Cape Lookout

I woke up from the waves and general noise the boat makes when it's being shaken. The wind had, as predicted, turned NE overnight and my spot at the bottom left that had been perfect was now exposed to the wind and waves. I decided to move to a better anchorage and tried to raise the anchor. That was a bit harder than expected because I didn't have my admiral with me to steer. When the wind is strong it's almost impossible to pull the anchor line in by hand, and I need the engine to push me toward it. Unfortunately, in strong wind the Caprice (like most boats) tends to 'sail at anchor' which means that she doesn't stay nicely in a straight line behind the anchor line. Rather, she moves to the right and forward until the line is almost at a 90 degree angle to the left, at which point she turns left, falls off and sails to the left until the line is 90 degrees to the right. Then she turns right and does the same thing in the opposite direction. This is pretty normal, in fact I read that even aircraft carriers do that in storms...
However, this means that I have to steer her forcefully exactly towards the anchor, and this requires fast and hard rudder movement. The problem is that I have to also be in front and pull the anchor line and bring the anchor up. One possible solution is to have crew (the autopilot is not nearly fast enough). Another is to lead the anchor line all the way back to the cockpit and steer and pull at the same time, which is as hard as it sounds. Last solution is to wait a bit for a lull in the wind, and that is what I did.
When the wind slowed a bit I put the engine in forward, steered towards the anchor and quickly ran forward and pulled the anchor up. While I did this the Caprice turned sharp left and almost ran onto the beach - I had anchored really close and the opposite wind had put me even closer to the beach - maybe 20 meters from shallow ground. I got back in time and steered across the bight.



Another sailboat had arrived overnight and was anchored close to the northern end but was still being shaken by the waves at his place. I followed the chart plotter carefully to get into a pool close to Shackleford Banks. I was suspicious of the map as the satellite photo showed this pool being impossible to reach. It was close to high tide and I carefully moved toward the spot, and promptly ran aground. I'm kind of getting used to this by now but it's a bad habit, and on a falling tide can be rather a problem. I was able to turn and run away from there and then moved closer to the beach at another spot that looked good on the satellite map. Notice that the map and the satellite are mismatched in this area. I wonder how old the map data is.



I finally had a nice big breakfast and relaxed a little before inflating the dinghy and rowing ashore.
There's a herd of wild horses here, and I finally got to see them - in fact I spotted probably a total of ten horses today.


I was able to get really close to one of the juveniles. They seem to be pretty fearless (or ignorant)


When the population grows too large the locals come over and make them into dog food.
Just kidding, they claim they make them into work horses. How to prove one way or the other?

I then walked along the beach for a few miles and found a few pretty shells. I wish my admiral was here - she'd like this place I'm sure.