Oriental Boat Show!

This weekend was the annual Oriental Boat Show, held at Pecan Grove Marina, home of Glory Days. We had promised to fly over the marina and take some photos for the sponsor (The Oriental Rotary Club). But, the plane was in for it's annual maintenance for the past few weeks....and we just got to fly it away at about 4pm on Friday. This is a problem because the show ends every day at 5pm and Saturday was not an option because of the horrible weather forecast! So, we decided to fly over and make the best of it - it was about 6pm by the time we flew over. The sun wasn't at a great angle, but it's better than nothing!


Always nice to see the pretty town of Oriental! We actually don't fly out here too much - we usually land 25 miles short of here in New Bern where we park our car.


When we did make it to the boat show (Saturday morning) they had these cute "special badges" for us. I had been doing all the communicating with the organizer...so I was deemed the "Official Boat Show Photographer".....Duane is a mere assistant (even though he was flying the plane!)


The horrible weather was already headed our way Saturday morning. The boat show tents were already starting to strain in the wind.


We decided to scoot back the 1/2 hour drive to New Bern airport and move our plane from the tiedown on the ramp into a tee-hangar. (At that point, they were forecasting 50+ knots of wind and hail, so we were afraid the airplane might be damaged worse if we left it on the ramp).


At the marina, about mid-day, they started taking all the flags off the boats and started disassembling all the tents (the ones that were still standing, that is!)


It doesn't show up too well here, but the sky was just "mean" looking and the wind was just a big roar.


At about 8pm, we decided to vacate the boat. It was straining hard against it's very strong docklines, heeling over in the slip due to the extremely strong wind hitting it broadside.

We just ran (in the rain) for the nice, new, cement and stucco club house. We still had power and internet - so we sat for about an hour and listened as the wind-driven rain pelted the windows and watched the radar on the internet. Soon it was over and nothing was harmed (at the marina, at least). Of course, we now know that there was much damage around the eastern half of the state and much loss of life. Sad.


Sunday dawned bright and beautiful!! We needed to go sailing!!


Off we went to our new favorite day-trip - River Dunes for lunch. Had a great sail - turned the engine off as soon as we left the channel in Oriental - didn't turn it on again until we were approaching the channel at River Dunes.

I always have to post about passing ferries.....we were sailing along, no other boats in sight.....I looked back behind the boat and spied a large vessel approaching. As it got closer, I realized it was a ferry. The strange thing is that no scheduled ferries run the area we were sailing. As it got closer, we could see that it's the one named "Roanoke". I don't recall riding that one. There was only one car on it - possibly they were just moving it between locations for the coming vacation season. So, even on this short trip, I got to see a ferry!


On the dock at River Dunes. Had a wonderful salad - the restaurant there has never failed to please us!



Back on the boat for a equally great sail back - two tacks - no motor! Read my "book club book" for this month - aptly titled "The Book Club". (Not a great one, by the way, but you can't read winners every time!)



Such a nice day! Duane is enjoying himself too, I think!


Just another of my little sailing videos.....





Almost home, dropping the sails.....like the birdies are waiting on us!!! 'Til next time!!

A Little Gel Coat Work, Not Finished Yet!!

We've been putting off doing some repair work around the salon windows for some time now.....but the pretty weather enticed us to go ahead and try it.

Here are a couple of "before" shots. There were "voids" under the original gel-coat that allowed all the cracking to get started.



Sorry for all the shadows....but the daylight was waning!

We used a Dremel to route out the voids and cracks down thru the gel coat down to good, hard fiberglass.


Then we filled the routed out areas with an waterproof epoxy filler. After an overnight cure, much sanding was then accomplished!!



Closeup of the filled cracks. Next step was to paint on the new gel coat.


The idea was to paint a nice thick coat of gel coat and "feather" the edges so that it would not be very noticeable.



We were all ready to do the gel coat, with a brand new can of West Marine finish gel coat. When we mixed the catalyst - just 1 drop congealed the entire mixture!! We tried two different cans - free of charge thanks, West Marine....same result. So, this is as far as we got. West Marine is investigating the cans to figure out what is wrong......

We'll bring a different brand down with us next time. We cleaned up the window and it's fine for now.


We also did a similar larger repair near one of the jib sheet blocks. I forgot to snap a photo before, but the this is a photo of the similar, opposite side ....(we only did the port side repairs this time - starboard side next time!)



The big "star" crack in the gel coat peeled away a large area. We peeled it back until the remaining gel coat was firmly attached to the fiberglass. Here we're starting to trowel on the epoxy filler.




Smoothed a bit and left overnight to cure.




Again, much sanding so that you couldn't hardly feel the repair.



Again, taped and ready for the gel coat that didn't happen. More later when we get some good-formula gel coat!!

Trip with Mom and Frank

We had a nice long weekend with Mom and Frank - since the airplane is in the shop, we had to drive to Oriental ..... :-(

Even though we fly or drive thru New Bern every time we come to the boat, we've never stopped in to visit. We weren't in a rush, so we decided to do a little sightseeing.

It is a neat area - a little history, interesting quaint little shops.

I had read that you could visit the "Birthplace of Pepsi" - which we did happen upon while walking down the street. Wow, I expected more. It's just a plaque on the building and a tiny little store. Oh well....shouldn't put too much stock in the "things to do" Google search!


It was a very pretty walk - beautiful trees, wonderful weather.


All around, they have bears....bears....and more bears. Nice "public art". Yummy Port City Java coffee too.


On to the boat - much rummy was played. Mom cheated, I think.....


The next morning was gorgeous! Love this shot of the marina. I can just stare at the reflections of the boats on the still water.


