On Our Way...Finally

We finally had a weather window long enough to enable us to get all the way to the Chesapeake Bay, we hope. We took advantage of the calmer winds and left Brunswick a few hours before dawn yesterday morning. We motored almost due East to catch the Gulf Stream which we found at about 8:30 last evening. I could tell because our boat speed picked up noticeably. Our plan is to stay in the Gulf Stream until we come near to Cape Hatteras, then head north and into the bay. We expect the trip to take three days, eight hours.
Although the winds were rather calm yesterday we were going into wind chop that was leftover from the recent NE winds. All day yesterday and through the night the boat would climb the sharp, steep waves and then slam down the other side several times a minute. Neither one of us got much sleep. The wind has since shifted more to the south so the seas have calmed down, fortunately. While we were slamming through the waves we each independently questioned wisdom of our decision to leave Brunswick. Right now we are in the Gulf Stream motorsailing at 9 knots in light wind. If the weather doesn't hold we can bail out and go to Cape Lookout before reaching Hatteras. Since we have been doing quite a bit of motoring George transferred 10 gallons of diesel into the tank. It wasn't too difficult since the seas are calmer. I did the heavy lifting since George still has a few days to go before it is okay for him to start lifting heavy objects. He is feeling good right now and doesn't want to mess that up.
We saw a few dolphins yesterday but they didn't stop to play. George has his eyes out for whales. We have heard several Coast Guard broadcasts warning mariners to look out for the whales and stay away from them. No luck so far but there is still time.