05/23/2010, Oriental, NC

May 21st, 2010 South River to Oriental, NC

The morning was still. Not a whisper of wind and our cockpit was full of bugs. We shooed enough of them away to have coffee out there but it was still buggy. At about 9 we weighed anchor and motored across the Neusse to Oriental and found room to anchor off the marina.

We had a tough time getting our anchor to set, but after four tries it seemed to be holding a little. There is good protection here except for the SE so hopefully the wind with stay our of that quadrant.

Steve and Kim were heading out for lunch but we begged off, needing to stay aboard a while to insure that our anchor was going to hold.

It was still reasonably calm so we decided to work on teak. We hadn't touched it all winter....it's always too windy in the Bahamas, and it needed some attention. I sanded out all the areas that were starting to look bad and then hit them with a coat of Cetol. Then after that had tacked, we applied a coat of gloss to everything. By then the afternoon was mostly over and we were expected at Steve and Kim's for dinner.

At some point in the last week or two I mentioned that I really wanted a good steak. Steve had been shopping and found some nice rib eyes for tonight's meal. We went over to watch them cook at about 5 p.m.

We had steak, mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed corn with grape tomatoes and basil, and some good bread with olive oil.

We had a great time but were both tired and returned to the boat well before dark.

May 22nd, 2010

After coffee I went over to visit with David and Peg on "Journey" who had anchored near us yesterday. Then Kim called for my help moving their outboard to shore. We lowered their motor into the dinghy and we headed over to the dinghy dock to off load. Then, with our empty propane tanks and outboard we took off for Bayboro down the road. As we approach the marine store where we planned to drop off the outboard, the battery light on Steve's Mercedes came on the air conditioner quit and then we lost power steering. It was obviously the serpentine belt.

We pulled in the marine store and opened the hood to verify...we were right. He had replaced the belt and tensioner 1000 miles ago but it was shredded. The Mercedes place was closed so there was nothing to do but call Kim to borrow a truck and come pick us up...leaving the car there for the weekend to be towed on Monday.

Kim showed up shortly and we continued on into New Bern to rent a car and find another place to have the outboard tuned up. (The first place wouldn't work on Mercury's)
With all that accomplished, we drove back to Oriental getting our propane tanks filled at the hardware.

By then we were all hungry, so I dinghied out to pick up Kathy and some dirty clothes she was going to wash at the condo. On the way we decided to walk downtown to purchase some shrimp from the stand across the street from the seafood company.

I took them back to the boat while Kathy started laundry. Then we walked back to the marina for a nice lunch. Just as we were finishing up lunch, "Black Swan", a boat we had met in Staniel Cay, entered the harbor. Steve borrowed a VHF from Ross, the harbormaster, and gave him a call. He also got them a free slip on the outside of the dock if he wanted it.

As it turns out ,Steve from Black Swan was single-handing his boat back to Maine and after getting docked, he promised to join us for cocktails later in the day.

Kathy returned to finish laundry and do some shopping with Kim while I spent the afternoon topping off our water and fuel tanks.

At 4:30 we met back at the condo for snacks. Steve, Kim and Steve were going out to dinner but we returned to the boat where I poached some shrimp...they were excellent. When you can find shrimp right off the boat they are so much better.

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05/22/2010, South River, N.C.

May 19th, 2010 Cape Lookout to South River

We woke to rain and after coffee and breakfast a little later, still had rain. Our plan was to wait until mid morning when things cleared out but I wasn't really sure that that was going to happen.

At about 10 the radar showed a large squall headed our way but there didn't seem to be much behind it. It rained very hard with some lightening for about another hour, but at 11:30 we decided to make a break for the channel at Beaufort which is only about an hour away.

Although it was cloudy all day, we stayed dry as we motored through the canal and then into Adams Creek out to the Neusse River. Steve and Kim were going home after 6 ½ months and needed some time to get settled before company so we headed out the Neusse for a few miles and then into South River. We motored up stream about 4 miles to get away from civilization and anchored for the evening.

I made some potato soup with ham for dinner, which we ate in the cockpit listening to the birds.

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05/22/2010, South River, N.C.

May 19th, 2010 Cape Lookout to South River

We woke to rain and after coffee and breakfast a little later, still had rain. Our plan was to wait until mid morning when things cleared out but I wasn't really sure that that was going to happen.

At about 10 the radar showed a large squall headed our way but there didn't seem to be much behind it. It rained very hard with some lightening for about another hour, but at 11:30 we decided to make a break for the channel at Beaufort which is only about an hour away.

Although it was cloudy all day, we stayed dry as we motored through the canal and then into Adams Creek out to the Neusse River. Steve and Kim were going home after 6 ½ months and needed some time to get settled before company so we headed out the Neusse for a few miles and then into South River. We motored up stream about 4 miles to get away from civilization and anchored for the evening.

I made some potato soup with ham for dinner, which we ate in the cockpit listening to the birds.

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