I know we're in a rut....we set off to River Dunes for lunch. Pleasant day, not really enough wind (or rather, enough wind in the right direction!).

Lots of reading was accomplished.


Off the boat!



We had a good lunch -- then back to the boat for a pleasant trip back to Oriental. Just a little more chilly on the way back, but still lovely for the weekend before Thanksgiving!

No Wind to Speak Of...Trip to River Dunes

OK, so the forecast was for 5 knots of wind, all weekend.....this is not good for sailing. But, we made the best of it. A short trip north to River Dunes was about the best we could hope for.


Nice, as always. Had a terrific lunch - I had the most scrumptious crab cakes I've had since the Chesapeake....neat area. The development will be wonderful some day - but the housing "bust" has slowed things down there. First class clubhouse, etc. Nice to have it such a short sail away.




Picked up fuel just because it was easy and they parked us alongside the fuel dock!



There was very light wind on the way home also - as a result we came very close to another sailboat going the opposite direction (neither of us wanted to lose our wind to avoid the other!)


Most of the way back, we ended up motoring....I read while steering (with the autopilot) - Eat-Pray-Love.


No wind means you get to wander easily around the boat while motoring. I spend some lazy time in the bow seat just watching the water go by.


Almost "home" to Pecan Grove. Nice little trip.

Nice trip to Ocracoke

I know it's been a long time since I posted here. Just been too busy with other mini-vacations, I suppose!

The original plan for the weekend was to head out to Cape Lookout since we hadn't gone there yet this year. Earlier in the week, I started looking at the weather - and quickly determined that the hurricanes out in the Atlantic were kicking up some wicked surf on the NC coast! 12 foot seas are not what we are really looking for!

So, we headed out to Oriental late on Thursday - saw the pretty sunset from the air. Never stops being beautiful, even though I've seen it hundreds of times from the air.



Boy, it's getting dark early already! Funny how that sneaks up on me every year!



New Bern city lights approaching the airport. Nice and peaceful from up here!


I have a few errands to run Friday morning - and we've decided to head over to Ocracoke instead of Cape Lookout. The winds were forecast to be great for a Friday trip over - and amazingly, were forecast to do a complete 180 degree change to be perfect for returning to Oriental on Saturday! With nothing else stopping us, we threw off the docklines and headed to Ocracoke.

Had a beautiful wing-on-wing sail for the first few hours - I know it's hard to see, but the sails are in a little bit of an unusual configuration the foresail and the mailsail are each pulled out to opposite sides of the boat. It is a beautiful thing to look at (from a lover of sailboat's perspective, that is...) It's also a hard point of sail to maintain if the winds/waves are fickle.



I usually post a ferry photo for these trips....this one is no different - except this time I managed to capture TWO ferries at the same time....don't think I've done that before!


The wind picked up as we got further north/east. We made 8 knots towards the approach to the channel (that's pretty fast for us!)

Uneventful docking at the NPS docks - a great fish taco dinner at the Jolly Roger and a hefeweizen beer which was terrific, but I don't remember the name!

Up early for a coffee and bagel at the Ocracoke Coffee Company then a walk to the airport and up the beach. The surf was pretty large by Ocracoke standards.


The wind had picked up during the morning. After a little bit of maneuvering docklines, we motored free of the dock and said goodbye to the island and thanks for the quick little visit!


Then the fun started!

Going out the channel into the Pamlico Sound the winds were 25 knots - so we knew we were in for some fun. The winds were from the NE - which is good because it gives us a wind behind us...but it is also the direction that causes a lot of wave action....no sails out here because we were in the channel.




Miraculously, I didn't get seasick.....never can figure out why sometimes I do, sometimes I don't!


And just for fun, I went up to the foredeck (holding on to the lifelines, of course!) and placed the camera on the deck to get a view of the motion. Here the winds were about 28 knots and we just had the mainsail out. Enjoy!

Nice Sailing Weekend

Spotted this small sailboat with a couple of cute teenagers enjoying the day.





We ended up at River Dunes again for a very nice lunch. I ordered the "Crusted Salmon" - but they were out....the chef offered fresh Snapper....yum!

View of River Dunes marina - very nice!




Just a quiet downwind sail!





On the way back to Oriental, I noticed the bird following us and grabbed the camera.

July 4th Weekend on Ocracoke

What a wonderful weekend! The temperature couldn't be nicer! 80's during the day and 60's at night. Amazing considering the recent 100's!

We set out early for the long sail over to Ocracoke from Oriental.



Beautiful!


I was at the helm for the first few hours - Sharon made me this wonderful fruit salad for breakfast.


After a while, I went below for a long nap! The winds were fairly strong - the boat was heeled over quite a bit as I kept sliding "down" the bed.

Soon after my nap, Ocracoke came into view. Oddly, we didn't pass a ferry close by this time.


Off to some of our favorite spots after getting the boat in order. Daijo - for some ring toss and peel-n-eat shrimp. We were a little disappointed to find the shrimp a little small and 25 cents each instead of the usual 15 cents.

A lady named Diane challenged the guys to a game of pool. Somehow, she won! I think they might have purposely missed a shot or two! Nice lady though.


The next day we hit the Jolly Roger - nice view from our table.




Paul and Gail, island friends of Buddy and Sharon told us the scoop on cheap shrimp. So, we followed their advice and went to the "Jimmy's Buffet" - there we found heaven - huge wonderful shrimp and at our expected 15 cents each!! Hot butter and cocktail sauce. Yum.

A game of pool or two was played there also. Interrupted by shrimp, that is.


Yeah, so far, so good!