Captain Sharon!
Always helpful! Sharon and Buddy helping with the lines....
At the dock - River Dunes....we had a wonderful lunch (as usual!)
On the sail back to Oriental.....Aren't they sweet??
Nice, calm sail.....
Coming back into the marina after the nice sail back.
The next morning, woke up to this scene in the marina....I don't think I've ever seen it so still....the image is so mirror-like that it looks like a boat is sitting on top of another boat!
And "Now for something completely different" ....our friends, Tom and Janet, brought their nice power boat down to stay at the marina with us!
We took this opportunity to cruise at a "much higher rate of speed"!!!
Here we are motoring out of the marina, Capt'n Tom at the wheel.....Glory Days in the background.
Off to Ocracoke for a day-trip. In the sailboat, it takes about 7 hours to reach Ocracoke....so it's never a day-trip!! It took less than 2 hours in the power boat - a nice change!
The sound was fairly calm - Sharon spent a good part of the trip enjoying the breeze on the bow.
This is certainly a different view aft - our sailboat leaves almost no wake!
The mighty crew!
First Mate Janet!
We always see a ferry on the trip to Ocracoke.....this trip was no different!!
The smoke from the coastal fires are very evident - normally, we could easily make out Ocracoke from this point. You can faintly see the water tower in this photo.
Closer in you can see the smokiness - it's about 2pm in this photo.
At the dock in Ocracoke...
We rented bikes for a few hours just to explore.
Captn Tom - peeking thru the door at the Ocracoke Lighthouse.....I guess that makes him "Peeping Tom"....sorry, I just had to say that!!
Back to Oriental for the evening. They close the Highway 55 bridge off for the fireworks viewing. So, we all put on ample bug-spray and headed for the bridge (it's about 500 yds from the marina). Very nice fireworks display!
Another leisurely morning - and then we hopped back on Tom and Janet's boat for a trip down to Beaufort. Again, very smokey - this time down the Intercoastal Waterway.
Approaching Beaufort - the bridge opened - but we didn't need it this time (since we had no mast to worry with!!)
We lucked out with a nice little along-side tie at Beaufort Docks on the busy 4th of July weekend.
A nice group!! Bill and Kay have a second home nearby and came to visit with us at Clawsons Restaurant.
Bill and Kay giving us a send-off at the Beaufort Docks.
Just a short little hop over into the Beaufort Inlet - but it was time to go back to Oriental.....we'll have to go to Cape Lookout some other day!! Capt'n Tom took us safely back to Oriental.....What a nice little vacation!
