Frying Pan Shoals

At Sea
33 23.90 N 077 37.83 W

Frying Pan Shoals are the most treacherous place on the whole East Coast according to us. We fear and respect it greatly. Right now we are just about 5 miles to seaward away from the end of the shoals. That puts us 40 miles from shore and 20 miles further out than the closest in place where we could have crossed. Good.

Actually the wind direction carried us out here. After posting this blog, we'll take the other tack and start heading in.

The weather was supposed to be rough today, but so far it is sunny and gentle; just like most of the voyage since we left The Bahamas.

Last night during Libby's watch, I heard her on the radio calling out to a nearby ship. "Do you see us?", she asked. The didn't answer, those bums. I went up on deck to help. When I got there, I was aghast. The ship Libby was talking to was 2 miles ahead of us, but there was a bigger ship less than one mile behind us. Libby didn't see it because she was focusing on the first ship. We were sandwiched between two giant ships. Neither would answer our calls, but luckily neither ran us over.

Last night the sky was perfectly clear and the moon was 100% full. It was brilliant and beautiful out here at sea. For about 20 minutes we had a pod of dolphins cavorting with us. Very cool. Radio propagation must have been exceptionally clear. We heard every coast guard emergency call at every station between here and Miami.

By Sunday morning we should make land fall in Beaufort, North Carolina.