January 12/08

Spooner's Creek

We travelled for 9 hours today and did 52 miles. We ended up anchoring at Spooner's Creek, south of Morehead City. Spooner's is reached by going through a narrow entrance. Then you are in a small bay surrounded by expensive homes, each with their own dock and big boat. I felt we had crashed a private party! On our way there we saw lots of what the book said were Surf Scoter ducks. They must have been in their winter feeding grounds. There were large flocks of them in the water, and you could get quite close with the boat before they flew off. We also saw our first dolphins of this trip, in the turning circle at Morehead City. There were quite a few of them. Two minor disasters for the day; old oil had dripped out of the locker where it was being stored and dripped into the bilge. Luckily we caught it in time to prevent it from getting out into the water. Also, our own water supply is still unavailable: the old water heater leaks water all over the place when we try to put the water on, so we can't use it even though we have it. We are making do with bottled water, which is fine.