Halfway

After leaving Beaufort Sunday morning at 7:30 am, we are now at the approximate halfway point in our passage. The worst part so far was the heavy seas coming out of Beaufort, causing me to be seasick for several hours. First time that has happened in quite a while. We had enough wind for sailing the first 12 hours but have had the engine on every since while motoring and motor-sailing. We are hoping the wind picks up enough tomorrow to allow us to sail, although we believe we have enough fuel to motor all of the way if need be. We have raised and lowered the furling mainsail in heavy seas and a few times in the dark and it seemed to go well. We so appreciated the furling system when we reefed the sail on Sunday and shook the reef out a few hours later. No fouled lines and George didn't have to go on deck!
We have seen very few ships so far and just one other sailboat—which left Beaufort ahead of us and looked to be heading toward Charleston. It is quite warm out here. We are both wearing shorts and short sleeves and have many of the enclosure panels open to allow some breeze. I saw a beautiful sunrise this morning and George saw a shooting star last night. No dolphin sightings yet, but we did have a bird tag along yesterday. Fortunately, this one did not seem interested in coming into the cabin!