As usual, the crew of the sailing vessel Southern Star has been busy. We find it keeps us out of trouble. Two weeks ago we enjoyed a trip to Arlington, near Boston MA to visit our son Matthew and daughter-in-law Amber. They were gracious hosts. We had not seen their new apartment and were really looking forward to the trip. Airline reservations had been made months ago, before the price of fuel went nuts, so it was not a terribly expensive trip. We stayed with our kids, which also helped keep the cost down. We were treated to tours of the historic parts of town and not so historic parts. We can recommend the food in the area; especially "scrod" which is evidently a local catch similar to cod. We were there for four days and we enjoyed every minute of it. One day we went to Salem where Judy and Amber toured the historic village while Matthew and I went sailing with his friend in Salem harbor. John has a classic 24 footer that he is restoring. Sailing New England waters is very different from sailing Carolina waters. I told John that my depth finder had never read depths as deep as we were reading in the inner harbor. The high point of the sail was going past Marble Head, where the really expensive boats and their people live.

Last weekend we took our grandson camping. It was the first time he had been away from his parents over night. He did great and was a pleasure to have around. His parents survived but I think is was a close call. I don't blame them; we missed him as soon as we took him back home. I can imagine how much they missed him on his first overnight away from home.

Last time we are at the coast, we had removed all the canvas and sails from the boat. We did this was because we were going to be too far away to get back before a forecasted storm could arrive. We had missed out on any sailing action last time and hoped to go sailing this time.

Friday August 15, 2008
I took a half vacation day on Friday. This makes it really nice because we get there in time to have dinner on the boat and relax a bit before time for bed. We really needed the extra time this trip because we had stored the sails (very haphazardly) in the cabin so there was no place to sleep until we put the sails back in their places. On smaller boats the sails are typically kept in bags and installed each time the boat is sailed. Southern Star is comparatively not that big but taking sails off and putting them on is quite a task simply because the sails are so large. Judy and I wrestled the headsail in place first, then the main. It took a couple of hours and we were both tired when done. I put the bimini canvas in place while Judy made dinner. We took time to visit with Art, our dock mate whom we had not seen in several weeks. We turned in early, hoping the weather would be suitable for sailing in the morning.

Saturday August 16, 2008
The weather was not stellar so we had a nice breakfast. Judy made sweet potato pancakes and we eased into the day with a second cup of coffee. Our intent was to sail over to South River for the night if we weren't going to need to wrestle a thunderstorm to get there. Stefan and Marita arrived about mid morning. There were thinking of a trip to South River as well. Bill and Susan arrived a bit later and we invited them to go as well, but they were not prepared to stay the night. Bill and Susan live really close so they are able to come just for the day, which is not an option for us.

We left Ensign Harbor about 1:30 just ahead of Stefan and Marita aboard Layla. Conditions on the Neuse were good. The wind was light, but it was not as hot as we had expected. We sailed together (kinda) for a while, then the wind died down so that the boats barely had steerage. We communicated via VHF and decided to motor the rest of the way so we could get hooks down and have a bit more time at anchor. South River is very wide where we anchored. We usually try to anchor near a windward shore, but this time we wanted to be as far away from a windward shore as possible because the wind was light, and light winds allow visiting bugs an easier path to visiting boats. Stefan and Marita seemed to do fine, but we had a bit of trouble getting our trusty Fortress anchor to dig in. We tried several times and finally got it down well enough to hold in the anticipated winds.

Both boats had taken dinghies so Judy and I rowed over to Layla. We were welcomed aboard Layla and given refreshments. After a while, it was time for Layla's official boat dog to be escorted ashore for an important business matter, we rowed back after inviting everyone to Southern Star for after dinner refreshments. Judy whipped out a quick and delicious Mexican dinner. She made bean burritos just the way I like them. After dinner a refreshing shower was in order. We called Layla on VHF and told the crew that Southern Star was ready to receive guests at any time. They arrived just after dark. We enjoyed refreshments and good conversation until bedtime. The cool breeze lasted all night. The moon was full and the clear sky made it seem like we were sleeping under a street lamp.

Sunday August 17, 2008
We woke to a very nice morning. The forecast had no mention of rain for the area. We had coffee and bagels for breakfast. The wind was nice, and we hoped to sail back home. The longer we sat there the hotter it got, so we prepared to get underway. The anchor came up easy, too easy. I suspect it wasn't in very deep. We motored out to the first channel marker and set the sails. Our course was 30 degrees, a little east of north. I noted a very unusual condition. The wind was no more than about 8 to 10 knots and the seas were one foot or less, which should be ideal conditions but it seemed rougher than it looked. I noted that although the waves were short, they were very steep and numerous. The famous Pamlico sound chop was living up to its reputation. My most reliable weather gauge is the first mate. If it is not too rough to keep her from reading or doing needlework, everything is fine and we can continue sailing, and so we did.

We held a steady course just east of north on a single tack, all the way back to Broad Creek marker 1. We sailed until it was time to take down the sails and motor in. Many of our mates sail into the channel. We find that we enjoy it much more if we sail in open waters and use the diesel when in confined spaces. We motored home without incident. When we arrived we caught sight of Richard, another dock mate whom we had not seen in a while. We were able to catch up with him and get all the news about the house they are remodeling in New Bern. I took Charlie Gibson (our dinghy) for a spin and discovered his little outboard needs to have its carburetor cleaned. At least, I hope that's the problem. We packed up our belongings and prepared the boat for our absence. It was nearly 3 pm when we headed for higher ground. This was another enjoyable weekend for the crew of the sailing vessel Southern Star.