Oriental, NC

 Enjoying our holiday weekend on the boat.  Our ex-neighbor Rick gifted us his nice enclosed trailer!!!  He sold the house and now doesn't really have anywhere in Oriental to store the trailer.   They moved their boat to Pecan Grove Marina, but they can't store the trailer there. 

The condition of the gift is that he can store some spare parts, bins and an outboard motor in the trailer.  No problem!!  Now we have a dry place to store some of our equipment.  

The added plus is that when a hurricane threatens, we can just pull the trailer home or over to the other lot (which doesn't flood during hurricanes so far).

 

It's very nice inside with some built in shelves.  Most of the stuff in there right now is Rick's, haha.

 

I spent some time and a bunch of bleach sprucing it up.  A nice surprise and very useful for our vagabond life.

 

Oriental, NC

 Not a lot happening at the boat - just relaxing and enjoying the weekend.

The mimosa tree is in full bloom.

And the amaryllis bulbs are blooming here also.

 

Otherwise, just a warm breezy day!

Oriental, NC

 We had a surprise phone call from our previous boat (Glory Days) partner Robert.  He was crewing for his daughter & son-in-law's cruise from Maryland to Beaufort and their next stop was going to be Oriental.  Since they were still north of Oriental out on the Pamlico Sound, we invited them to come in to our dock instead of going into Oriental.

Beautiful boat - a Freedom 40 named Pelican.

 We had a fun visit, catching up with Robert - it's been several years since we'd seen him.  

Robert with Perry and Dan relaxing on Sojourn after a rough sail on the Pamlico.

 

And a little while later, Sharon joined us.

We all went to M&M's for dinner - such a fun surprise!!

Robert and Sharon drove on to Beaufort.  Perry and Dan stayed overnight next to Sojourn.   They gave us a tour of the lovely boat - beautiful teak interior.  

 

They left in the morning to sail down to Beaufort for a few weeks.  (The water level was really low, but they powered out of the slip like champs and had no problems departing)

 

Pelican on their way out Brown Creek - hope to see them again soon!

Oriental, NC

 First, let me back up and include a couple of photos I didn't post earlier. 

Diane had taken this photo of us on take-off the other day when we went to Ocracoke.  A cool view from their back porch that we don't often get, thanks Diane!

 

Somehow I forgot to post this photo - while we were packing up the lawn mowers at the house the other day - another black snake was slithering at our basement door.  This one is much smaller than the one that climbed the tree the other day.  I guess there's a snake family close by!

 

Back at Oriental - pretty sunrise across Brown Creek.

 

Duane did some troubleshooting on our aft a/c unit.  Unfortunately it wasn't something simple.  The circuit board was melted in a couple of places, so we have a new one on order.  The forward a/c unit is keeping the boat fairly cool by itself so it's not terrible.

 

And the big chore for the day was to attack the lot over near Pecan Grove.  We mowed it last October, so it was pretty overgrown.

 

I was weed-eating around the trees when I saw a flash of color - this turtle was not happy with all my noise! When I stopped the weed-eater, he scampered (slowly) away.

 

Amazingly, it only took about an hour and a half to get the lot in good shape.

We went to the Silo's for supper - and were sad to see that "Thirsty Thursday" ($1 draft beers) is no more.....

Pittsboro, NC to Oriental, NC

 Back at the house, my next batch of amaryllis are blooming.  Nice that the different colors bloom at different times so I can enjoy them for a bit longer. 

We mowed the grass and got everything loaded up for the trek to Oriental.

When we got to the boat, all was as we left it a few weeks ago....except it was sweltering hot!  This is the temperature of the freezer compartment!  (we had emptied it so no harm).

One of the a/c units is not working so we'll have to troubleshoot that.  We'll be in Oriental for a few days getting everything back in good shape on the lots.

Mills River/Hendersonville, NC then Pittsboro, NC

 We had a nice visit all day with Granny and Cordy - just chatting the afternoon away.  I forgot to snap any photos, but they're doing good and it was nice to see them after so long away.

Then my mom had a leaking dishwasher that needed replacement.  She had long-ago bought a new one and Keith used his tractor bucket to bring it down to the house from a storage trailer.

 

Duane made fairly quick work of the replacement - just a few hours and only one trip to the hardware store.  Leaking dishwasher coming out.

 

New dishwasher all finished.

