We awoke at Morehead City Yacht Basin to clearing skies and light winds. This was a contrast to the 30 kts of wind with 46 knot gusts that blew through last night. The only wind damage was to some of the stitching on the Bimini. Since we were out of cereal and we didn’t play on moving we made pancakes for breakfast and enjoyed a leisurely start to the day. Noah woke up in a super polite mode and was ready to do his final review day for school.

Morehead City Yacht Basin
Free internet at the marina let us look at weather radar. By the time we were done with pancakes it looked like there was very little rain left in the area. The weather forecast called for south winds today, changing to west tomorrow. West would be on the nose all the way up the Neuse river. As we’ve learned, cruiser’s plans are made in jello, so with light southerly winds we decided to head for New Bern and NW Creek.
Underway at 0950 the sky looked good and we came out of the channel into the ICW just north of the 70 bridge connecting Morehead City and Beaufort. Out in the sound the wind picked up to 15 and pushed us in the right direction at 7 kts. As we approached Adams Creek, the sky had changed to dark grey and we were soon wearing rain gear and watching the radar to find markers. It poured for about 45 minutes, but we didn’t mind as we were catching a good tidal flow up Adams creek where our speed over the ground maxed at 8.8 kts.
Passing one of our favorite weekend anchorages at Cedar Creek we saw zero boats on a Sunday in June. I guess other folks pay more attention to the weather forecast than we do. Popping out into the Neuse river we could see Oriental across the way. This was a sure sign we were back in home waters. The Neuse, as always, provided a little surprise for us as the winds picked up to the mid-twenties with gusts to 35. This coupled with off and on rain showers didn’t keep Oriental in view for long. We zoomed, well as much as a ten ton fat cruising boat can zoom, down the Neuse and were approaching NW Creek just before 1500.
Approaching New Bern and calling NW Creek on the radio, Bud’s familiar voice welcomed us home. With the strong wind we considered anchoring in the creek, but once inside the channel there was enough protection that we took Intuition into the marina. Bud and Jesse helped us find our new slip and had us secured to the dock at 1500.

Back at NW Creek Marina in New Bern, NC
It is hard to believe that the voyage is over. In retrospect, the year flew by. Now it is time to work on the transition back to being “dirt dwellers”. Noah won’t have much of a problem, he already made a new friend on the dock last night and they were playing magnetics until after cruiser’s midnight.