Juno 423: May 28- 30 McClellanville, SC to Cape Lookout, NC

With our depth sounder working once again and a very light breeze out of the southeast we left out of Five Fathoms Inlet to continue northward. Despite the name there are shallows at the mouth that can make this a very rough inlet in the wrong conditions, but today was not that. Our goal had been to bypass the ICW between Morehead City NC and Norfolk VA by sailing outside around Cape Hatteras, but the weather had other plans for us. So we headed towards Cape Lookout, just outside Morehead City. Cape Lookout came highly recommended so we were looking forward to the visit.

Our 180 mile ocean crossing was a combination of sailing and motoring as the winds were very light and it took about 30 hours. During one night watch shift on a moonless night, a really bright meteor about 20 degrees above the horizon came whooshing by that was pretty cool to see. Distant lightning flashes off to the east at a distance that were not of concern, also added some interest to the night sky. With plenty of free time to kill while on autopilot, we discovered through reading that Memorial Day weekend is about the busiest, most crowded time at Cape Lookout. As we approached on Sunday afternoon, the earlier information was confirmed seeing the large number of boats and people along this national seashore. We had a pleasant surprise that there was still plenty of space to anchor. Even better, by sunset, the beach cleared out of the day trippers, leaving the 15 boats on anchor for the night to enjoy the solitude.

Memorial Day Monday, we dinghied ashore to investigate the lighthouse that had an interesting diamond pattern painted over its entire height. We didn’t get very far before we met fellow cruisers Chris and Mandy from s/v Bedouin who were also moving north after a winter in the Bahamas. Deciding that we had much more to discuss, we invited them to join us later for a drink aboard Juno. The lighthouse was closed but lighthouse enthusiasts and temporary keepers/docents, Jack and Toby from PA, were happy to share their knowledge about how past storms have reshaped the landscape. The also told us the black diamond pattern indicated the north-south facing side, and the white faced east/west. This enabled mariners to better determine their position during daylight. We crossed the dunes to the eastern most shore where the many miles of the sandy outer banks extend northwards. There we enjoyed a swim in the warm, although less clear waters, and a picnic. We really enjoyed Cape Lookout and were glad to have made this stop.

Watching the weather with the first tropical storm of the season (Agatha) threatening to impact the central east coast up to Cape May, NJ, we decided to head up the ICW to Norfolk, VA and likely up the Chesapeake, down the Delaware to Cape May rather than to go around the outside as the latter route route would involve a lot of motoring given the light wind forecasts and we didn’t want to be anchored in Cape May in case the tropical storm hit. However, our new friends Chris and Mandy (s/v Bedouin) were planning on taking the outside route to the Chesapeake so their progress would give us something to track in the coming days.