It blew up a bunch again last night but thanks to Joey and his wife's kindness we were snug as two little boat bugs in a rug tied up alongside a nice dock here in Carolina Beach.

I took a short walk this morning over to the beach side of the island and watched the seas rolling in. I took several shots as a souvenir and came back to the boat to accompany Joey over to Boater's World and West Marine. We went to Boater's World first as they are going out of business and there was a great deal of stuff being sold off for 20-50% off. Then we went on to West Marine for anything that their competitor didn't have. Besides recharging the life vests, I am going to put some of the rubber snubbers on the dock lines to minimize the jolt when we surge up against them in heavy weather when we are at dock. Barb, Mary Lou and Ronda are off to the local grocery store for growlies and we are planning a dinner with the three families this evening. I will be providing the beer. Looks like Ronda is doing a roast of pork for the dinner and I went into their kitchen a little earlier and saw the nicest sald sitting there too, ready for dinner. This is really great southern hospitality. My only problem is that I would really like to reciprocate, but I don't think that they are going to be coming up to Halifax any time soon. Perhaps we could do something like invite them to come and visit Nelleke next winter when we are hopefully down in the Caribbean somewhere.

Tomorrow will be a good day to travel; the only question being whether we go offshore and make the big jump in one lump to Beaufort/Moorehead City NC, or take two days to do it via the ICW. It's not like we are in a rush, but Nelleke is a sailboat and I don't want her to forget that. After getting to that point we will have a two or three day motor up the ICW to Great Keys Lock in Virginia and then the day after that we should be in Norfolk where we will stay on for a couple of days and hopefully meet our friend Maury and Ginger aboard Gipsy Sails. I am also hoping to pick up some more oil and filters for the Perkins when we are up there.

This afternoon, in anticipation of a departure tomorrow morning, we did the first parade and filled up the water tanks, again thanks to Joey's hospitality. Did I mention that in spite of him offering to provide a dock space at least for a dingy if someone preferred to anchor out, plus drive folks to a grocery store or hardware store, that we were the first to take him up on it? I can vouch for their hospitality, if anyone else is looking at stopping at Carolina Beach.