 

Before long it was time to say goodbye - a fun visit.  Many thanks to my brother & S.I.L,  Keith and Denise for their wonderful hospitality.

And we stopped by again in Hendersonville to wish Granny a happy birthday.   A rather dreary drive home.

 And I scooted up to book club (an hour late) - as we re-start the club after many Covid-months where we did not meet.  We're all vaccinated now and will continue as normal now.

 

Mills River, NC

We took an early morning flight to get Duane's instrument currency back - lovely morning!

 

Here's our flight path for the morning.

 

 

And then we headed to the mountains for the first visit in FOREVER it seems!

We are staying with Keith and Denise - we got a nice tour of their garden.

 

 

And a fun walk to the river.

 

We brought a bunch of fish from the Bahamas and Mom had everyone over for a cookout.  Brother Eddie manning the grill.

 Lots of fish.

 

And a crazy amount of other food.

 

Really good seeing everyone.

 

And relaxing with a view.

Pittsboro, NC

 The new mower will be sitting outside down in Oriental, so we decided to make a cover for it.  Just used a tarp - Duane clamped it roughly into shape.  Doesn't need to fit exactly, just protect from the pine rosin and other elements.

 

Hard to see but we made several seams to make it more fitted.

 

Pretty pleased with the result - and zero out-of-pocket because we re-purposed a tarp we already had.

I've ordered a few clips from Amazon - we'll make a couple of webbing straps to clip it easily in place in a few days.

Ocracoke, NC

 3 airplanes departed one after the other from Eagles Landing bound for a "Hundred Dollar Hamburger" at Ocracoke.  (So-called because it costs quite a bit in aviation fuel to fly to the beach, haha)

 

Good to be back in the air with a purpose again!

 

South of Raleigh.

 

Over the phosphate mines near Aurora.

 

And out over the Pamlico Sound - you faintly see one of the 3 ferries in the sound.

 

Approaching Ocracoke Island.

A good view of Silver Lake where we sometimes dock or anchor.  (These aerial shots aren't anywhere near as fascinating now that everyone has drones to do the same thing....)

Coming up the coastline towards the airport.

The runway has been repaved/or remarked.  Very nice.

 

The three neighbors - John and Jean with their Cessna Cardinal

 

Dick and Lindy with their Mooney.

 

And of course, Duane and I with our Mooney.

 We hoofed it over to Howard's Pub. (They used to answer on the VHF radio and bring a golf cart down to the airport to pick you up, but apparently they no longer offer that cool service).

Howard's Pub is a long-time institution on Ocracoke - not our favorite place to eat - it was OK as usual.  Small helpings, crazy prices ($7.50 for a draft beer??  Of course no one drank any since we were flying, but still....)  Anyway, end of rant, you know what you're getting at Howard's.

The next photos will be more interesting to those who have been to Ocracoke over the years.  We've not been here for 2 years now - and a couple of hurricanes have really done a lot of damage to the island.

I knew the Jolly Roger was closed (temporarily, google says).  It's really sad - gutted.   You can see thru the windows all the way thru the building - nothing there.

 Ruined equipment piled all around.

And the newer covered eating area.

 

But Dajio is completely different too, in a better way, I guess.  We didn't go inside - but the old open bar with the ring toss is gone/replaced.  All that's familiar is the two little bathrooms.

 

This is the house where we often rented the old junky bicycles for cheap. 

 

Same house - there used to be a permanent "taco" stand under the big oak tree.

 

On to the dock area - just a few boats.  Not sure if the Hatteras "walk on ferry" is still operational, but the floating dock is still in place.

 

And we caught one of the free shuttles provided by the county back to the town limit.

 

A few more interesting places - the very popular Eduardo's taco truck is now pretty much permanently established across/down the road from the Variety store - with picnic tables and umbrellas.

 

They're apparently salvaging part of the old Ocracoke Island Inn - I guess it won't flood at that height!

 

 
And the building that used to house Ocracoke Oyster Company (before that Jimmy's Buffet) is just gone.  Gone!  A cart rental yard is there now.

 And sadly - our favorite 50 cent chicken wing/$2 tallboy Miller Highlife dive bar - Gaffer's - closed after Dorian, I believe.   It's now called Breeze - we'll have to check it out some other time.

 That's it for the trip - uneventful but bumpy flight home with me at the controls (so no more photos).