We had a good day today, pulling up anchor at first light and finally dropping it again some 57 miles later in Mile Hammock Bay. We were fairly late into the anchorage and as we would expect it was fairly full as peak migration season for cruisers is in full flow. Fortunately we managed to squeeze into a corner and then watched the even later boats try to squeeze themselves in as well. Thankfully it is forecast to be a settled night, I would be worried we are all too close if the winds get up. We passed straight through Beaufort again (we never have stopped there) and were a little frustrated the weather won't allow us to head outside for a few more days. We had warm southerly winds today, no good for sailing south! Tomorrow the winds are supposed to switch to the North so we think we may be able to jump outside at Cape Fear on either Monday or Tuesday. We would aim to get down to Charleston or perhaps even further. If the forecast doesn't hold then we will just keep on trucking down the ICW.

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Phew! All went well today and we are off again. About 10.30am we got the word to bring Osprey over to the travel lift and without further ado we were plucked out of the water. We got to inspect the bottom - not too bad, flick off a few barnacles here and there and change the prop-shaft zinc. In the meantime one of the yard guys switched out the faulty transducer which seemed to have deteriorated at the face - no one could figure out why. Thankfully the new transducer slid right back into the existing hole which was a good thing as it is positioned right at the forefront of the keel and would be very difficult if not impossible to modify. Once the new transducer was in we asked them to leave us in the sling whilst we ran the new cable and hooked everything up to the new control unit that was installed yesterday. It was nice to be able to do this ourselves and save a bit on the labor charge. Once the guys got back from lunch we were plopped back in, calibrated the sounder, paid the bill and left. Ahh! it was good to be underway again. We didn't come far because of the time of day. Pretty much the only anchorage within striking distance was here in Cedar Creek off of Adams Creek. So here we are, all is well and we feel lucky to have got this issue sorted without too much of a delay. The only painful part is the expense - over one big boat buck - Ouch! Thankfully my wonderful Dad has offered to help out with the cost as an early Christmas present - thank you Santa!!!

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Well a bit of progress was made today - but sadly we are not done yet. It would seem that our electronics man got tied up on another job and didn't show up here until later in the afternoon. Once he got here he made very short work of getting the new control head installed. But, by the time that was done it was too late to be hauled out to get the transducer put in. The latest plan is that we will get hauled tomorrow morning, the yards guys will install the transducer and we will do the rest of the wiring. Hopefully all will go to plan and we can leave the boat yard tomorrow. We do actually quite like it here as it is very quiet and peaceful but we really want to get on our way again. Of course we have missed the window to jump offshore at Beaufort so rather than wait for the next window we will start trucking on down the ICW.

I have been remiss in not taking any photos lately - this one shows Tom in full offshore garb. Note the headlamp which we switch to the red lamp to preserve our night vision.

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A couple of notable things occurred today. The first was truly a random act of kindness. We had walked into the town of Oriental, grabbed a coffee and a bagel for lunch at "The Bean" and continued on down the main street intent on going to the grocery store about a mile or so down the road. Along the way I spied a hairdressing salon and decided to go in and see if I could get a hair cut. As I went in a lady was also heading in and said a very friendly "Hello". I was able to make an appointment to return in an hour and as I headed out the salon the lady asked me if we were walking to the grocery store. I replied that "Yes, we were" at which point she handed me her car keys and insisted we take her car to drive to the store, then take everything back to the boat and return in an hour by which time she would be done with her manicure and it would be time for my haircut! We were blown away by this friendly gesture. Once we had done shopping and I returned the keys to her at the salon she told me that she and her husband used to cruise and that she knew how tough it was sometimes to get the shopping done without transport. She also commented that she had no qualms lending her car to a cruiser as she knew that there was no way they would run off with her car and leave their beloved sailboat behind - how right she is! It is acts of kindness like this that restore your faith in humanity.

The second notable event was that we received a "senior discount" at the grocery store. What does this mean? We were both flabbergasted when we reviewed the receipt and noted the $2.69 discount. Tom thinks it is because they thought he was shopping with his mother - very rude! Well, whatever the reason, we'll take the discount.

So we have had a happy, easy day here in Oriental, it has been sunny and warm. Tomorrow we are hoping for some action along the depth sounder front. We'll keep you posted.

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