The crew of the sailing vessel Southern Star has been busy. Since we last traveled to the coast, we had a great visit with our children Matthew and Amber at their home in Boston as well as a camping trip to Pennsylvania to see an excellent archeological sight. We were really looking forward to the weekend because we were going to have guests aboard. Benny and Bonnie have been family friends and neighbors for a long time. In fact, Benny's dad and my dad grew up together. They had plans to stay at the Cartwright House Bed and Breakfast in Oriental and go sailing with us on Saturday. We had been watching tropical storm Danny for almost a week. He was forecast to pass uncomfortably close to the Carolina coast on Saturday.

We met on Wednesday night to iron out some trip details, and we decided to make a go or no go decision on Thursday night. The weather forecast was consistently good for the area. I could not believe the forecast was so good with a tropical storm hanging around. I actually called the national weather service to get a confirmation. I spoke to a delightful young lady who assured me that their forecast did indeed allow for a tropical storm off the coast. She explained that as soon as the storm passed, sometime early Saturday, the weather would improve radically and quickly. Benny and Bonnie were looking forward to a weekend away from home, so we decided that the trip was a "go".

Friday August 28, 2009
I called Benny at about 2pm and he reported that they were in New Bern, which is only 45 minutes from their destination of Oriental. Danny was still making a nuisance of himself. They were experiencing rain and were wondering if a trip to the coast was a good idea. Judy and I left at the usual time, right after work. We had good weather all the way to Kinston. We were delayed near Smithfield because the highway patrol had closed east bound highway 70. The detour added nearly an hour to our normal 5 hour commute. After we left Kinston we started seeing rain. Sometimes it was just a sprinkle and sometimes a blinding downpour. Danny was flexing his muscles. By the time we reached Whortonsville, the rain was very heavy. By borrowing a giant golf umbrella from our dock mates Bob and Tammy, we were able to get the car unloaded without getting soaked. I set up covers over the companionway and forward hatch so that we could have air circulation without getting too much water in our bed. NOAA weather radio indicated that Danny had run out of steam and was just a tropical depression with winds of about 35 knots. We finally got to bed around midnight. We slept surprisingly well, and the boat stayed dry.

Saturday August 29, 2009
One of my favorite things is having a cup of hot coffee on deck and easing into the morning. While having my first cup of Judy's delicious coffee, I noticed that the heavy cloud cover was punctuated by small patches of blue sky. The weather forecast was still good with fair winds from the west and only a 30% chance of rain. Our friend Ruth once told me that if there was enough blue sky to knit a pair of "kitten breeches", the bad weather was on its way out. In this case Ruth and the national weather service were both right. By 9am it was evident that the weather was going to be glorious. The wet weather and our delay in arriving on Friday caused us to be a bit behind in getting Southern Star ready for her day on the water. We had to unship the rain covers and dry everything down in addition to the normal chores required to get ready to go sailing. We called Benny and Bonnie and told them to enjoy their breakfast and plan for an 11am departure.

When the boat was ready to (as our two year old grandson Carson says) "rock 'e roll", I was headed for the shower when I noticed a strange vehicle in the parking lot. What a wonderful surprise to find that it was our friends Doug and Sheryl whom we had not seen in about two years. Regular readers may remember that they are the couple who sold everything and struck out on their Southern Cross 35, "Prudence", and sailed to the Caribbean. They are now the proud owners of a magazine called Carolina Currents. They had stopped by to deliver copies of their free magazine to Ensign Harbor. It was a real pleasure to see them again. They looked wonderfully fit and seemed to be enjoying their new adventure as magazine publishers.

Our guests arrived right on time. Fortunately the captain had been able to greet old friends and get a shower before their arrival. After a quick tour of the boat, the first mate suggested that we should get underway before thunderstorms had a chance to build. The weather was just great. We told Benny and Bonnie that if they could promise to bring this kind of weather every time, we would just have the come every weekend. The launch was accomplished without incident. We motored down Brown Creek then Broad Creek and finally reached the lower Neuse River, one of my favorite places. As I have said many times in this forum, the weather on the Carolina coast is either spectacular or terrible with little middle ground. This day was definitely spectacular. The skies were brilliant blue with huge fluffy white clouds. The westerly wind was a bit unusual and it was influenced by land shadow, but it was generally steady at 7 to 10 knots which was a bit lighter than the forecast. Our guests were reluctant to take the helm, but we coaxed them both into a turn at the wheel. We sailed on all points of sail from close hauled to a downwind run. My breakfast bowl of cereal was worn completely out by 1pm, so we performed the classic "heave-to" maneuver. The little ship had been performing like a thoroughbred all day. Now she was still and drifting quietly broadside, down wind. Judy served chicken salad wraps with chips and fruit. The crew and guests were able to relax and enjoy the simple meal.

After lunch we jibed out of the heave to position and continued our sail. The wind did build a bit, and at one point I sensed that Benny was a bit uncomfortable with the angle of heel. I took the helm for a while until the wind quieted. The idea here is for our guests to have a good time and not be uncomfortable. It was nearly 4pm when the first mate reminded me that we were probably an hour from Ensign Harbor. We sailed nearly as far as Broad Creek marker one before we cranked the diesel and furled the sails. We landed without incident with the help of our dock mate Don. Back at the dock Benny helped me deploy the air conditioner so that it could start cooling the boat before dinner. We gave our guests a tour of the dock and introduced them to friends Don and Trish from Ragtop, Bob and Tammy from Motivation, Richard from Alcyone and Stefan from Layla. Layla's commanding officer Sebastian (Stefan and Marita's infant son) was taking a nap and could not be bothered by commoners for an introduction. Stefan did a USCG Auxiliary safety inspection after he noticed that Southern Star's inspection sticker was two years old. We passed with flying colors after we corrected a bad connection in the stern running light.



Judy served a delicious meal of grilled salmon (imagine that!), brown rice, bean salad and whole wheat bread. Everyone ate their fill, and we talked until way past bedtime. We all agreed that we were glad we went ahead with the weekend in spite of the storm. It turned out to be a most excellent day one the water. In fact, it was one of the best days in recent memory.

Sunday August 30, 2009
We met Benny and Bonnie at the Oriental Harbor Deli for breakfast. We enjoyed the meal and the conversation. Their check out time was 11am so we returned to the dock to get Southern Star ready for our absence. I added a second set of dock lines in case of a blow. We left at about 1pm and stopped in Bayboro for a burger. Our trip home was uneventful. This was an excellent weekend on the water. Good friends and good sailing. Who could ask for more?