Oriental, NC Heading South!

We are ready this morning to head south....will depart about 10AM.

Were treated to this fisherman up close to our dock.  Nice fellow.

 

 I chatted with him briefly.  Hard work!

Oriental, NC

 Today is probably the last day at Oriental!!  And a very chilly one at that....my fridge is jam-packed full, is so we left items outside in the cockpit to stay chilled.  (And we're having an awful fruit-fly issue so I hoped to slow them down a bit with the 34 degree overnight temp.)

 

With little left on the "to do" list, we decided on a big job....take all the food stores out and organize them.  As I brought the provisions on board, I didn't do a good job of keeping them separated, just tossed them into random crates.  I knew better, I just was lazy.  

So, we just plunged in and did it.  Put everything that was "alike" in bins.

 

Like this bin is full of condiments and pickles.

The cabinet in the guest cabin is loaded and recorded as well with staples.

 

And this is what 6 months of provisions looks like....we'll supplement with fresh items regularly, of course.

I made a detailed spreadsheet with all the items and their respective locations.  Now when a recipe calls for "capers" I know to go look in Bin #5.

 

 

Oriental, NC

 I had a few veggies that were a little long-in-the-tooth.  

 

So I chopped them all up and roasted them in the oven.  A nice seasonal dish!

 And an update on the enclosure panels.  The one on the left is still an original panel with slightly hazy "glass".  The one on the right is the one we had at home and it's got crystal clear glass.  (I didn't have enough of the material to replace the one on the left - maybe next year).

 

And the "patch" with it's fastener in place.  Not a perfect match but not too terrible.  

 

And now it's just a waiting game....thought we'd leave Oriental on Wednesday - but now the offshore weather looks a little rough.  We'll play it by ear and head south when it's best.

 

 

Oriental, NC

Back at the boat for a lovely fall day.  Just chores to get ready to leave mid-week.

 

 

Pittsboro, NC

 One last post before we head back to Oriental to shove off south!!  If you're anywhere along the East Coast, you probably had rain the past few days.  

I wanted to show you the final before/after photos of the "dirt" project.

Here is the area right before we started our part of the excavation during a hard rain.

 

And here's what it looks like now.  No water visible even though it poured rain for 2 days.  The pipe is working as designed, filling Brian and Trish's pond to the brim.

Will be neat to see photos of this area when it's nice and green in a few weeks! 

We're all packed up with extra supplies, leaving this morning to head back to the boat.   Hope we don't forget anything!!

Pittsboro, NC

We're about to wrap up our trip home....down to just a few things on the list to complete before heading back to Oriental.

I needed one more "jerry can" cover - this is the last of my Sunbrella fabric.  I should have ordered more just to have some on hand for who-knows-what.....but it's a little late now.   You've seen me make these before. 

 

 

Just a basic bag, loosely fitted. (This is a "tractor diesel jug" that I used for the pattern - our jugs on the boat are brand new and clean, of course. 

 

Inside-out view -  Closed up the top and sewed the corners to reduce the "boxiness". 

Almost finished.  I sewed the little patches on where we'll install grommets for the tie-line.  (The grommets and tools are on the boat so we'll do that when we return to Oriental).

Here's what it will look like on the boat, so now we'll have all the cans protected and looking nice. 

 And the final project of the day was to repair this torn area on an enclosure panel.  The fastener receptacle had gotten torn and needed attention.

I found some Sunbrella-like material at Joanne Fabric that was approximately the right color.  (I don't have any off-white Sunbrella material).  I made a patch and covered the rip.   We'll re-install the hardware once we get back to the boat - we need to know exactly where to center the receptacle because it mates with a fastener on the side of the boat. 

 That's about it!  Will probably pack up the mini-van and head to Oriental in the next day or so.

Pittsboro, NC

 Really winding down on the chores at home.....

 

Took a short little flight, just to get back airborne one last time before heading out.  Just buzzed around Jordan Lake and Pittsboro for a bit, calm and relaxing.

 

 The "dirt" is pretty much finished now!

This morning, the contractor smoothed out all the lumps.

