Let Freedom Ring

Happy 4th of July!

We left Oriental this morning and beat into the wind down the ICW to Beaufort, North Carolina (pronounced bow-fort) as opposed to Beaufort, South Carolina (pronounced bew-fort).  People around here take that distinction seriously.

This is another neat little harbor town.  We arrived at lunch time and were anxious to find some barbecue.  It is the 4th of July, and it's a long standing tradition in this family to have barbecue on the 4th.  If we weren't sailing, we'd be in Atlanta at the C family reunion enjoying Uncle Mike's barbecue (which is the best on the planet).  We skyped with that side of the family yesterday and they taunted us with all the delicious food.  It definitely made us miss . . . . . the food.  When Ryan checked us in here at the Dockmaster's office he was delighted to discover they had a loaner car we could use.  We got directions to the nearest barbecue joint, loaded up the carseat and the kids, and made our way to the restaurant.  We could only keep the car for an hour so we had to hurry.  We found the place and it closed.  On the 4th of July!!!  How UN-American is that?  Ryan declared them communists.  The kids were disappointed, but perked up when their consolation was McDonald's.  The adults' consolation was the dockside restaurant which was simply okay. We still haven't had any barbecue.  Sigh.

The kids today found a tree and were itching to climb it.  So they did.

Someone asked me the other day if they were twins.  Um, they are four years apart.  Maybe I should stop dressing them alike.

But they seem to enjoy it so . . .

Plus it's really easy to spot them in a crowd.

And Evan wants to do everything his big brother does, so I'm just grateful Zachary doesn't seem to mind.

Our original plan was to wait out a weather window here and jump offshore to make it to Charleston in 2 days.  The wind is blowing hard out of the South, and forecasted to keep doing so for the next 4-5 days,  so that makes our original plan not possible.  We are leaving early tomorrow to log some miles south on the ICW.  We are aiming for Surf City tomorrow, but that's a long day of about 60 miles.   If we make that we'll try for Cape Fear the next day, another long day.  Wasn't Cape Fear some scary movie?  I'm not so sure I like this plan, but I suppose anything is better than facing the huge waves in the Atlantic as a result of these Southerly winds.