We hauled Arwen in Oriental on May 18 to replace her bottom paint, to sand and oil her all the teak on her deck and in her cockpit, to wax and polish her topsides, to replace the head faucet and the gaskets around the hatches and to get the valve stem seals on her Yanmar engine replaced in the hope that would stop her from burning oil. That's not a complete list, but it covers most of the big things. We did the work ourselves except for the engine repairs, so we had a very busy eight days. As I told one friend, these various projects required us to either get into obscene contortions, breath noxious fumes or risk heat stroke, and in some cases, all three.

I am pleased to say Arwen looked and ran like a different boat when she left the boatyard. Her topsides and her teak looked as good as we could make them. And she didn't burn oil coming down the Neuse River from Oriental to River Dunes where we fetched up for a couple of days after the haul out.

We were compensated for all the hard work by long evening walks along Oriental's river front, by morning trips to The Bean where there's usually a convocation of dogs and sailors on the porch overlooking the harbor, and by visits with Ruby, the sweet laid-back pup who has the run of the boatyard at Deatons.

On the nights we didn't have dinner at M&M's or The Silos, we ate in our cockpit high among the trees and watched the avian aerobatics. There were a number of mockingbirds in the vicinity and they were fierce defenders of their nests. I saw one crow go into a tree where a pair of mockingbirds had a nest and hightail it right back out again with both parents in hot pursuit. Robert saw a flock of redwing black birds chasing a crow that actually had a baby bird in his beak. A neighborhood dog who lived next door to the boatyard saw us eating dinner one night and came over and stood staring up at us for a good ten minutes until I blinked and tossed her a shrimp. The next morning she was back in the boatyard when one of the mockingbirds spotted her and fiercely buzzed her head. She refused to take notice at first, but the aerial assault got to be too much and she trotted off to her yard.

We arrived at River Dunes Marina early afternoon on May 28th. When we arrived the dock master was on hand to catch our lines and during our conversation he inquired about what kind of boat Arwen is. I told him she's a 1979 Bristol 29.9. "She's in good shape," he said, earning a permanent place for himself in my affection. It was worth all the work to make it so. I spent the next two days sitting by the pool or on the clubhouse porch working on an editing project. Meanwhile, Robert caught up on the log, read and napped. In the early mornings and evenings we enjoyed watching the barn swallows that nest under the bridges that connect the floating docks to the land.

We have lots of Madison memories from River Dunes. Once we were taking a short cut to the showers along the side of the swimming pool in the dark when Madison startled herself and us by walking into the pool. We just heard a splash and lots of thrashing around and realized she was in the water. Even though she was part Lab, Madison didn't like to swim and she was a disgruntled dog when we fished her out. Another time we left her on the boat and wandered down the dock to talk to some people on another boat. We looked up to see that she'd hopped off the boat, left the docks and was trotting down the sidewalk heading for the clubhouse. She didn't like being left behind, so she jumped ship and was on her way to find us.

We left River Dunes early May 30th heading across Pamlico Sound for Ocracoke and the Ocrafolk Music Festival June 5-7. We had a lovely day to cross Pamlico motoring directly into a light wind. It was a good test for the engine, which doesn't appear to have burned any oil.

We are once again in the thrall of Ocracoke's charm. We are docked at the Anchorage Inn Marina. Licia and Philip arrived early afternoon Sunday and after we had lunch with them at the Jolly Roger, they headed off to check in and we came back to the boat. We could hear the live music at SmackNally's at the head of the docks and the beautiful harmonies were too much to resist. Finally, I told Robert I had to go learn the name of that band. I stood for a while at the edge of the porch listening and grinning at them like a silly goose. Their music is such feel-good music and they are so into it. Robert finally came looking for me and we found an open table in the shade and sat down to have a beer and listen. What a glorious afternoon spent next to the water on a beautiful sunny day in the presence of such music. We met the band - whose members are as affirming as their music - when they took a break and we learned that they're playing for Ocrafolk, so we'll be seeing them around the island all week. Their name: The Yes Team. Their website is yesteamgo.com. They also have a Facebook Page and their music can be found on YouTube.