Practice, practice, and more practice, so that is what I did with my Nikon D7100 camera and on sailboat on Monday.
The last weekend in April and the first week of May is and was gorgeous. I started out taking pictures of the wild life in my backyard and moon rising in the evening.
On Sunday 29 April, the moon was full. We decided to drive down to Oriental to capture the moon rise over the Neuse River. It was a good call.
The weather was ideal for sailing on Monday, and rearrange a sail date with my friend Dave, who was in the Coast Guard also. We met down at the docks and decided to take my boat out. I checked the weather forecast again to make sure nothing changed. The forecast was the same, Northwest wind in the morning at 5 to 10 knots, becoming West in the afternoon at 10-15 knots. With both a Northwest and West wind, we can stay in the same tack heading out the sound on the Neuse River. At one point, when the wind was out of the West at 16 knots, we were keeling at 35 degree. I told Dave that if my wife was onboard, then we would have to level it off. While sailing on a beam reach back to Oriental with a 16 knot wind, we were making 7 knots. The nice thing about a West and Northwest wind, first there is plenty of water in the creek to motor out to the river. Second, there is very little fetch. Wave height is affected by wind speed, wind duration (or how long the wind blows). The fetch, which is the distance over water that the wind blows in a single direction. Therefore we had good wind and smooth water condition. The third thing nice about a Northwest wind, it is usually associated with cool temperatures and low humidity. You could not ask for better conditions for the Neuse River.
Dave ask if I want to stay for a beer. We leave the mooring at 11:00 AM and did not return until 17:15. We sailed to South River, because Dave never been there and wanted to check it out. We travel 22 knots and at one point reach a maximin speed of 7 knots. We saw a school of skates in the Neuse River and pods of dolphin in the South River. Because I was handling the lines, I did not get a chance to take any pictures. In morning, I woke up early to capture the moon setting and the sunset.
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