We have made it to Oriental North Carolina where we have picked up a friend (Brad) who will be spending time with us(it will be great to have him on board) We are sitting in a slip tonight at Oriental Marina. Our travels so far have been great and the scenary is great as you can see by the pictures. We havent been able to hoist sails to much as there has been very little wind. We spent one night tide up to a wharf just on the other side of whats called a steel bridge on the ICW as they were calling for winds gusting to 30knots and we did get it, it howled and rocked the boat( and yes it was the wind lol) the next night we tied up again at the CoinJock Marina as we were expecting high winds again but it never happened. We try to anchor whenever possible as it is much more tranquil and mercury is not tempted to go visiting. We spent a night anchored at a small anchorage (Willoughby Bay) in Norfolk Virgina directly beside the worlds largest Navy Base. For hours they had helicopters and fighter plane flying over us most of the night, it was so load almost unbarable. The sail out of Norfolk the next day was a long process it seemed like it took forever and we were very happy to have left there. Mercury seems to be enjoying herself and is relaxed, she sits on deck most of the night and watches everything. Oriental N.C. is beautiful we took a walk around and enjoyed it very much. We will be heading to Beaufort N.C tomorrow to do some provisioning and hopefully head outside and make up some lost time on the ICW.