Rogue ICW Day 17

Hello from north of Oriental N.C. We got an early start today, around 7:15.  We left Spooners Creek, a nice little anchorage.  It was calm all night even though it was windy overnight.  It seems that there has been wind almost every day so far.  Well, today was no different.  We checked several sources last evening and all were calling for the wind to build all day, with winds out of the southeast at 25kts. gusting to 30kts.  Small craft warning had also been issued.  When you get into big water it can make things difficult.  As a result, we decided to make today a short day and let the afternoon winds blow their little heart out while we sit in a protected marina.  Besides, there was laundry to take care of, and a pumpout was needed as well so this seemed like a good opportunity.
We motored past Morehead City docks and made a left, heading toward Davis Creek.  When we were going through the cut leading into the Neuse River, the wind was at our backs and the water was calm.  So what had been a windy chilly morning ride turned quite nice and peaceful.  The sun even decided to come out and warm things up. That part of the ride was quite enjoyable. Once we exited Davis Creek, we entered the Neuse River.  The Neuse River is as wide as the Chesapeake Bay in spots.  It is quite a large body of water. As we made our way up the Neuse River, the wind and the seas were both either dead astern or aft quartering.  This made for a difficult ride.  Not overly rough, just difficult to maintain any sort of consistent heading.  The pressure to the stern of the boat is always swinging the stern one way or the other as the wave troughs overtake the boat.  When they swing your stern, sometime you get caught in the trough and the boat starts to surf and follow the trough.  So you are always trying to steer your way out of the trough, then, because of the over-steering situation, you swing the other way and have to correct that.  You are always turning the wheel left, then right, then left again over and over and over. It just makes for a difficult run.  We motored past Oriental for another ten miles or so and pulled into this protected marina.  As I write this I can hear the dock lines groaning while the wind pushes the boat around in the slip.
Tomorrow we set out again, this time toward an anchorage we have picked out about 75 miles away.

Statistics for today- 42 miles traveled,  4hrs, 54mins. travel time, 20mins. stopped, 5hrs. 24 mins. total time.
Total distance traveled- 1,114 miles.

A couple of pictures

 This is chimney Island just outside Morehead City.  I wonder what they did there that needed a chimney?

 Notice the flags in these pictures standing straight out.  The wind was pretty strong.

U:ntil then.....