In the afternoon, we drove down to the boat, stopping at the Duck Creek marina in New Bern on the way. We will go there in June for our standing rigging replacement and wanted to get a feel for how it was set up. A really nice working marina - too bad they don't have a travel-lift wide enough for our catamaran!
All is well with Sojourn and What If.....beautiful day! Mowing and chores tomorrow.
After a nice long weekend visit, we headed back to central NC....we took the long-and-twisty road thru Bat Cave to Old Fort.
Beautiful creeks beside the two lane road.
And lots of road-side gift shops and fruit stands.
Forgot to include my early b-day present from my sweet sis - we always trade the card on the right each year. And she made some replacement dish cloths and hand dry towels since I'm pretty rough on them! Love them!
We've been visiting with our Mom's in the mountains.....view at Duane's folk's house.
We joined my siblings at my mom's house for a little picnic - and Duane's mom was invited as well so we had a super Mother's Day for all!
Denise gave Granny a tour of her garden on the golf cart.
A group shot that my mom wanted to take - it recreates one that she took years ago (we'll have to find that photo and compare)
Super busy lately…,yesterday I got my “Real ID” at the DMV. My NC license was expiring next week…I did not have an appointment so I got to wait for 2 hours in the lobby.
We finished packing up all the "stuff" on the boat that needed to be taken to the house for cleaning/sorting. Drove up to the house - stopped at Burger King and got an Impossible Whopper - yum!!!!
When we stopped at the mailbox, Duane kept the window open and said - "do you hear that strange noise" - thinking it was coming from the engine. We drove on to the house and parked outside. When we got out of the vehicle - we immediately knew what it was.....
Cicadas!!! They apparently are on their 13 year "hatch" right now in NC.
Amazingly loud!!
We've just been busy cleaning the boat and getting ready to head back to Pittsboro to check in on our house....amazing how grimy the boat gets after 6 months of cruising. Wonderful to have unlimited fresh water at the dock!
In a statement to how windy it was this season....this is the second Bahamas courtesy flag of the season.
Perfect ending to a busy day - Ed and Cathy shared a bottle of wine and nice conversation.
The sister-ships together again....Sojourn and What If.
After helping us tie up, Ed and Cathy invited us over for a wonderful welcome back breakfast!
The remainder of the day was spent doing a lot of un-photogenic cleanup!
Another night of motorsailing in relatively calm conditions. When I "toured" the boat there was an unfortunate flying fish on the tramp....he had been there a while so he made some other fish happy...
Still making good time in the Gulf Stream - but time to point towards Beaufort. The water temp dropped several degrees and our speed slowed to the 6's instead of 9's.
We caught 3 bonita "tuna" - but I forgot to snap photos of them whole.
Coming in to Beaufort we were with a rising tide so we kept over a knot of favorable current. The normal sights at Beaufort inlet.
The fish offering cleaned and into the fridge....
And later vacuum packed....will ask Keith and Denise if they have a smoker??? I have a recipe in mind for these....
Up the intercoastal waterway....darkness approaching so we decided to anchor just off Jerry and Donna's dock and handle the tieup first thing in the morning.
Jerry and Donna's dock awaiting their return in a few weeks!
First thing in the morning - back to our dock with new neighbors Collen and Joe in the foreground.
What If awaiting her friend.
And Ed and Cathy were there to welcome us home!
The season is over....2790 nautical miles Nov - May....lots to do in the coming months!!
Time to go ashore and see the sights - we've anchored here but never gone ashore.
Looking back at Sojourn in the anchorage.
Beautiful views from the hilly little town.
Mostly nicely kept houses. They are still recovering from Hurricane Dorian but most of the repairs are complete.
Nice dockage and fuel available.
The Rosie's Place restaurant wasn't open so we'll have to sample it some other time.
Back to the boat for hopefully a pleasant 3-4 days/nights sailing towards home! Sunset at sea…
Uneventful night, we traded 4 hour shifts at the helm. A few tankers overnight but nothing close to us.
Pleasant day sailing about 40 miles. This time we did put up all the sails to keep us moving along. Originally we were going to stop at Great Sale Cay but Bluejacket said they were going to continue on to the most northern Bahamian cays. So we decided just to follow suit.
Anchored off of the small town - we'll decide what to do next. The plan was to jump off to Beaufort, NC right away but there are some pesky thunderstorms in the forecast now.....stay tuned.
