Faced with waiting over the weekend of April 17 for further troubleshooting of our autopilot, we seized the opportunity to enjoy an extended stay in lovely, historic Charleston, which at this time of the year was full of spring blossoms. We were able to return once again to the Saturday Farmer's Market in town and spend some more time with Paul and Linda. Dave had been in touch with long-time friend Larry and learned his daughter, Caitlin, was still attending the College of Charleston. We called Caitlin and arranged a pleasant visit with her at the Farmer’s Market.

Having seen the Blue Angels practicing from our vantage point on the boat, we decided to walk to the shore side viewing area for the Saturday performance and met Paul and Linda there . It was quite crowded, but fun. Afterwards, we walked through town with Paul and Linda, looking for a place for a casual late lunch and drinks. After passing up a couple spots we came upon the local Harris Teeter and decided to see if any pre-made sandwiches looked good at the Deli Counter. We knew HT could meet Donna’s desperate need for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s on sale that week (Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch!). Drinks could come later. Paul disappeared inside the HT ahead of the rest of us, and then re-appeared to tell us of the "snack table" he found vacant near the produce section. Linda and Dave settled at the table, Donna bolted for the ice cream section, and Paul disappeared again in the direction of the Deli Counter.

With Linda securing the single table, Dave ventured off towards the Deli – only to find Paul was detoured talking to the nice free-sample lady hawking small slices of toaster-oven-heated California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas. By the time Dave got there, resourceful Paul had already persuaded Mary, the sample lady, to cook a couple whole pizzas for us if we would get them from the frozen pizza cabinet and purchase them from the store . She gave Paul a couple of coupons worth $1 off each pizza. Being frugal “yachties”, this was too good to pass up. Dave and Paul selected the whole frozen pizzas, met up with Donna returning with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, and together added bottled water for all of us, quickly being served at the express cashier line. Paul got Mary started on the pizzas and Donna pulled out her always-with-her stash of plastic utensils. She and Linda found some napkins at the HT coffee stand and then promptly started spooning the ice cream while the pizzas were cooking. The smell of the cooking pizza attracted other shoppers eager for a sample, but Paul stood by Mary at the toaster oven explaining that the next couple of pizzas were already spoken for. He had a good natured way of explaining it that eased the serious disappointment on some children’s faces – promising that Mary would be turning out more soon. After 10 minutes for each pizza, Paul slipped Mary a $5 bill and a hug for her trouble. She was a good sport and a real hoot . We truly enjoyed the crispy pizzas at the very convenient snack table. It was late afternoon by this time; content, we left the store and headed our separate ways—Paul and Linda would return to their Bed & Breakfast and we returned to Pas de Deux.

On Sunday, we watched the Blue Angels performance from the boat at anchorage and eagerly awaited the continuation of autopilot troubleshooting the next morning. The electronics technician called early Monday morning. He reported both control heads bench tested fine and he wanted to do some more troubleshooting on board. After reconnecting the control heads and the technician’s rudder reference transducer from his shop, the autopilot appeared to be fixed. Reinstalling our rudder reference transducer resulted in the same. This was both good and bad – the autopilot seemed to be working now, but the only thing “fixed” was, literally, taking it apart and putting it back together. The final conclusion was that a connection to one of the control heads may have been faulty or corroded and remaking the connection corrected the problem . This left Dave with the uneasy feeling that nothing may have been fixed and the problem may be destined to crop up again.

On Wednesday, April 21 the weather was right for departing Charleston and to begin challenging the three treacherous capes of North Carolina – Cape Fear, Cape Lookout, and Cape Hatteras. Our original intent for the 21st was to round Cape Fear and head for Wrightsville Beach, NC near where Dave had lived in the early 90’s in Wilmington, and where he was familiar with the Masonboro Inlet to gain entry to the Wrightsville Beach area harbor. But the NW wind forecast was very good for continuing further to Beaufort, NC (another 60 miles up the coast from Wrightsville Beach) after rounding Cape Fear. This would be better than sailing 25 miles directly upwind to Wrightsville Beach after rounding the Cape. It was pretty much a slow downwind run to Cape Fear and we uneventfully rounded it before dawn on the 22nd. Turning the corner around the Cape gave us a better wind angle and we continued to our alternate destination of Beaufort as planned with quite a bit more speed.

We think our improved speed may have been the reason the fishing got good. Within a couple of hours after daybreak we started catching Little Tunnys (aka False Albacore). Dave was half way through cleaning the first one when two more were caught in quick succession. He managed to get these three cleaned before being “interrupted” again. Seeing the big pile of fillets from the first three fish all ready for the freezer, Dave threw the next two fish back. He needed a rest. We arrived at Beaufort, NC and anchored in Taylor Creek by 6:00 pm on April 22.