Pittsboro, NC

 Just in case anyone is wondering, we are at home in Pittsboro for a little while.  I'm covering at the Asheboro Airport for the holiday weekend!  

Not a lot happening - a bit hot and muggy for comfortable flying!

Oriental, NC

 We took What If back down to River Dunes for a diesel fuel fill-up after calling to make sure their fuel delivery had occurred as expected.

 

Then we played a bit of shuffle-boats as we moved What If into the slip for the summer and Charm to the outer pilings.

 With What If more easily accessible, Duane and Dean took out the "new" oven.  The new oven has "gimble" hardware (so that it can be used on a mono-hull boat - the whole oven tilts/pivots with the heeling boat).  But our existing setup on the catamaran doesn't require this installation method.  So we have to switch out the exterior case to make it fit our existing whole in the galley.  The ovens are almost identical except for this exterior housing.

 

Our old oven out of the boat.

 

It took several hours for Duane to remove/replace the housing - and for me to clean each piece as these ovens have been used quite a bit and badly needed a deep cleaning!

 

The middle of the process.  Always messy!

 

But the result is a nice shiny functional oven.  (There is a bit of adjustment Duane needs to make on the oven burner but that can wait another day!)

 Used the new stovetop to make a curry that we shared with Kris and Dean.  Then we watched a Spider Man movie ending a busy day!

Jacksonville, Fl - Offshore - Southport, NC - Beaufort, NC - Oriental, NC

This is a long post with lots of photos - Saturday thru Wednesday for the trip.

It's a long slog down the river from Jacksonville to the ocean. But it was enjoyable.  About 6 hours to the inlet.  Approaching downtown.

 

The only bridge we had to request opening - main street in Jacksonville.

 

Lots of neat large vessels along the way.

 

Cool artwork on what I assume are grain elevators or something like that.

Cathy told us to use any food on board - so Kris kept us fed nicely!  Some of the best choc chip cookies I've had.  (And I've sampled alot of chocolate chip cookies...)

 

As we were getting close to the inlet the cruise ship we passed earlier was bearing down on us.  They gave a nice "2 horn blast" to indicate they'd be passing us on our port side.

 

Lots of passengers were on the decks and seemed to enjoy waving at us.

 

There weren't any photos of the next day or so.  A pretty large thunderstorm caught us as we departed offshore and the seas were not kind.  Nothing much happening except constant motion of the boat - off and on good winds but the seas remained confused and uncomfortable.   The forecast was not very accurate - Cathy kept us updated using the InReach but there was little we could do but press on.

The next day things lightened up a bit.

 

 

We saw a few freighters.

 

Approaching Southport a colorful dredge boat.

Kris and Dean relaxing - they really are happy people, I promise!

Dean whipped up some fabulous pizzas as usual.

 

And before we knew it, approaching Southport.  With Cathy's help concerning weather, we decided to come inland to avoid some unfavorable wind/waves.

 

Huge cargo ship going into Wilmington.

We anchored at Wrightsville Beach near the Mansboro inlet for an early departure the next morning.

On the 12 hours heading towards Beaufort offshore again we were treated to some US Coast Guard activity.  

The search plane was doing a grid pattern - not sure if it was an actual search or training, but they overflew us numerous times.

We made it almost back to Oriental with the main sail up traveling Adams Creek at 8+ knots but decided to anchor off the creek and sail the final couple of hours the next day.

Uneventful back to the dock - Kris at the helm to drop off Dean on our dock.

 

Dean crawled out on the bow of What If to jump off on the dock - he needed to move Charm up in the slip at bit before we docked What If.

 

Kris did a great job easing up to the dock so that Dean could jump off.

Everything all settled for the day.  We'll take What If over to River Dunes tomorrow and fill up with fuel and put her in the slip for the summer.  

The three Mantas look cozy together.  It was a fun 4 days - and neat to have spent it with Kris and Dean, great folks.  Hope to see Cathy and Ed at the dock sometime in late June.

Jacksonville, Fl to offshore

Peaceful night on board What If.  We were a bit tuckered from the trip. 

In the morning the guys got our “new to us” oven out of Ed and Cathy’s Storage trailer, and safely on the boat.

Then everyone got busy with some last minute readiness tasks on the boat and to the commissary for some fresh food.  Dean helping with the watermaker. 

 

 

Soon time to throw off the docklines - Ed and Kris.

 

The delivery crew before cast off.  (Photo credits to Cathy)

 

And then we were off for 3-4 days.  More later.

 

 

 

And before long it was time for Cathy to wave bye

Jacksonville

 In case you didn’t get my email you can follow along on the satellite tracker as we deliverWhat If From Jacksonville to Oriental over the next three days or so. https://share.garmin.com/whatif?fbclid=IwAR300CEWS-75irMCPKJEY8DjzympQ4kBkTco1K8T151rfWRkZhjIS-OAiok

Jacksonville, FL

 The Charm and Sojourn crews made the decision last night to begin our journey to bring What If back to Oriental.  A good weather window is early this week for an easy offshore sail.  So we were packed and ready to drive Ed & Cathy's car to Jacksonville at sunrise.

 

 

We took turns driving - always fun to see the cheerful South of the Border signs at the SC line.  We, as usual, did not stop.

 

In Florida!

 

After a detour to do some unsatisfactory shopping at Sailor's Exchange in St. Augustine, we went over to Ortega Landing to visit with Ralph & Leslie on Now & Zen.  Great to visit.

 

Ed and Cathy joined us and brought fixin's for a BBQ, so off to the clubhouse we all went.

 Ed looking great after his surgery - although a few pounds lighter!

 

Dean relaxing at the pretty marina.

Ralph tending the BBQ.

 

And a happy Cathy!

The final excitement for the day was to go back to Jax Naval Air Station to board What If for the night......and a little more excitement when we figured out that Dean had left his wallet in Oriental.  This is a problem because we had to clear into the Naval base.....he had no ID whatsoever.   Somehow, Ed convinced the armed guard to allow Dean on base.  Amazing!!!

Tomorrow we'll prep the boat for the passage north!  Fun but long day!