Mike
11/07/2008, Oriental, NC

October 29th... Wednesday Oriental, NC

My job for the day...was to install the vacuum gauge on our fuel system. The first step was to remove both or our primary racor filters and for cleaning. (this was a 3 hour job for those of you who care) When everything was sparkling, I put things back together and added a short line to a vacuum gauge which will tell us when our filters are getting over taxed.

I took a shower .... diesel seems to stick with me... and went out for lunch with Steve and Kim who had been working onboard Fine Lion during the morning.

We are planning on heading to Beaufort on Friday and then going outside to Charleston. If all goes well, we will then shoot down to Florida to take the pressure off our furnace which has been working overtime lately.

October 30th...Thursday Oriental, NC

I have been trying to forget that our hot water heater has a pinhole leak. Unless we are using it, our water system remains unpressurized. Anyway, this morning I took the sink out to get at the water heater and attempted once again to right the situation. This time, instead of epoxy, I made a soft rubber washer and used a sheet metal screw to fill the hole. It seems to be fine at this point.

I also tightened a compression fitting that was dripping and rerouted the water line to our Seagul filter.

Kathy did a couple more loads of wash in the afternoon before going over to Kim and Steve's to have dinner with them and some friends of theirs from Annapolis. Gerry and Skip have been cruising for years but have decided to call it quits this year. We spoke with Bill and Christy from "Veranda" who were moored in the next creek to the north before we left and they ended having supper with us as well.

We've had a great time here in Oriental, and have taken care of some boat projects that needed attention, but are ready to find some warmer weather.

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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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