Heading home August 1

Not so easy!

• 

• 

We left Oriental which is a really charming place. I would recommend Oriental Habour Marina rather that the basin marina. Its much more sheltered and really lovely to watch the fishing boats leave the harbour (and they’re not to noisy !). Pat has finally got the hang of Dominoes but I’m not sure I’m too happy about it. With his accountancy and numbers skills he’ll probably start beating me every time unless of course, the same thing happens every victory. He got so excited he won he threw a domino down one of the drain holes in the cockpit. I had visions of the boat sinking due to a blocked drain. (Dont anyone yell drama queen at me).

I put in the photo of the merman not because I thought he was good but because I am wearing my fancy new dress. Well a drama queen would, wouldn’t she?

That night there was a bit of a squall, a sign of things to come! We saw this boat’s jib starting to separate in the afternoon and later that night it was in shreds.

We saw this hand in the water. Could it be the Lady of Shallot just as she’s finished doing the dishes.? Or an Omen or just a Marigold rubber glove?.

• 

• 

We made it to Moorhead City. We had decided that we had been to Beaufort (really charming) twice and hadn’t given Moorhead a try. We now know why. Its really touristy and the marina was just full of fishing boat (sports ones) and the the courtesy car was $20.! Not much courtesy about that. Beaufort has two cars and they lend them out for free. We spent the day putzing and fixing we things on the boat and writing to YANMAR to complain about the engine.

• 

• 

• 

We’ve noticed the weather forecasts have been a bit iffy so we emailed our Weather guru about going out to sea to get home. He advised that the ICW is the better option and that this weather will remain for a week.

I do like the ICW as there are lots of fancy homes to look at. The sailors reading this may appreciate how dodgy the path is with shoaling everywhere, so much that you can walk your dog on the water. Also those darn ospreys and their nests. They can make a red nuns hat look like a green can from far away.

• 

• 

• 

North Carolina is mainly motor boaters. In fairness to them, the majority of them are polite and will slow down when passing. The problem is that there is a scarcity of marinas available and virtually no anchorages. We had motored 70 miles (Thats about 8 hours) and there were warnings of a storm. It was now too late to get marina shelter and with no anchorages we had to motor on through. It was scary and exciting. The wind whipped up to 30 knots for a while but the real issue was the lightening. It was like being in a strobe disco only I wasn’t dancing. I’m sorry to say I didn’t not take pictures of the lightening as too busy with the rain and wind. The squall lasted about hour and we finally found an anchorage in Whilmington beach.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

A fancy boat and another whose jib probably shredded in last nights squall.