It has been quite a while since I felt the urge to put down a few words. Or, more accurately, it has been a while that the urge has coincided with a decent Wi-Fi signal.

Mother Nature still hates us - those of you who read Mike’s blog entries will be aware of that. It is getting difficult to be enthusiastic about being on the boat this trip as we have been held up on our progression time after time due to unsuitable or miserable weather. I try hard to look for the positive in having to slow down; when we can get off the boat we do get to explore new places that we had not planned upon; we have the opportunity to pick away at the endless list of boat projects and find, even after having the boat for twenty years, better ways to stow gear on board.

But then there are times like this morning at 0100 - Oh, What A Night! (with apologies to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons). We had prepared Nelleke as best we could for the incoming blow that was going to press us onto the dock - put out all of our dock lines, deployed our fenders and big fender board. There was nothing else that we could do other than check from time to time so we were off to bed after a trek up to the marina office through pouring rain and howling wind for hot showers.
On the 0100 check Mike discovered that the fender board had failed on one side with that one end grinding into Nelleke’s gelcoat. I had stuck my head out the companionway and heard Mike shout over the sound of the wind in the rigging “Babe, I need your help on deck now!” I pulled a heavy sweater on over my nightgown and shoved my feet into my sea boots (what a fashion statement LOL) and went up to see what was what. Mike was on the dock pushing with all his might against the toe rail while I recovered the fender board and then with again all of Mike’s strength pushing we rearranged the fenders as best as we could. Neither of us were adequately dressed for being outside in these conditions so once we got back below I made a rum fortified hot chocolate for Mike and a tea for me. Both of us were frozen and wide awake by that point. A silver lining was found at that point in that the Wi-Fi signal was strong enough to download the Waterway Guide warning reports of the shallow parts of the ICW that we would encounter when we get underway again. By 0230 we were back in our sleeping bags trying to get some rest - listening to the wind howling in the rigging and the squeaking and squealing of the fenders between the boat and the dock.

Someone remind me - this is supposed to be fun, eh? Joke over. Yes, we took care of the situation; yes, neither of us were physically hurt. But fun? Not so much. I had already run through in my mind how long it would take me to get below to get the AED and the proper first aid kit all the while fervently hoping they would not be required. mike is dang lucky he didn’t marry a princess.

When we got up today it was 0 degrees Centigrade here - WTF??? That was the same as at home. I heard Mike muttering in the galley while he was making steaming hot oatmeal porridge for breakfast something about if we wanted to sail in Arctic conditions we bloody well might as well have stayed home.

We decided to stay at this well appointed marina for one more night - indeed this morning the wind conditions were still such that we would not have been able to get away from the dock anyway.

In the North Carolina section of the ICW that we have transited so far there is still plenty of damage from the last three hurricanes that has not been rectified; washed out docks with only a few pilings left, closed marinas, boarded up houses, houses with roof damage, empty storefronts, shore erosion with downed trees. Otherwise it is an area of towering pine trees, winter blooming and heavily scented jasmine, giant magnolia trees and pecan trees, crepe myrtle trees (I think I have spelled that properly), shrimp and blue crabs.

Backing up a few days - by the time we got to Oriental, NC, we were both starting to look a little seedy - hair curling around our collars, weatherbeaten faces and eyes that were quite red rimmed from staring out over long distances. We did take advantage of a great hairdresser that we found by happenstance in Oriental at the Indulgence Salon - Ardella North took us on as walk-ins and fixed up at least the hair part. Mike for 15$ and me for only 25$ which included a wash and wonderful scalp massage - we walked out feeling much restored.

Today, in Morehead City, we borrowed the marina’s courtesy car and headed out for a few groceries at a well stocked grocery store called Lowe’s. I was startled to see that the yellow sweet peppers and cranberries were from Canada - what is up with that? Later on the same trip we stopped by an ABC to restock our spirits cabinet and again I was startled - this time I found a 750ml bottle of Forty Creek rye whisky for 19.99 USD (huzzah!!) in amongst a gazillion types of Canadian Club in their two shelf Canadian section. See, it is not all bad on this trip- I didn’t expect to have a tipple of Forty Creek until we arrived back home.

We heard our first Christmas music today emanating from a beautiful gift shop on the waterfront here - wreaths on the double doors fashioned from shiny magnolia leaves (dark green on one side and bronze coloured on the underside), and decorated with pomegranates- gorgeous! I would have been saying that I am not ready to think about Christmas but the crisp air that was cold enough to cause us to wear toques and gloves and the music and wreaths called us into the shop. We were not disappointed with the array of gifts!

And off we go further down the ditch tomorrow - from the looks of things we can not get offshore again - oh well.