Impulse Cruising Again

Today is May 20, and we left Punta Gorda on April 20, so it is our one month anniversary of living on the boat! A toast! With that said, the plans we had made for today were soon changed. The engine temperature has been slowly creeping up when running at the same RPMs, and that has concerned Bill for much of the trip. It seems to be happening more lately, so he thinks the heat exchanger needs work. He called and found someone who will work on it at River Dunes, which is a pretty marina near Oriental, NC. We had left very early (6:15 - bridge opened at 6:30) to try to cross the Sound but left the ICW before getting to that point to go to the marina. We arrived at 12:30 and fueled up, docked, and sat waiting for a phone call. Kind of frustrating when we thought we were headed northward, but I guess we should just enjoy time here. The photo shows the main building which houses a restaurant upstairs and lounge and dockmaster’s office downstairs. There is a pool to the left with small cabana buildings and a fountain area. To the left of that is the bath house which includes a small gym and computer lounge. This is the marina and club for a housing development which is very underdeveloped. The buildings have a classic style and quality details, but there aren’t many of them – yet. I guess the economy tanked when this first got started and it hasn’t really picked up again. Bill napped, I read, and then we took showers, running back to the boat in front of a thunderstorm. We haven’t seen one of these in a very long time! And we heard that it is raining in Punta Gorda too! Hopefully the drought there will come to an end. Dinner on the boat and an early bedtime. We were up until midnight with a “flash party” going on next to us on a houseboat that pulled up about 10:00 pm, well after the marina office closed. Bongos, guitar, and all. At least thirty on the boat – too many! Oh, those twenty-somethings!