There was a brief lull in the wind this morning right as the sun came up, so we upped anchor and slid down past South Port and out onto the Cape Fear river in an attempt to get up to Snow's Cut before the wind went back up to thirty knots on the nose. We mostly made it ok, except for the starboard engine over heating and shutting down.

I traced the problem to a clogged water discharge port and once I cleaned it out the engine ran fine for the remainder of the day. We made it through the cut and up to Wrightsville Beach around 11 am and decided to stop for the day. We both like it here at Wrightsville so stopping after only a half days travel gave us time to go ashore and see the sights.

Once the boat was settled we dinghied in to the grocery store and to drop off trash. After a couple of small things at the store, we went to Gary Allens Sports Bar and I had the best chicken wings (medium spicy) that I have had since we left last year. They were huge and meaty and medium spicy.

We hung out for most of the afternoon, vegging out in front of a tv watching nothing in particular. We made friends with a couple of young soldiers who were hanging out at the beach for the week. They were interesting to talk to and we swapped stories for an hour or two.

Eventually we pried ourselves away and returned to the dinghy and then the big boat. We stowed the dinghy and put away the supplies we bought and then I made meat balls for dinner. Somehow my calculations were slightly off and we ended up with 38, golf ball sized meat balls in total. We only managed to eat 12 for dinner. Hmmmm.

Amy read a book in the evening and I played online. To bed by 8 pm.