Ocracoke SCOO trip

Time for the annual SCOO (Sailing Club Of Oriental) trip to Ocracoke.

Perfect weather for a quick motor/sail over.

The obligatory ferry photo.....

Coming into Silver Lake.

Duane (on deck) some great line handlers volunteer to help us tie up.  That's always so nice.

After getting settled and some 75 cent wings at Gaffer's, we invited the early arrivals over for a "sundowner".  Lots of fun chatting.

Lots of new faces....I'll struggle to remember names for a while!  Dale and Harry

Rick and Sue

Liz and Les

Beautiful morning

Birthday

I know, not sailing related.....

We celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary with a nice dinner out at a new place in Pittsboro.  Then a couple of days later it was my birthday!!

I know this another picture of my feet.....

My sweet knitting and crocheting sis sent me these slippers for my birthday.

They're so comfy!

They're made from a pair of flip flops.

Isn't she ingenious?

Chores at home

After 6 months away, there is a good bit of yard work that needs to be taken care of. 

So I pull out socks and shoes....and realize that this is the first time in a long time that I have actually had proper shoes on my feet.  Really strange and confining feeling!

We had someone mowing the grass, but no other lawn maintenance.   The liriope border on our basement sidewalk gets grass/weeds intermixed if it's not addressed often.  So we decided that we could just do without it!  

A couple of hours later and many wheel barrow loads of dirt, we have reverted back to an easy-to-mow grass border.

NC Mountain visit

We had a pleasant mountain visit this Mother's Day weekend.

We stayed overnight with my sweet sister-in-law and brother.....they had a dominoes set so we had to play!

My phone camera was not behaving....this is the only non-blurry photo I captured.  (I was in LAST place for the dominoes game, as usual....)

Strange to be back on land!! It's all so green and the trees are so tall!!

On our way to Asheville for a mother's day visit.

Crossing from Bahamas to Oriental

Our last Bahamian sunrise for this season!!

The last little islet of the Grand Cays on our northbound journey.

I won't go into specifics....but the next 48 hours were yucky.  Waves were a bit confused and from aft.  This always makes the boat shift around "like a washing machine".  It makes me nauseous.  Enough said.  But I stood my watches and survived it.

Once we hit the Gulfstream, we were flying!  The Stream gave us about 3.5 knots of free speed for about 18 hours.  Sweet!

No fish were boarded...but one giant was hooked!!  This is what happens when you put 50 pound test fishing line on a pole that is only rated for 20 pounds.  Big fish bites and simply breaks the pole.  We will have better fishing equipment next season!

Sunrise of day 3.  Seas are calmer.

Approaching Beaufort inlet, busy place with sportfisher boats and a big dredge.

Up the Intercoastal Waterway - with sails up.  The wind was just perfect.

Out in the Neuse River, the familiar tar-ish water and a phosphate barge.

Back at "home"!!!

I had transplanted some of my amaryllis bulbs that Grandma had given me over the years last fall.  I was pleased to see one of them blooming on shore!

Bentley from Salty Paws saw us sailing in and hailed us on the VHF to come over for drinks when we got settled.  They are staying over at Jerry and Donna's dock for the week.

Had a nice visit with them.

We took our Bahamian courtesy flag down - just wanted to show you the before/after. 

Here is the flag brand new.

And here it is after 6 months! 

There ends the 2nd Bahamas season for the McCraws.   Lots of fun, now to get busy with some repairs and plans for next season!

We're BAAAAACCCKKK!!!

We're approaching the Beaufort, NC inlet at about 11AM on Thursday the 9th of May.  Still have to clear U.S. Customs. 

Will post more later!

Grand Cay, Abacos, Bahamas - LAST DAY FOR 2019 WINTER TRIP!!!

UPDATE AFTER I WROTE THIS POST:  We are leaving Grand Cay at 8AM -  and will head straight for Beaufort, NC instead of following the Gulf Stream as mentioned below.  This is due to an updated weather forecast we got this morning.  We should arrive Beaufort, NC by mid-day Thursday but don't worry if its later than that!  We'll get back online and let you know of our arrival as soon as we can pick up a cell signal again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoyed our last day in the Bahamas this year!  Started the day doing a bit of cooking and loading the fridge with easy-to-get-and-eat food for the 3-4 days we'll be offshore.  I don't really enjoy any cooking while underway....as most of you know!

Lowered the dinghy for one last snorkel.  Really enjoyed it even though it was just small corals and fish.


Pretty little islets.

Lots of life in the area!

Loads of juvenile fish.

Several lion fish - Duane speared one - trying to do our part to rid the Bahamas of this invasive species....the other 2 quickly hid themselves....

Just pretty small corals and small fish.

Swam thru these minnows several times - thousands of them!

Graceful angel fish.

Probably the last Sojourn photo in the Bahamas this season!

Back at the boat, these are the shells I picked up today - all with no living occupants!

Plan to leave during the day tomorrow based on current weather predictions we should arrive Oriental sometime Thursday.  I'll come back during the day and give you a definite departure.  About 550 nautical miles!!


Here is the general plan - we go west from here until we hit the Gulf Stream which is running about 3-4 knots northbound right now (so free speed!!!).  Then we hope to ride the Stream as far as we can before heading into Beaufort, NC inlet.  551 nautical miles  (or 634 statute miles)  according to the chartplotter. 

Grand Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

We had a lovely no-engine sail about 38 miles over to Grand Cay.  This will be our jump-off spot for the sail back to Oriental , probably tomorrow.

Weeded our way past a couple more of the "sand bores".  Pretty shallow water!

Approaching the anchorage at Grand Cay.  We'll get everything tied down and ready for our 3 day crossing to Beaufort, NC.  I have to use up all our fresh vegetables as US Customs does not allow anything fresh to be brought back into the country (even if it has a US origination label!!)   No worries, we're low on supplies and I will make a few things to have handy like potato salad and coleslaw. The crossing should not be too rough, but it's always better to have things already prepared than to count on me feeling like getting in the galley and cooking underway!  I'll update you tomorrow if we are actually departing and our ETA at Beaufort.

Foxtown, Abacos, Bahamas

Started the day rainy again.....

Took a little shortcut across a "sand bore".  The water was really spectacular!  We saw just a few inches of water under our keel at times and bumped the sandy bottom once.  Beautiful.

Arrived Foxtown in the late afternoon, took the dinghy ashore for a last jerry can of diesel and a few groceries for our last few days in the Bahamas this year!  Looking good for a Monday departure straight to Beaufort, NC.  Should arrive Oriental May 9th or 10th.  Hope I don't jinx it by saying it!!!

Turn the volume up and listen to the church bells!  They play at 6PM and 6AM then the gong strikes 6 bells for the hour.  Pretty!

Underway to Foxtown, Abacos, Bahamas

Finally found some sunshine!!  On our way to a small settlement called Foxtown.  Weather looks decent for a Gulf Stream crossing starting Monday, but the forecasts have been changing like crazy down here.  So we'll just enjoy the next few days and see what happens!!

Crab Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Still stormy out there!  Since there was not much else to do while at anchor, I decided it was time to address some the "brightwork" - in our case, the stainless steel supports for the lifelines.  Although it's stainless, it does oxidize and gets a fine surface rust. 

A little bit of Barkeepers friend powder applied with a toothbrush and some elbow grease and it's "bright" again!

Looking for the weather to clear a bit before heading further west.