At last, a real run .

Another excellent evening last night. Late afternoon, Tom Zalewski, whom
I had met in March on my way up North, came to pick me up on a boat
borrowed by a North Carolina House representative no less ! He then took
me home where Barbara was waiting for us with dinner and a couple of
bottles of wine.
I must say that my natural modesty (uh, uh ? ? /) took a beating all
night long as they wanted very much to talk about the book that R.K.
Ready (Condemned to be free) had written based on my recollection of a
significant slice of my life. Although I kept telling them that this
book was a fiction, even if the story took from my souvenirs, I could
not convince them. This being said, it was an excellent evening, in very
good company. I would easily see Tom as being part of our brotherhood.
Then around 11:00 p.m., back to the boat for a quick night and up again
at 5:00, anchor aweigh at 6:00, with little to say about the stretch
from Wrightsville Beach to Southport, where I arrived at 9:40 to top up
my fuel tank. Out again at 10:00, the exit via the Cape Fear river was
as always not a quiet one.
Anyway, I was out in the open around 10:40 and by 11:30, I was underway
with full mainsail, genoa and the monitor to steer the boat. It does not
get any better than that. I hope the wind will keep up (it is already
showing signs of dying out) so that I can get to my anchorage before
night time. With 140 miles to go, things can change quite a bit, so no
forecast of the ETA yet.