October 20-22
Judy and Don arrived in Urbanna on the 18th. It snowed on them the day they left the Berkshires. They plan to drop Nemo in the water on October 21, after completing a few projects. Robert and Becky have been in Bath on SeaQuell, enjoying time with family and friends. We are going to check out some new places on our way to Bath this year. We should all be together for Halloween. We are looking forward to new adventures with Nemo and Seaquell!
It is 9:30a.m. Tuesday morning. The two large motor yachts that came in yesterday and tied to the wall in front of us, left about 30 minutes ago. That will make it easier for us to get out. We say goodbye to Gus, the unofficial dockmaster at Elizabeth City. We always feel welcome here. Carl even said he felt like he hated to leave. But we have places to go. We have decided to spend a few days exploring some towns around the Albemarle Sound. This is called the Albemarle Loop. There are six marinas, starting with Mariners Wharf in Elizabeth City that offer the first two nights free. I wanted to check them all out, but some are too shallow for our 5'5" draft. Our destination today is Albemarle Plantation Marina. The day is clear,cool and crisp. The sun sparkles like glitter on the water ahead of us. Then, all of a sudden, it looked just like stars on the water! There is a nice breeze, so we set the head sail. As soon as we turned into the sound, the wind is on our nose. So, we pull in the head sail. We are clipping along at 6+knots though. We arrive at Albemarle Plantation at 3:30 p.m. The dock master meets us on his golf cart. After we tie up, he takes us on a tour . We ride past the Osprey Yacht Club, the tennis courts, the bathrooms, showers and laundry, the pool and the Clubhouse restaurant. Then he gives us the keys to our own golf cart to use during our stay. We thank him and drive back to the boat. It is really nice to be able to drive on the long piers and park right next to the boat. Wednesday we enjoyed a big breakfast on the boat. After doing some boat chores, we head to the bath house for showers and throw a load of clothes in the wash. By the time we get back, it's time for lunch. After a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, we head out on the cart to explore. This is a gated community with beautiful houses on the water and on the golf course. On our way back to the boat, we are stopped by some members of the yacht club who invite us to join them at 6:30 for dessert on the docks. Everyone is decorating their boats with lights. We call for dinner reservations and head over to the Clubhouse restaurant for dinner. We return in time to add a few lights to our boom and throw on a jacket and head over for dessert as the sun set. There were pumkin and apple desserts at the end of D dock, ice cream sundaes at the end of C dock and cookies at the end of B dock. In between all of the desserts we enjoyed looking at the decorated boats and meeting all of the people. There were about a hundred people, all members of the yacht club. The people were as beautiful as the place. Very warm and friendly. We had a great time. We are having such a good time here that we extended our stay another night. On our last day here, we had a few more boat chores to do. I defrosted the freezer and Carl washed down the decks. A dock hand picked up our golf cart this morning and returned with a freshly charged cart. Then we went to a wine tasting. I noticed a familiar face. An old friend from my sail club at home. I remembered that Joe and his wife, Sandy, left nearly 10 years ago to build a house somewhere in North Carolina, small world! Later in the afternoon, we went to the pool. The water was cold, but the hot tub was just right! We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool. The weather has been beautiful. Tomorrow, we leave for a little town called Edenton.