belong to the National Park Service where we would have electricity and A/C.

Ocracoke, itself, is a small tourist town accessible only by ferry boat sitting in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

We plan to spend 2 or 3 days here waiting for a new belt for our auto helm to arrive.