MONDAY NIGHT NOV. 4 Casper's Marina, Swansboro, North Carolina
  Oops sorry no pix.  My stupid phone won't send pix right now so I need to use Drew's phone and send them to me.
  Whittaker Creek Marina gave us a cheap deal $50 for 2 nights, but it wasn't the best place.  We hit ground going in and powered off.  We hit ground going out too. There is a Russian family living in the clubhouse where all the services are -- showers, laundry, mail.  They bought a new router for Knute, the owner of the place, and then wouldn't give anyone the password.  Once again no WIFI except Drew's Verizon router.
    Sunday, we walked 1.8 miles into Oriental - great place, and we'll stay there on our way back -- Tiki Bar with really interesting people, a judge, a lawyer., etc.  I saw the woman whose dog I helped save the night before in Belhaven.  Her standard poodle fell in the water between the dock and her boat.  We heard her cries for help.  As she held the dog,  I lay down on the dock, reached down as far as I could, pushed his head out from between the boards of the dock and then hauled him up. 
  At The Bean in Oriental we talked boats, when is the best time to go south this week and other boat stuff.
   Today we set out by 8:30 am after we redid some of the docking lines with new ropes we got at 40% off at a local Oriental chandlery.  We sailed in 35k winds, but since we were going to be in  Adams Creek and the Canal all day we figured crossing the Neuse River would be all the rough water we'd feel.  As we crossed I asked Drew if he would put down one of the side curtains -- it was so cold.  Just after he did we had a wave come up over the deck.  We stayed dry. It stayed at 20+ k all day.  In the Creek it wasn't rolly, but the winds were strong and cold.  During the day we took turns at the helm looking at the depth sounder every minute.  We saw 2 huge 90+ foot power yachts get grounded.  They got themselves off or had Tow Boat help them off.
  Every time the depth sounder said 10 or less feet we slowed down until we could find the center of the channel at 13'   (We draw 5') Not especially fun and raised adrenalin and anxiety all day.  The channel is only 20' wide and then goes from 10' to 1' quickly.
  We arrived in Casper's Marina (4:30pm) and motored into a slip that was about 15' wide with another boat, and we are 13' wide.  Surprisingly we didn't hit anything, but my heart was in my throat.   We are terrible at docking our boat in these finger pier slips with tall pilings and winds pushing the boat.  Thank goodness for the bow thruster.  It controls the bow if the wind or current takes hold of it and swings us in the wrong direction.  Thanks to the 4 dock hands too.  We got to tour The Valiant out of Boston (www.cruiseBostonharbor.com), one of the 96' boats we saw along the way. 
   We had a really good dinner at the ICE BOX, probably the best meal we've had so far:  seared tuna with ginger for me, and Drew had pecan encrusted grouper topped off with chocolate lava cake.  Mazu stays in the boat if we go out at night.  She has been great the whole trip.  PIX tomorrow.