And We're Baaaacck!

Finally a trip to the boat!  Life and/or weather has gotten in the way of a boat trip lately.  But all forces were in harmony this weekend and we flew down for the weekend. 

I always love approaching the New Bern airport and I'm slightly disappointed if we don't get assigned runway 22 for landing.....Landing on runway 22 means we get to fly over the pattern of bridges and highways over the Neuse River.  I was not disappointed though!  By the way - the haze you can see in this photo is not clouds - it's actually waves of pollen that you could see from the airplane!  Many, many pine trees!

Warning
Warning
Warning!
Yucky fishy photo ahead!

We knew the boat would probably be a little messy on the outside as it usually is after a month or two of "neglect" - pollen, pine needles, bird poop, etc.

Last year we had otters.  Yucky debris left from their nightly feasts on the boat.  We repositioned the boat in the slip, hopping that the otters would not be a comfortable climbing onto the more-open stern platform.

Well, it was better than last year (there were dozens of dead fish/guts) - but I still used about a gallon of bleach and some muscle to rid the swim platform of this lovely mess....

Lots of cleaning - got the dinghy down from it's winter perch and found lots of mold/mildew...

Some more bleach and elbow grease and it's good as new!

Oh - and we did go out for an evening sail - not a lot of wind, but a nice warm relaxing time.

We should have turned around a bit sooner!!  It was getting very dark as we approached Oriental.

We don't often sail this late in the day!  Good experience though.

Oh, forgot to mention the important stuff.  We went to Toucan's for lunch - instead of a real lunch, I had a cup of chowder and this lovely St. Patty's concoction complete with Creme de Menth drizzle.  Yum.

Sunday morning at the marina.....calm and foggy.

We spent some more time boat-cleaning and headed home mid-day.

And we picked up a hitch-hiker at New Bern....Bill Houston bummed a ride back to Siler City  - we tolerated him "as  best we could"....just kiddin' of course! 

Fun at Oriental

We've had a nice long weekend in Oriental....Friday night the Oriental Old Theater showed  the movie "Psycho" - 5 bucks got you into the movie and all the popcorn you cared to eat!  What a deal....plus there was some local entertainment and "introduction" to the movie....many wore shower caps....

There was even a shower cap "hawker"....we just relaxed and watched the festivities.  Good fun and the theater was packed!  I didn't know there were that many people in Oriental!!

Remember, our foresail was destroyed in Hurricane Irene.....we finally received the replacement.

Here is the barren bow of the boat....

The sail laid out ready to be hoisted...

Easy, peasy!  All set for sailing again!

So, we had to take her out an make sure all is well.  Wonderful fall sailing with fairly warm temps and 20 knot breezes.

We sailed for a few hours - approaching Oriental we sailed through a race course.....pretty little spinnaker...

Fun, fun!!

Hurricane Irene "After" Photos from Pecan Grove

Our original plans for this weekend were to sail with Sharon and Buddy to Ocracoke for Labor Day....but Hurricane Irene put a stop to that! The boat is a bit "under the weather" (pardon the pun!!)

So, we changed course and made plans to fly to Myrtle Beach instead.

On our way, we flew to the boat to take the tattered foresail down...

Duane getting the sail down - not an easy process when it's wrapped tightly in several different directions during the hurricane!!

We also wanted to look at our little building lot across from the marina to see what it looked like after a hurricane....there is a house on the lot next door - it's for sale and vacant.  There is a couple of small trees that were toppled and resting on the house.  Doesn't look like there is any damage to the house.

Our lot is just wooded - but there are several very healthy looking pines that are just snapped off.  Shows the incredible power of the wind!  And this was just category 1!!!

There is alot of debris around the town, but doesn't look like too much other damage.  Lots of piles of debris like this one outside the marina.  Lots of folks will be getting new ductwork and sheetrock in the coming weeks!!

Slow sailing

Quick trip to the boat this weekend for a little relaxation.  Here we are at New Bern - first trip out with our new "numbers". 

Leaving the marina for a "sail"....notice the relatively smooth water.....

This was about as fast as I could manage...Duane was letting me "find the wind" myself (in other words, he was taking a nap!!)

I wandered around on the deck....pleasant and slow.   It was off to the "Bean" the next morning for wonderful coffee, then home for some chores. 

July 4th - long weekend!! Up in the morning for a leisurely sail up to River Dunes for lunch....always some interesting traffic out on the Pamlico Sound!



Captain Sharon!





Always helpful! Sharon and Buddy helping with the lines....



At the dock - River Dunes....we had a wonderful lunch (as usual!)




On the sail back to Oriental.....Aren't they sweet??





Nice, calm sail.....



Coming back into the marina after the nice sail back.






The next morning, woke up to this scene in the marina....I don't think I've ever seen it so still....the image is so mirror-like that it looks like a boat is sitting on top of another boat!




And "Now for something completely different" ....our friends, Tom and Janet, brought their nice power boat down to stay at the marina with us!

We took this opportunity to cruise at a "much higher rate of speed"!!!

Here we are motoring out of the marina, Capt'n Tom at the wheel.....Glory Days in the background.

Off to Ocracoke for a day-trip. In the sailboat, it takes about 7 hours to reach Ocracoke....so it's never a day-trip!! It took less than 2 hours in the power boat - a nice change!

The sound was fairly calm - Sharon spent a good part of the trip enjoying the breeze on the bow.




This is certainly a different view aft - our sailboat leaves almost no wake!



The mighty crew!




First Mate Janet!


We always see a ferry on the trip to Ocracoke.....this trip was no different!!



The smoke from the coastal fires are very evident - normally, we could easily make out Ocracoke from this point. You can faintly see the water tower in this photo.


Closer in you can see the smokiness - it's about 2pm in this photo.



At the dock in Ocracoke...



We rented bikes for a few hours just to explore.



Captn Tom - peeking thru the door at the Ocracoke Lighthouse.....I guess that makes him "Peeping Tom"....sorry, I just had to say that!!



Back to Oriental for the evening. They close the Highway 55 bridge off for the fireworks viewing. So, we all put on ample bug-spray and headed for the bridge (it's about 500 yds from the marina). Very nice fireworks display!


Another leisurely morning - and then we hopped back on Tom and Janet's boat for a trip down to Beaufort. Again, very smokey - this time down the Intercoastal Waterway.


Approaching Beaufort - the bridge opened - but we didn't need it this time (since we had no mast to worry with!!)


We lucked out with a nice little along-side tie at Beaufort Docks on the busy 4th of July weekend.




A nice group!! Bill and Kay have a second home nearby and came to visit with us at Clawsons Restaurant.




Bill and Kay giving us a send-off at the Beaufort Docks.





Just a short little hop over into the Beaufort Inlet - but it was time to go back to Oriental.....we'll have to go to Cape Lookout some other day!! Capt'n Tom took us safely back to Oriental.....What a nice little vacation!