Mike and Kathy
10/29/2008, Washington, NC

October 24th...Friday Washington, NC

Happy Birthday Matt!


Randy was here before 9am to take Betty, Cathy, Mona and me to Walmart for an hour of shopping. There were 7 items on my list but ended up with about 50. When we returned to the boat and unloaded. It took a few minutes to put things away and then we were off to the laundry. Again Randy came to the rescue and loaded the girls and dirty laundry into his van and drove them the 6 blocks to the Laundromat.

Al, Tom and I walked to West Marine to look around and make a few small purchases before joining the ladies and toting clean cloths back to the boats.

We had lunch at "Bill's Hotdogs", a highly regarded take out place off Main Street. The dogs themselves were soaked in something red and had a little bite to them. They are best "all the way" which means a dollop of white chili, mustard and onions. They may not have been the best ever, but were tasty and different.

Later Kathy and I wert back to town and wandered around looking for birthday cards. In the afternoon we watched the Bar B Q contestants set up their cookers and tents for the evening's cooking.

In Catskill, NY they had decorated cats around town, here it's crabs

The eight of us went out to eat again and then strolled Main Street (which was closed for about 5 blocks) listening to the various music groups.


October 25th Saturday Washington, NC

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

It rained most of the night, but by morning was down to a drizzle. I was up early and out to watch the Bar B Q judging at about 7:30. There were four judges who walked from tent to tent to check out both presentation and taste of the pork. The whole process took about two hours...with the judges spending about 10 minutes with every entry.

After the judging the contestants immediately boned all the pork chopped it finely and deposited it to the folks who were set up to sell sandwiches. All proceeds went to local charity.

There was car show, a 5K race, a stage with music all day. Unfortunately, the day was a drizzly, windy, cool day until about 4pm. Our two free nights at the dock were over and were prepared to head out to ancho,r but I spoke with the dock master who informed us that we could stay where we were but had to pay $.75 a foot for the night. I handed over the money and we didn't even have to untie.

We crews of Sapphire, Third Star, Perseverance 2, Inspiration and Rigamarole got together at about 4:00 to discuss plans for the next few days. We had a nice chat and returned to the boat for some dinner.

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Mike
10/24/2008, Washington, NC

October 23rd ... Thursday Pungo River to Washington, NC


We had a very calm night but could hear the wind out on the River. Up at about 6:45 we had coffee and were on our way by 7:30. We motored south on the Pungo with a tail wind of about 15 knots. After about 5or 6 miles we hit the Pamlico River and headed west for Washington.

There is another front coming through this weekend... and we really didn't need to be in a hurry. At Deep Creek we met some folks from Washington, NC and they told us how nice their town was to boaters so we took a 33 mile side trip.

Once on the Pamlico we hoisted the headsail and quickly got the mizzen up for balance. We were running between 6 and 7.5 knots in gusty winds of 15 to 25 knots. A little later, we rolled out the staysail and picked up our bottom end to about 6.6 knots. Our average for the day was a little under 7 on a beam reach just off the north... (lee) shore of the Pamlico. It was not warm. We had three layers of fleece, gloves and stocking caps... but it was such a good sail we overlooked the coolness. My face is burned for the second day in a row... I just don't think about lotion when it's 50 degrees.

The only negative aspect of our day was that the GPS died and the last few miles of the trip consist of a rather narrow channel. We made it on visual, but were reminded that we can't depend on electronics... there is no substitute for charts and eyes.

After docking at the free City docks we were met by Randy, an unofficial greeter, who gave us the lay of the land and offered to drive us to the grocery tomorrow morning. For us, a laundry is way more critical than food. We can stay here free for two nights but will probably anchor off the town for a couple more days to hide from the weather and to take advantage of "Smoke on the Water" a Chili and Bar B Q cook off scheduled for this Saturday here on the waterfront.

There is also the season finale of Music in the Streets on Friday night, where they close main street and invite bands to play.

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Mike and Kathy
10/24/2008, Slade Creek, NC

October 22, Thursday... Alligator River to Slade Creek, (Pungo R.)


It was cold as Sapphire left the Alligator for the 3 mile run to the entrance to the Alligator Pungo Canal, a nearly straight shot through the wilderness of North Carolina. Other than the canal itself, there was no sign of mankind for about two hours. We saw a pair of eagles but that was about all the wildlife.

Leaving the canal for the Pungo River we hauled out the jib and turned off the engine for a nice sail west across the Pungo and then south. We bypassed Belhaven which isn't the best anchorage in the winds that seem to persist, and sailed down to Slade Creek which is unmarked... we eased through the shoals at the mouth and were pleased to find more water than the charts indicated. We motored NE about a mile to the first bend and anchored with only crab pots for neighbors.

"Perseverance 2" and "Third Star" joined us shortly. I rowed our new dinghy over to visit and we decided to meet on "Third Star" for snacks at about 5pm.

We had a nice time but had to row back before dark. As usually is the case, we had enough snacks that supper was unnecessary.

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