Oriental, NC

 Leaving Pittsboro....pretty day! 

 

Unfortunately, just past Raleigh on extremely busy I-40 we had a blowout on one of the trailer tires!  No worries, we had everything we needed to fix it.  Very minor amount of damage to the wheel well as the tire exploded.

 

The culprit....no fun working beside the busy roadway.   Tractor/trailers zooming by.  Their windstream buffeting the trailer as Duane worked.

Duane made quick work of it....so nice to travel with my mechanic!!

 

And an uneventful remainder of the journey to Oriental.   We were greeted by the smiling faces of Kris and Dean on Charm.  Nice welcome.

My Sailrite fabric samples had arrived.  Fun to get to touch and feel the different fabrics.

 

The main choice will be the fabric for the salon cushions.  We'll be trying to match/coordinate with the countertop coloring.

But that's on a bit of a hold now - we've made the decision to head to Jacksonville, FL to retrieve What If for Ed and Cathy.  So the 4 of us will pile in Ed & Cathy's car and head south bright and early!

Pittsboro, NC

 Time to head back to the boat already!!  Minivan all packed up with clean linens and lawn mower for the Oriental lots.

And we're taking the camper down to Oriental as well - I have a LOT of sewing to do this summer.  The camper will be my "sew-shack".  Doing it that way will keep me from having to constantly clean up boat salon from the sewing mess at the end of a day.

Pittsboro, NC

 I mentioned that Keith and Denise gave me bags of greens - I washed and cooked them.

Beautiful Swiss chard and some collards.

 

Literally, a 13 gallon garbage bag completely full of greens cooked down to these two large storage tubs.  Really, really good!  I used some of the "greens seasoning" my sweet sissy sent and it's just the right amount of spicy-ness.

And of course, it's my birthday!  My first time having a 59th birthday, that is.  I think that's the same birthday I'll repeat from now on.....

Care package from said sweet sissy and a gift card from my Mom.   The dish rags are great - she pays attention when I comment on things, for sure.  She made them dark colored for me specially because I commented that it's so hard to keep a white dish rag clean looking on the boat.  (I don't use a lot of bleach on the boat in the laundry).

 

And I love, love, love my new dish towel!!

Ended the day with a nice neighbor visit & drinks on the deck with Dick & Lindy and Pat & Diane.  Fun catching up.

Mills River, NC

 We drove to the mountains for a short visit. 

 Threatening rain, but pleasant temperatures.

 My uncle Larry had passed away and they had a memorial service for him at The Old Homeplace "barn" in Mills River.

 

Neat place.  They did a great tribute to Larry.  I got to see several relatives that I hadn't seen in literally ages - Great Aunt Francis who will be 90 soon, Sherlene, Steve and Larry's family of course.

 

After the service we drove around Mills River for a while, then had a wonderful dinner at Keith & Denise's.  Took Mom some leftovers and we posed for a quick selfie.

 

Always a tour of the garden/greenhouse.  Lots happening there this spring!

 

And we took away bags and bags of greens.

 The next morning, Mom invited us all to come to the Mills River Restaurant for breakfast. We snapped a photo before Keith & Denise arrived for some reason.....had a great meal and caught up with everyone.   Then off to visit Granny and Cordy....then back home to Pittsboro!  And happy 40th anniversary to Duane and I!

Pittsboro, NC

 We arrived at home just in time to catch the end of the spring bulbs.  Pretty flowers but just a few are left.

 

 

 

 

Duane went flying for the first time in 6 months!  All was well with the plane.  We have a transponder issue that the FAA has identified.  We will have to take the airplane for a radio repair soon.

 And I made a batch of my cinnamon buns to take to Keith & Denise's for Sunday breakfast....so...much....butter.....

 

Pittsboro, NC

 I spent most of the day doing laundry and general organize/cleanup.   A highlight was that I finally got around to getting that nice tuna filleted and vacuum packed.  Since we were in rough seas, we immediately cleaned it, wrapped it and froze it.  

I let it thaw just enough to fillet it.

 

I had it all vacuum packed and back in the freezer in just a few minutes.   I did save some scraps and seared them for my lunch, excellent!  So nice to be able to work on it in a very calm and stable kitchen vs. the pitching boat!

