We left Ocracoke on Sunday, June 14, crossed the Pamlico Sound and followed Broad Creek to River Dunes. We spent a lovely night, learning stars with exotic names - Benetnash (aka Eta Ursae Majoris or Alkaid), Mizar and Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Merak and Dubhe (the stars of The Big Dipper) - and following the line Venus, Jupiter and Regulus made to the moon at that time on that night. A bit of research produced the information that Benetnash, the name I like best for the star that is at the tip of the handle of the Big Dipper, has six times the mass of our Sun and 3.4 times the Sun's radius. It is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The Big Dipper is found in the constellation Ursa Major.

Learning those stars so near the 4th of July got me wondering why the American flag uses stars to represent the 51 states, so I went to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge and discovered it's because on June 14, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, it stated: "Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

But I digress. At 6:30 a.m. Monday morning we were up and on the move back to Deaton's to have our lifelines modified and our engine re-evaluated. The good folks at Deaton's told us what we'd pretty much already concluded - we needed to have the head gasket replaced. So, we got on the boatyard schedule and arranged to bring the boat back at the end of the week. Meanwhile, we returned to River Dunes where, over a couple of days, Seacoast Marine installed and calibrated an autopilot we bought some time ago. As always, we enjoyed being at River Dunes. In the it's-a-small-world category, I met a woman who was walking a gorgeous flat-coated retriever. She seemed surprised that I recognized the breed. I told her I used to work with a woman who bred and showed them, and had taken one to Westminster. She said the gorgeous boy in front of me had taken best-of-breed at Westminster when he was younger. I asked her if she knew my former colleague and she said she did. She and her handsome, now-retired, show dog were just moving to River Dunes from New York - the moving van was coming that day.

Our return trip to Deaton's on Friday was a perfect sailing day. We were headed up the Neuse into a southwest wind, so we tried out our new autopilot. The wind was blowing 10 to 12 knots, just right for Arwen. The boat was at hull speed most of the trip. We tacked back and forth on a zig-zag course, covering 21 miles as we moved the 10 miles up the river to Whitaker Creek. The autopilot was a joy, allowing us to sit back and enjoy the ride without being at the helm the whole way.

The boatyard said it would be at least a week before they could do the work on our engine, so we headed home to Western North Carolina for a few days. And thank goodness we did. We'd little more than gotten home when I got a text from an old friend and one of my former bosses who recently returned from Uganda where he spent a couple of years editing one of the country's biggest newspapers. He was on his way to Hendersonville, and we were able to get in a great visit with him.

We returned to Oriental on Tuesday, June 30. The work was done and the engine runs great. We could have left Wednesday, but we're still here. For one thing, we like everybody here and there's Ruby, the young golden retriever who hangs out at the office and allows me to pet her. Then there's the 35th Croakerfest, which began Friday and ends with a spectacular fireworks display today, the 4th of July. And there's the folding bicycle we ordered that was supposed to arrive this week, but won't get here until next week.

So, we've spent a couple of days getting to know the other boatyard transients. Two have been veterans of Afghanistan and/or Iraq. One was seriously injured in an explosion. We met him and his wife because he has a service dog who's been trained to alert when his blood sugar drops or he is about to have a convulsion, which are caused by the brain injury he suffered. I've met few people in my life who were more enjoyable to talk to or more positive and upbeat than he was, despite the injury that changed his life. He'd risen through the ranks from private to lieutenant colonel and said he loved being a soldier. Now, he seems to love being on the water with his wife and dog in the trawler they recently bought.

The two veterans we met were in my thoughts this afternoon when the Pamlico County Community Band and the Pamlico County Choral kicked off Croakerfest with the Star Spangled Banner and a concert of patriotic songs. They played a medley of the songs associated with each branch of service and asked any veterans in the audience to stand during their song. Even though the two veterans we met at the boatyard weren't there, but I was silently saluting them.

God bless America and all those who've given their lives or put them on the line for her.