We kept sailing all night, it was a straight downwind course with building following seas. We kept the boat pointed 30-40 degrees off the wind to avoid slapping sails when the waves tried to turn the boat. To keep course we jibed about every 2 hours. We made great progress towards Beaufort, NC. We knew we will reach an area with high moisture and unstable air. We first saw distant lightning, when, like out of the blue, towering clouds started building around us and made the moon and stars disappear. Not much later we were caught in squalls. We know the drill, reduce sail so much that 40 to 50 knots of wind don't do any damage. We also put some backup electronics in the oven for added lightning protection. The oven should work like a Faraday Cage. Driving rain at 35 knots of wind actually hurts a bit in the face. We never really saw extreme winds, but the rains were torrential. It made an oncoming freighter totally disappear from sight as well as radar. Interesting, at best.
Closer to Beaufort, the normal winds died, we only had the gusts from occasional squalls and decided to motor the last two hours into the inlet
When we passed Beaufort last year on our way South, we also had miserable weather and kept going. Similar situation now on our way North, it kept raining and we gave Beaufort a pass and headed for the ICW for another 20 miles. We anchored in Cedar Creek, off Adams Creek, we knew this protected but shallow anchorage from our way South.
It didn't make sense to make two people, two sets of gear all wet. So Dirk got the soaking today. We had a great dinner, including pan fried Mackerel.
