The Southern Star crew enjoyed an excellent holiday season. Our cruise to Oriental to participate in their Spirit of Christmas activities was one of the high points. There were several gatherings with family and friends. We are really lucky that most of our family live close by. The obvious exception is our Son Matthew and wife Amber who live near Boston. We were fortunate that they had a little time off at Christmas and they were able to spend nearly two full weeks at home. We hope they will be able to move closer to home in the next few years, but for now we are enjoying having them home and going to Boston for a visit once in a while. Our grandson Carson is nearly two now and he is simply a joy to have around. He is beginning to get the hang of this Christmas thing and we suspect he will really be into it by next year. Christmas was a bit sad this year since we lost the patriarch in September. Pop always loved Christmas and he was missed by everyone.

Saturday January 24, 2009
There were several reasons that we delayed our weekend trip until Saturday, not the least of these was a gathering of my Mom's family on Friday at a local restaurant. My Uncle reserved a private room for us and we had a great turnout. My Mom had a great time and I was glad to see her having fun. Another reason for our delay was the weather which was, well, January weather. We often delay our trips in winter so that we can arrive during daylight hours and run the ship's heater for several hours before bedtime. This is by no means a guarantee of a warm place to sleep but arriving at 10pm on a winter night will ensure a cold berth for sure. Our boat is a large and (at least for us) relatively expensive piece of equipment and I like to at least check on it as often as possible. It had been over a month since we had made the trip which is a much longer time than usual.

We left home at about 7:30 am. In an effort to save time we delayed our breakfast until we got to Asheboro where we stopped at Mickey D's for egg McMuffins and senior coffees. We made really good time on this trip. We made it in our usual 5 hours but we stopped four times. Saturday morning traffic and the new bypass around Clayton really helped. One of our stops was a semi-emergency stop at a road side stand for fresh collard greens. (Woops, I'm afraid my "southern" is showing again). If you have never eaten fresh collards prepared properly, I am truly sorry for you.

We arrived in the metropolitan Whortonsville to find cloudy skies with a serious threat of rain. No dock mates were in evidence and we really didn't expect to see anyone. It is late January after all. Since we didn't bring much gear, unloading was a snap. The only chore I had planned for the day was the repair of some ship's canvas. I had applied a few emergency stitches to the sail cover during our last trip and there were a couple of rips in our coach roof cover where the captain had stepped on it one too many times. The handrail spats also needed a little attention. I use my handy dandy $20 Kenmore yard sale sewing machine to do the work. It is a light household machine but it does pretty well if I use a #20 needle with my polyester thread. I just take it easy and go slow, which usually yields respectable results. The canvas repair took less time than I expected. Meanwhile, Judy took a nice long walk with her umbrella. Nick our dock master stopped by my makeshift canvas shop and reported that Whortonsville had a run of severe winter weather earlier in the week. It seems that there as nearly an inch of snowfall with drifts in excess of 1.5 inches.

After returning the canvas to it's rightful place I cranked the diesel which had not been run at all in a month. It cranked without a problem and I allowed it to run while I removed the canvas from the bimini frame. I shut the diesel down and started planning the installation of our new VHF radio. I inherited the radio from a dear friend who had passed away recently. Progress was stopped when I discovered that I had neglected to bring my hacksaw and the proper size terminal lugs to complete the installation. Nick stopped by again to tell Judy about a newly discovered tombstone on his property. Judy is an amateur archeologist and has never met a graveyard she didn't like.

The highlight of our weekend came when we had dinner at the M&M restaurant with Joe and Jean, a delightful couple from Georgia. Joe and Jean are recent arrivals in the area. They moved their Irwin 35 from Tampa Florida just a few weeks ago. They had been reading our blog and introduced themselves by email. The food was great and the company was better. We look forward to warmer weather and sailing with Joe and Jean, and maybe getting a tour of the Irwin. Interestingly enough, they found our blog by reading the blog of S/V Prudence which is maintained by our friends Doug and Sheryl Mayle who are currently sailing the Caribbean and having the time of their lives.

While we were in town we stopped at the new dollar store and purchased a blanket for the V berth because we neglected to bring blankets this trip. Returning to the boat we were glad we spent the 5 bucks because the temperature was dropping rapidly and the lack of covers would prove to be a real problem at about 3 am. The other thing we forgot to bring this trip was a camera. I think this is the first time we have ever forgotten the camera on a trip to the boat. The pictures associated with this blog entry are of the 'stock photo" variety.

Sunday January 25, 2009
The new blanket kept us warm as toast with outside temperatures barely above freezing. What a deal. Outside the boat the wind cut like a knife. We had a quick breakfast and I started the packing process. Charlie Gibson (our dinghy) and the outboard were still on the boat because we had a load of Christmas decorations to take home last time. By the time I got the dinghy and outboard loaded my hands were so cold I could barely feel them. We finally got packed and left at about 10 am. We stopped by the dollar store and bought all the blankets they had left. We will send them to the local homeless shelter and hope they work as well as ours did. We made another stop at the Neuse Sports Shop to pick up Carson's birthday present and a fast food stop in Kinston. We still made really good time making it home in just over 5 hours even with all the stops. It was a really good weekend. We always enjoy getting away and seeing our friends. Maybe next time I will be able to report better weather.

Now for a commercial break...
If you are a regular reader, you know that we are not spendthrifts and we hate to throw money away. I had an experience recently that restored my faith in commerce in general and in one company in particular. If you have seen any of our photo albums you know that when I am sailing or outdoors I typically wear my "Tilley" Hat. It's a canvas hat with a wide brim that I have had for (and I hate to admit this) nearly 20 years. It is a most excellent piece of equipment for anyone who spends any time at all outdoors. It provides sun protection for the face and neck. I find that sunglasses are not required if I am wearing my "Tilley". Other than being almost indestructible its best feature is the double chin strap arrangement that will keep the hat on your head no matter how strong the wind. I can say from personal experience that 50 knots will not take the hat off. If my old hat could talk it could tell some tales. Anyway, before our November cruise I decided that my trusty "Tilley" was just too dirty to be presentable. I had cleaned it many times before with soap and a brush with excellent results. The trouble spot for me is usually the sweatband but this time the entire hat needed an overall cleaning. The instructions said that I should just throw it in the washing machine, and I did so. Judy took the hat out of the washing machine expecting to see a clean old hat. Instead she was greeted by an old hat with a terrible gash nearly halfway around the front where the sweatband should have been. My guess is that age and sweat had combined to destroy the material.

Being without my "Tilley" hat was out of the question so I consulted the web site (http://www.tilley.com/) to see what I could do about getting it replaced. The guarantee states that the hat will be replaced for almost reason (except applying bleach) with no time limit for a restocking fee of a measly $7.50. I packed up my hat and a check and sent them back to Tilley Endurables with a letter explaining the problem, as if the big old gash didn't explain it. About a week later, I received a brand new hat by priority mail. What a deal!!

This is the really good part. Unfortunately either the company had changed their hat sizing or my head had shrunk over the years, because the new hat was about one size too big. I promptly sent it back (without a check) for a replacement. A few days later Elizabeth from Tilley Endurables called me and said "Lane, I know your new hat is the wrong size, but you didn't tell us what size you need". I apologized for not being clear and gave her the new size. She said my replacement hat would be shipped that day. The new hat fits perfectly and I could not be happier with it. The moral of this story is, if you want a first class hat for any kind of outdoor activity you cannot do better than a "Tilley". You can buy a cheaper hat but as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". I can tell you from experience that you will never have to buy more than one "Tilley" hat and you will never deal with a better company than Tilley Endurables.