We woke up at 5:45 this morning. Tom slept terribly last night. We were both woken up at 2 am because the wind started howling from the North. I was able to fall asleep after I realized everything was fine and the anchor was holding well. Tom was not able to go back to sleep until 4 am.

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. The wind was about 20-25 knots and it was such a pain getting the anchor up. I took the helm for most of the day. Tom was so exhausted and not feeling very well from lack of sleep.

The Neuse River had swirling white caps with 5-6 foot waves. It was a bumpy ride, but I was having a blast. When the bow would fly in the air and smack back down into the water from a wave I would shout “YEE HAW!!” I don’t think Tom was too amused, hahaha. It was a rush to be out in the elements with the sea water spraying. It felt like we were actually at sea. The Voyager II handled it like a champ. The Pamlico Sound was just as choppy. We averaged 4-5 knots in the sound.

Once we got back on the ICW the waters and winds calmed down significantly. We got our speed back to 7-8 knots. Tom was so exhausted today that we decided to stop at the Pungo River anchorage. We anchored at 3:30 and traveled 52 miles.

As I was cooking dinner a BIG yacht that was at least 100 feet pulled into our anchorage. It felt like she was towering over our boat. It was huge, Tom and I were amazed it was even on the ICW. I jumped on deck to get pictures.

I cooked chicken and rice soup and Tom made us corned beef sandwiches. We are relaxing and plotting our course tomorrow. Trying to figure out the weather and what’s going on with the thunderstorms before we cross the Albemarle Sound.