We made it to Beaufort, North Carolina after almost 90 hours of sailing offshore! I don't have much time so this will mostly be pictures and I will fill in more information when I can!

This is the Delray Marina, where Isla lived when I first met her, in the old slip where we lived when I was just a babe! The sailboat with the red sail covers took her place as John and his family's new home!

Dad messing about as we crusie up the intercoastal, laptop was set up with our new charts for navigation, but the inverter died quickly and we had to rely on old paper charts and a handheld GPS. We picked up a new inverter in Beaufort so should be good to go now!

About 10 bridges to get through on our way up to the Palm Beach inlet and out into open ocean! Took us much longer than expected as you have to wait for some bridges to open on the hour or half hour... almost 6 hours for us to make it out the inlet! A very late start out into the open ocean at about 10pm!

My "aqua boyguards" met us part way up the intercoastal and followed us for the last few bridges...Tom, Kevin and Tommy! such a nice send off! This bridgetender let us come up close to visit while we waited for the opening... This was the beginning of Kevin not being able to sleep untiul we made it safely to Maine. Thankfully he got a good night sleep last night knowing we were at the dock in Beaufort!

The wind was cranking when we got out into the ocean, an intense start to the trip, but we made it 100 miles in the first 10 hours which is incredibly fast! Isla handles beautifully even in high wind and heavy seas! This is the sunrise after that first night - calm, beautiful and peaceful morning!

Tea time in the morning!

Main sail needed some repairing after that first night - one of the seams started to come undone but we fixed her up and she is flying well!

The most notworthy pictures on the open ocean are sunrises and sunsets!

Keeping the log of hours running, coordinates, when we use the engine... it's all very official!

Lots of visitor on the third day! Four or five different times we had dolphins swimming at our bow! They are so beautiful and fun to watch!

The first three full days out were very little wind, very calm and fairly slow, but beautiful sailing!

washing dishes

Donny sunset on the last night out. The wind picked up on our last day out, and we made good time heading to Beaufort! A little harder trip - we have a tiller instead of a wheel and it's a bit harder to manage in rough seas, it's a workout! We passed through a bunch of military ships doing some maneuvers out at sea. A little disorienting at night as to what they were doing changing position all the time, but in the morning we heard on the radio that they were doing some practice... with live fire ammunition! Thanksfully not until we were out of the way :)

It's amazing to be out at sea with nothing in sight but open ocean and the occasional ship... people tell me that they can't imagine it, but it's incredibly peaceful and soothing. It was really nice to hit dry land tho last night! We did some laundry, got some things we needed and wandered this cute little tourist town.

Chips for free bear at the marina restaurant!

Best beer I've ever had!!! :) Today we are heading inside up the intercoastal to Norfolk as the wind is blowing like crazy and we don't feel like beating outside. It will take a bit more time but worth it for an easier ride. The next leg of the journey begins... gotta go catch the bridge... over and out.