Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort

Had a wonderful sail up the coast yesterday in perfect weather with blue skies and three foot swells.

I used  these 3 sails all day, the yankee, staysail and main without any reefs. I could have used a  full sized genoa instead of the yankee, but it is such a hassle to switch, and I didn't want to be caught out if the wind piped up. As it was, I kept up a good 5 knots most of the day anyway except for a period  around noon when the wind died. You can see where the wind died on the map with my journey below.

The blue line is my track. On the way I ran into this off of Camp Lejeune.

Number 7 had a great big barn door out its stern that allowed these enormous hovercraft type boats to move in and out of.

All day I could hear (and feel!) these huge explosions despite the fact that I was several miles offshore. What I would like to know is what is all this stuff on these  boats for.

All day my monitor wind vane steered the boat flawlessly and I only used the engine to leave Wrightsville and enter Beaufort.

This allowed me to do other things besides steer the boat.
Sundown was glorious as I was entering Beaufort.