US Election Day
04 November 2008
• Goose Greek, Jones Bay NC
by Mike
Last night was a real rip-snorter as far as the weather was concerned - 20 knots from the north and loads of rain - I'm sure happy we chose to stay alongside at the marina.
I woke up early this morning and consulted Clearpoint and it looks as though the weather will stay like this for most of today letting up only later this afternoon. So, we decided that our best move is to make some headway and move to RE Mayo docks about 24 miles further along. We had a bit of a struggle to get away from the pier but with the kind help of the staff from Dowry Creek Marina we managed it without mishap. We eased out back into the channel and our planned course which followed the zig zags of the Pamlico River. Although the sea state wasn't much by Halifax standards it was extremely confused and choppy. Combined with the 20 knot winds that were sustained throughout the day gave Nelleke a 7 knot average speed with occasional bursts to over 8! Most of the trip was on a reach and under our No1 jib she flew along, and when at one point we turned downwind we even started to display a sort of spinnaker roll. What I didn't realize was that Barb wasn't expecting it and was not having a good time not realizing what was going on. At one point we even buried the starboard rail which for Nelleke was quite a feat.
We rolled into RE Mayo's docks a whole lot earlier than we had thought that we would and found a nice spot just in front of our friends Lynn and Ken from Silverheels III. They had traveled here directly last night and had chosen to stay here a second night due to the weather forecast, After today, I think that I'll be going on alone if we don't follow their lead. It doesn't really bother me as it costs $16/night for Nelleke to stay here vice the $60 we paid for albeit much nicer facilities back at Dowry Creek, but we are further along towards our destination and this place is convenient and the folks that run it are nice. The lady in charge was showing us how to catch oysters with an oyster rake tonight so we had appetizers over with Lynn and Ken. It's a very interesting and simple process - two ten foot long sticks hinged about two feet from one end with a set of rakes at the short end. You lower them in the water and sort of feel (or look if the water is clear) around for oysters and then you pinch the rake together and bring Mr. Oyster up for dinner. Lynn got pretty good at it and by the end of 30 minutes she had Ken busy working to clear off about a dozen and a half of them.
We'll see what tomorrow brings tomorrow. If the weather remains crappy I don't mind staying here at all. Fresh shrimp, flounder and crabs and self caught oysters - what more could you ask for, and we still have 11 days to burn off before we can go past Oriental which is our next stop. If we are still here we have made plans with Silverheels III to have a seafood pot luck. They still have more oysters, we have fresh flounder and we both have shrimp. Promises to be pretty good. In fact with that gastronomic enticement we'd better stay together even at out next stop if we won't be here.
The Krugers, on Magic, whom we met back at Dowry Creek were kind enough to invite us to stop in at their place in Florida on the way through. That is one of the wonderful things about this lifestyle, is all of the great people that you meet along the way - power and sail, young and old, new expensive boats or older labours of love, they all share the same dream - low carbon footprint, slower pace of life, and a laid back lifestyle.
Today is Election Day here in the US and so far it has been pretty low key - boring actually. I'm looking forward to tomorrow to hearing who the new President is.
Comments