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

October 27th Monday... Broad Creek, NC to Oriental, NC

We pulled into Oriental at about 10:30 and were met by Steve and Kim who drove us around running errands most of the morning. I picked up a new starter battery as well as a new shower sump pump to replace the one that has been giving us problems for the last few weeks. We also ran out to check on "Restless" where Steve and Carol had left her in the spring.

After a nice lunch at their marina we headed back to the boat to work on projects. In the process of installing the new shower sump, I found the reason that it wasn't working (I'd already had it apart twice) and was able to fix it so we now have a spare pump, which we've always needed.

The new battery was installed and the temporary was returned to the battery bank. Kathy did some laundry that didn't get done in Washington and I filled our tank with water.

Steve and Kim were having us over for dinner and stopped by at about 5 pm to take us over to their condo.

We had a great meal and decided to join them tomorrow for a drive to the South Bound Cruisers Gam in New Bern which is about 30 miles away. Then we read the agenda for the next day, which was the only day Kim and Steve could go, and we couldn't find anything we were interested in, so we decided to go shopping instead.

A cold front had gone through while we were at dinner and it was a cold, but short,
walk back to the boat in the wind.

We will likely be staying here for a few days while the wind blows.

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Miike
10/29/2008, Broad Creek, NC

October 26th Sunday... Washington, NC to Broad Creek, NC

We were ready to cast off before daylight, but waited for a few minutes to make sure that we could see the markers that we needed to follow for the first few miles. When I turned the key to start the engine it barely rolled over. I gave it a couple more tries before giving up. Our starting battery was in the boat when we bought it and we have no idea how long it had been there before that. We moved all the "stuff" off of our guest stateroom to get to the battery which I removed and replaced with a battery form our house bank. The whole process took about 10 minutes and then we were on our way.

We motored through the narrow channel for the first few miles and then hoisted our sails for another perfect beam reach out the Pamlico River. After the 30 mile run we rolled up the two head sails and started the motor to head into Goose Creek and the Canal that takes us about 10 miles to the Bay River and the Pamlico Sound. We tried to sail once in the sound but the water was flat.

We really didn't know where we were headed at this point. Oriental was the next town and we needed to stop there for a while to check on "Restless" and to purchase a battery. However, today was the first good travel day in about 3 days and everyone heading south would be stopping in Oriental. We opted to head into Broad Creek and anchor for the night and then stop in Oriental in the morning after the cruisers had pulled out.

At that point we made a U-turn to follow Perseverance 2. They called to see what we were up to and to assist if necessary. We explained that we had changed plans and were going to follow them to an anchorage.

Just as we signed off with Perseverance 2 and changed back to channel 16. We got a call from "Fine Lion" whom we had met last winter in the Bahamas. They live in Oriental and really wanted us to stop in for a visit. We promised that we would see them tomorrow.

Once anchored, I dropped the dinghy and invited the three other boats in the anchorage over for hot chocolate after dinner. They were all continuing on to Beaufort in the morning and we were heading into Oriental so we really didn't know when we'd catch up with them again.

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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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