A cool night of rain and lightning storm made it finally possible to turn off the air conditioner, what a relief! We dined at a dockside restaurant, quite nice.

We pulled away around 9am & headed north. The waterway is lined with a mix of beautiful grand mansions with huge lawns sloping down to the water's edge,usually with a few Adirondak chairs, to nice smaller homes with docks & an assortment of water toys, to trailers. Lots of pelicans, and what I think are kitty hawks, nesting atop channel markers, dot the shores, and we've even seen a couple of dolphins.

Part of today's ICW went through Camp Lejuene -- the book says not to drop an anchor because of possible unexploded ordinance.

Tonight we've stopped at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro, NC -- quite a bit simpler than last night's dock, but just fine.

HOTTER THAN BLAZES!!!

It's well over 100 here in North Carolina -- nothing like the cool Pacific coast. The work on the Skeeter was not completed until this morning, but that left us time to visit & sight-see with Lynn's cousins, David & Linda Cox, who were kind enough to drive out from Harrisburg, near Concord. Downtown Historic Wilmington is lovely, with lots of Civil War era buildings well-preserved, & cobblestone streets.

We pulled out of the Marina by 12:30 & headed back to the Intracoastal Waterway. Lots of pelicans leading the way. At one point the water was only 4' deep, setting off alarms, but we passed safely towards Carolina beach & my cousins waving us on from a jetty.

Out of the wind, temperatures soared, making the beautiful scenery hard to appreciate ... All we could think of was that the stately waterfront homes all probably had AIR COQNDITIONING!

We've parked for tonight at Wrightsville Beach Marina -- pricey, but the AC & WiFi are running! David, Linda & Tom are meeting us for dinner tonight. The salon has cooled down about 20 glorious degrees, & we're contemplating a dip in the marina's pool!http://wrightsvillebeachmarina.com/