Another busy day!

We went for a nice sail with Pat in his new boat.

Pat is having a whole lot of fun so far!  

Nice sail from Oriental down Adam's Creek.  We found a nice spot to anchor for lunch.

We used his alcohol stove for the first time to boil up some hot dogs.  Interesting and simple stove!

Ummm, he doesn't have any utensils on the boat!  We improvised - washed some pliers - they worked great for getting the hot dogs out of the boiling water!

First  "cooked" meal on the boat!

 

After the hot dogs, we headed back to Oriental.  Pat and Duane experimented with his beautiful, colorful asymmetrical  spinnaker.  I was at the helm for this experiment - it ended up being too windy....so no pretty photos yet!


We had been invited over to Pat's new friend Willard and his wife Q.P.'s boat for dinner.  They are starting a live-aboard adventure on their sailboat Freya. 

 Q.P. is from China (her full name is Qingping)  - Willard taught English there several years ago.   She cooked a fabulous meal for us!

 The guys were on deck looking at the boat while I talked to Q.P. while she was cooking.

Look at that wonderful food!  Q.P. was careful of my mammal-meat allergy.  So nice!

Q.P. and Willard - wonderful hosts!

And then we wandered as a group around the marina - a wonderful end to a wonderful day! 

Pat's new boat is at home in Oriental now!

Pat was taking delivery of a "new-to-him" sailboat over July 4th weekend in Oriental....so we were happy to be around to help out!  Sharon and Buddy were joining us for the weekend, so they got snookered into helping to!  (Just kidding, of course - we all had a great time!)


Here she is  at Sailcraft in Oriental.  Pat has been doing some chores - bottom paint, etc. prior to the "launch".

He is sweaty, messy and happy when we arrive!   You can see his boat "Cara al Sol" in the background.  The name means "Face the Sun".

One item he needed to do before the boat is in the water is apply the NC registration numbers.  I got volunteered for this - then they all proceeded to tell me how to do it!

Turned out good!

Pat cleaning the mast before the boatyard lifts it in place with a crane.

We went to lunch - when we came back they had already carried his boat and "splashed" it awaiting putting the mast in place.

Mast going up!

Mast in place, it's time to rig it all to the Hunter specifications.

 The gang's all here!

Hard at work -  Pat's new friend Willard helping out.

Then they moved the boat out of the main slip and continue the rigging.  Duane, Pat and the Sailcraft rigger.

 More rigging.  Everything has to be "tuned"!

Did I mention it was raining?   Warm rain.

Duane and Buddy - soaking wet - rigging the foresail.

Time to shove off for the 15 minute trip to Pecan Grove Marina - the maiden voyage!

I love this photo!  The boys are all soaking wet!

Sharon and I drove  back to Pecan Grove to be there when the ship arrived.  Here they are coming in the channel.

Still happy and it's still raining!

Pat got all settled in at his new slip.  Here's the next day - rigging the mainsail.  Much work was accomplished, but not a lot of photos!

And Pat had his first visitors!  Carolyn and Cecil have a house nearby - so they stopped in for a visit.

And Robert drove down - here we're heading out into the sound for some sailing!

We took both boats - Pat needed to do some final rigging on his sails.  Pat and Buddy approaching our boat.

We rafted up - all the boys got on Pat's boat.  The girls stayed on the catamaran.

And off they went!

Following are just some photos of their fun sail.

Then we rafted up again for a snack.

And Robert took a few photos from Pat's boat  of the girls on the catamaran!

Sharon and I "working".

A great time!