Miike
11/07/2008, Cape Lookout, NC

October 31st...Friday Oriental NC to Point Lookout Bight NC

The seafood guy here in Oriental is only open on Fridays and Saturdays so we waited around until 10am while Kim and Steve were making final preparations on "Fine Lion." He showed up at about 10:15 but wasn't ready to sell anything at that point. There is a commercial seafood company located across the street and he runs their retail operation on weekends. It was going to take him an hour or so to get over there and collect today's merchandise. We had a nice chat but decided not to wait... there will be more shrimp along the way.

We cast off at around 10:30 ... but not without dinging the outer pier of our slip a couple of times with our anchor, and headed across the Neusse River to Cedar Creek and the ICW. It was only 18 miles to Beaufort but we planned on stopping somewhere for fuel along the way. As it turned our all the fuel docks were tied up so we pulled into Town Creek (Beaufort) and filled up at the marina there.

By the time we were finished "Fine Lion" was there waiting for the 2:30 bridge opening. We had planned on spending the night in Town Creek but had decided enroute to go out into the Ocean and about an hour east to Point Lookout Bight which is an amazingly protected spot. The Ocean was flat calm. Point Lookout Bight is located in Cape Lookout National Seashore and is beautiful in a desolate sort of way. We anchored in about 25 feet of water surrounded by nothing but dunes.

We rowed the dinghy over to "Fine Lion" for some trick or treating and decided to weigh anchors at about 5 am.

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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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