11/2
Judy, Don, Carl and I took the marina car into town to pick up the part we ordered yesterday. We timed it so that we could go back to the bakery for lunch. I had fried chicken, fried okra, collards and a biscuit. One of my favorite southern meals! This time the guys left Judy and I in town to "shop" while they picked up the part. Belhaven had more cute shops that I remembered. They picked us up afterwards and Carl gave me the bill for the part. The part cost $11 and the overnight shipping was $95! What?! Fortunately I didn't spend any money "shopping" today. It is in the upper 70's today. Don's part arrived when we returned to the marina. I think his part was a lot more than mine, so I shouldn't complain. That's why it is called a BOAT....Break Out Another Thousand!
11/3
With all of our repairs mostly done, we left Dowry Creek at 8:45 a.m. Another front moved through last night and it was a cooler 56*. As we left the Pungo River the winds were 20-25 kts, gusting to 30. We met up with S/V SeaQuell. Becky and Robert were moving their boat to New Bern from Bath. We all had our sails up and it was nice to be able to turn the engine off and sail. The conditions were perfect on the Neuse River. Winds were out of the west at 10-15. I was sitting at the helm with the auto pilot on when a gust came out of nowhere and knocked me out of my seat! That must have been the last blow because it settled down after that. Becky and Robert decided to stop in Oriental with us. We tied up to the docks at the Oriental Inn and marina at 4:15 p.m. we all gathered on Nemo while the guys were checking out Don's new autopilot. We went to dinner at the Toucan Grill where we enjoyed lots of laughs together! It was fun being together again. We will miss having SeaQuell with us. We said our goodbyes since Becky and Robert planned an early start tomorrow.
11/4
Judy and I took a morning walk around the historic district. Oriental has some beautiful homes. They also suffered some damage from Florence in September. The Bean and M&M Cafe were both closed for renovations. We found a new store that was in an old home with rooms and rooms of all sorts of things. We did a little Christmas shopping there. Back at the boats, I gave Bay Breezin' a bath and filled up the water tanks. Then Don, Judy and I got a ride to the Piggly Wiggly in the Piglet Shuttle. After we put our groceries away, we walked to the Oriental Inland Waterway Provision Company. They have marine supplies plus a lot more! We later enjoyed dinner on Nemo. Judy cooked salmon in her instant pot. It was delicious!
11/5
We have been watching another front approaching. It rained heavily overnight. After checking again this morning, we decided to go for it. We untied our lines and left Oriental at 8a.m. It was 69* and overcast. We only had a few sprinkles on the short hop to Moorehead City. There was noticeable damage to homes along Adams Creek. Houses still had blue tarps on their roofs. We reached the Yacht Basin at 12:30. I spent the afternoon catching up on my blog after taking a shower. Don and Judy are coming over for dinner. I'm making a deep dish pizza. We will study the charts and plot our course for the next few days.