We woke up to a “sky on fire” scene. The weather forecast continues to be promising for several more days, but the clouds obstructing the sunrise gave us this look. What a glorious site.
Our 42 mile northward trek today carried us to Southport, North Carolina. A quaint fishing town of approximately 3,000 people had the feel of small town USA. We had contacted Robert and Kay, who are harbor host for The Great Loop in this area. That turned out to be a home run for us. He told us about a free dockage, directly in front of The Provision restaurant. He met us at the dock to point us in the right direction into the slip, and had us over a visit on his front porch overlooking the basin.
He told us that each evening at 6 pm a local does a weather/navigating class for Northbound cruisers. That 1 1/2 hour session provided us with so much detail and peace of mind about our next leg of the journey. Such a valuable resource we stumbled upon. As a bonus, we met 2 other cruising couples who are also doing The Loop. Ate dinner with them and then walked 50 feet back to the boat.