Carl the trip up from the The Carolina's would be magic! Looks like plenty places to tuck in for the night. Mostly i sail in Moreton Bay which is also very beautiful and surprisingly secluded given how close it is to Brisbane. Anchored on the western side of Moreton Island you always get amazing sunsets over the water - something a little different for us East Coasters.
My bucket list DS adventure is to sail Brisbane to Cairns up the inside of the Great Barrier Reef.
Solarwinds yes the main does at the moment run free and the only way to bring it to the middle (or close to the middle) is to pull down hard on the main sheet. Funny you mention that, and this is mainly why i recently found the DS forum. I was looking up how to rig one of these boats - found info here
https://www.daysailer.org/Rigging-Guide. I was a little concerned with windward performance so when i fix the problem you mention i hope it is better... Another thing i have been struggling with and which has also prevented good windward performance (i think) is the position of the blocks where the jib sheets are cleated to the deck. they appear to be too far out to the side and on other DS's that i have seen in this forum have the block positioned in further on the seat back. Rather than moving the current jib blocks i am going to try a technique i discovered on the rigging guide using "barber in-hauler". I hope this will help improve the windward performance. You can see the current jib sheet blocks are close to the outside edge of the boat in the pic...
I have included a pick of the plywood bunks i have made for your interest. There are three boards that i use for comfortable sleeping. Two go either side of the centreboard housing and one straddles the gap across the seats aft of the centreboard housing. They are held in place by small timber lugs glued just below top of the seat to make the board and seat flush. I actually made a fourth to cover the cap even further back but have found that it is not needed. I use a swag (canvas bivvy bag) that has mosquito protection if needed which it generally is where i live in the sub-tropics.