And then the landscape guy started with the fertilizer, seed, straw.

 

And now it's all done!  Looking forward to Pat and Diane sending me photos of this area when it's nice an green in a week or two!!

 

And on boating prep news....my sis can just scroll past this photo.  I cooked and vacuum packed some pork and beef roasts.  Duane says they turned out yummy (as I can't sample them of course).  These will be fun to pull out of the freezer over the next few months, already cooked!

Looks like we may be next week before we can head south due to rough weather.....

Pittsboro, NC

 Today was mostly about sewing.  

One of the original enclosure panels had "broken" - so I needed to replace it.  (Just the clear vinyl).

 

 

So I taped paper over the broken area - and laid out the new vinyl.  (I didn't want the stiff/sharp broken area marring my brand new vinyl).  I just enough vinyl left over from the replacement project 2 years ago so I didn't have to buy another expensive roll.   Hard to see, of course because it's clear - but the new vinyl is just a rectangle that will be sewn along the edges.

 

Once the vinyl is sewn in place we used a seam-ripper to trim all the excess away along the edges.  Then we turned it over and used the seam ripper to cut away the old broken vinyl.  It's not a perfect solution, but it will get this panel thru another few years.

In addition, I replaced the zipper at the base which had become difficult to use.

 

And next up was a boxy bag made out of rip-stop nylon.  This will keep our little 2.5 gallon Shop Vac and all it's hoses and fittings in one place.

And the contractor was here all day, smoothing the dirt.  Tomorrow he'll do the final smoothing and the landscape guy will be here to sew the grass seed! 

Pittsboro, NC

 Got the Avion emptied out - time to head back to Pittsboro.

 

 

Uneventful drive back.  We'll do a few final chores at the house before driving back to Oriental.  Then we'll soon be southbound because I expect some cold weather to set in at some point!

 

Oriental, NC

We've been busy, busy.  Just doing chores that we need to before heading out.  The weather has been unbelievably nice for November!!  

 

Ed and Cathy installed their new mainsail - it's so pretty and white!  

And we're about finished our prep work - folding bikes back on the boat now.

 

And I can't let the day pass without saying congratulations to our President elect and hope that the next few months of litigation won't further hurt our country!

Oriental, NC

 Just getting things ready for heading south....loading the boat up with extra diesel and lots of food, spare parts, fishing stuff, etc.  Nice to have What If back on the home dock!

 

 

New Bern to Oriental, NC

The boatyard was ready first thing to get us back in the water. 

Up on the travel lift - we painted the very bottom of the keels where the boat has been perched on blocks for 3 weeks,  at the last minute while we were hanging in mid-air.  We dried the paint a bit with a heat gun and an hour later we were heading towards the water.

 

 

(yeah, that's me all bundled up and hardly a red hair in sight!!)

 

 

Down, down, down!

 

In just a few minutes we're splashed and headed back towards downtown New Bern.

 

Under the bridges out into the Neuse River.

 

And always fun to see the Minnesott Ferry on our way passing.  The river was a bit lumpy but was a nice engines-off sail for a few hours.

 

I was at the helm and Duane made good use of the 5 hours it took to get back to Oriental - he changed the engine oil in both of the Volvos and the generator.  (You can barely see him tucked away in the generator compartment.)

 

Home sweet home - at least for a little while.  A little lonely without What IF - they'll be splashing tomorrow and will be back alongside!

 

New Bern, NC

 The last day in the boatyard!  Yay!!  

We marked the chain again in 25' increments.  There are colored tiewraps on the chain at intervals, but they are hard to see as the chain is rushing by.  This bright paint may not last, but was a cheap experiment. 

 

Put the last coat of bottom paint on the saildrive.  We're experimenting with a non-copper bottom paint on the props as well.  It's really hard to find a paint that will stick long-term to the spinning props....we'll see if this one works out.

 

And all too early, the sun was setting.  Darn that "fall backwards" time change non-sense!  We'll be up early tomorrow for a 8AM splash if all goes as planned, we'll be back to our slip mid-day.