Gale Creek - at anchor

Sailing the ICW, it is possible although we seldom find the right winds.

We had intended anchoring at Cedar Creek on our run from Swansboro but then we looked at the weather and wind report saw the prediction for higher winds on Thursday morning so we decided to take advantage of the 10 kt winds predicted for the Neuse River this afternoon.

This guy slid right in front of us and hogged the whole channel, okay I'll let him...

So we left Swansboro around 7:30 and headed north. I think the winds were a little stronger than predicted and they were right on the nose! If you're ever in doubt on the correct heading for your next stop, just point your bow directly into the wind and you'll be right 90% of the time!

At first the Neuse was quite tame with winds around 10 kts but as we reached the final leg into the ICW, the winds piped up to 20 to 25 kts! We had the mainsail up to steady the boat and we were surfing along at 8.3 kts.

A cold looking sunset, but we're protected here

Coming into the ICW, there's an anchorage that we've never tried before, just inside the entrance. It's in a pool of 7 ft water and has 360 protection. The only concern we had was whether there was a place for Hoolie relief. The anchorage looked so inviting that we tried it out first. As I took Hoolie ashore, I found a place for Hoolie that was about 10 ft square but it was on dry land! Hoolie leaped out of the dinghy to fly above the grass immersed in water (he doesn't like to get his feet wet) and landed on the dry mound with the small shrubs. He quickly completed his assignment and hopped back into the dinghy, mission accomplished. We'll spend the night here and wind up at the Zeisings not far up the ICW from here where we plan on being for three days before meeting up with the Bunches on Sunday afternoon.