 

And then it started raining.....and will continue for a day or so....at least it's nice and warm though!

 

Pittsboro, NC

 Really strange seeing the boat stripped down....

 

All the fish fit in two large coolers.

 

The mini-van loaded to the gills for the 3 hour drive to the house.

Everything was just like we left it 6 months ago at the house....we are having trouble finding sunshine in NC though!  Familiar view across the runway.  It is a bit different as Charlie and Sandy have cleared their lot and will be new across-the-runway-neighbors soon.

 It took a couple of hours to unload the van and get organized.  Turned the freezer on and filled it with fish!

 

 

And later in the evening a special treat - my mom came by for a short visit on her way home from visiting her brother on the coast.  We had a nice meal and chatted before she departed to my sisters house for the evening. 

 The crazy strong north winds continue to pummel us.  Duane had to help me off the boat - and I commented that I didn't think I could climb back aboard.  The short piling you see in the photo here is 4' tall.  So the first step up is 4'!!!

 

Duane fixed the issue by toting a 12x12" block over to the boat.

 

The extra foot makes all the difference.  I can handle a 3' first step.

 

We needed a few odds and ends from town - our first car trip since we'd been back.  The high water is affecting everyone around here - the roadway is submerged across from the town dock.

 

And I know it's not a big deal, but it's been 6 months since 2-fer-Tuesday at the Silo's in Oriental.  Yummy greek pizza!   I gotta say it comes in 3rd place after our generous friend's pizzas on Meshugga and Charm though!

Tomorrow will be packing up in earnest and heading to Pittsboro.

Oriental, NC

 Slowly getting the boat organized.  I've packed up all the extra food and it's in the minivan now.

I did a post-trip inventory so I know exactly how much we used of each item.  I did pretty well estimating usage this year on a lot items.  I know this looks like a lot of canned goods, but we provisioned much, much more than this.  Things I ran out of were canned mushrooms, peas, curry sauces and tea bags. 

 

Shelves empty.  Looks really odd!!  For our summer trips to the boat we'll pack up a cooler and do very small re-stocks when we're on the boat.  We don't plan to leave the a/c running while we're away so didn't want to leave any food on board.   (Jellyfish clog our water intake for the a/c so it doesn't work while we're not there to unclog it.)

 

And now we're just having to deal with the crazy high water levels at the dock.  The boat deck is sitting about 6' above the dock now and I can't reasonably get off the boat!  Hopefully it will recede a bit today.  Chilly 55°F and 20+ knots of cold wind.   Brrrr.  We're not in the Bahamas anymore!

 

Oriental, NC

When we return to the States, we always have chores we need to take care of....The lot is pretty overgrown.

 

But neighbor Jerry loaned us his lawn mower and we made quick work of picking up a winter's worth of fallen branches and pine cones.  All good now.  Thanks Jerry!  (We store our riding lawn mower in the hangar at home during the winter because we don't have a building to put it in at the lot.  We'll bring it back to Oriental next trip but nice that we didn't have to rush back for that purpose).

 The minivan is a mess....it has a patina of mold and lichen.  It does this every year.  We had a cover the first year, but that fell apart eventually.  The van is just so old that it's not worth the $300 to buy another cover. 

 

But with some elbow grease, it shines up pretty well!

That all took up most of the day.  We'll start unloading the boat tomorrow and head to Pittsboro.

Oriental, NC

 We had a nice restful sleep - and got underway mid-morning for the final 25 miles to our dock.

The usual sights along the Beaufort waterfront.

 

The phosphate storage buildings.

 

Colorful tug - the Beaufort Belle....pretty day, not too windy.

Back at the dock!  Feels like home.  Jerry our neighbor from Bluejacket knew we were coming in - plus he has a wonderful view of the creek so he could see us coming for a mile or so....he met us with a friendly homecoming wave on our dock and caught our lines. 

 

Spent the afternoon getting the boat tied up and re-attached to "civilization" - a.k.a  power hookup and unlimited water!

Cleared back into the U.S. with customs - removed our very weather-beaten Bahamas courtesy flag.    That wraps up a wonderful winter season.  We departed October 30th so just a bit over 6 months, 3083 nautical miles and lots of memories!

Woke to a chilly rainy morning!  We may actually have to dig out the bluejeans!