The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Wednesday November 5, 2008
Layover day due to high winds. Not planned but this is the way things go. Headed into town to get a hair cut and go to the library to check my e-mail. Tony and Diane ran into some guys fish line and kindly showed up to replace it. The guy was so surprised he promised to bring them some crab to eat that evening. They invited us to meet them down at the River Forest Yacht Club around 2:30 pm. When we got there there was no one there. Wayne and Max showed up a few minutes later on the (go to the grocery store golf cart. Apparently the guy with the crab did no show up so he headed back to the
Anchorage. Private thought – does anything ever happen that we think or say will on this trip?
Thursday November 6, 2008
Layover day due to high winds. (ditto). This is really getting on my nerves. Rocky night on the anchor and not much sleep. We decided to check out the interior of the boat. Dick wanted to take apart the V berth to see it the cupboard under our bed had gotten water in it. The cupboard was dry as toast but the mattress cushions underneath were wet from condensation when the temperature were so cold. I took off the cushion and headed into the village to bleach the mold out of the cushions. When we got to the coffee shop beside the laundromat we meet Tony and Diane and we were telling the girl that worked there that we missed the crab and she offered to get us some and said they would deliver it to the yacht club so we could have a meal. True to their word they arrive on time and cooked up a huge feast of crab. They taught us how to crack them open and get the meat out. The only part I didn't like is they put them in the boiling water alive. It was lots of fun and I finally feel like we have arrived on the jouney.
Heading out tomorrow (weather permitting)!!!!!
Friday November 7, 2008
Grand day weather wise. Got up at 6:00 am and the fleet had taken off by 6:30 pm. Dick and I and our manual anchor always take longer and we seemed to be sandwiched between 2 feet of water so I wanted to be extra careful. We managed to stay in the deep water but when I got to the channel we hit ground. It is soft mud so no big deal. Our journey to day took us down the Pungo River to Pamlico River, across Goose Creek to Bay River to Neuse River where we stopped at Oriental for the night. The rest of the fleet decided to take a dock for the night at Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbour. Our budget allows for docking only in very bad weather so we moved on to Oriental N.C. to anchor for the night. When we got there they had build a marina and a lot of the anchorage basin was gone. There was a 43 foot bridge which stopped us from going any farther up the channel so we tried to anchor between a couple of larger boats. After two attempt we called our friend Tony and asked if they had a spot at the marina.
They advised us to move back to Whittaker Creek and meet them at the fuel dock. When we got there the dock master had agreed that we could tie up at the fuel dock for free and if the wind came up and was pushing us into the dock we could anchor beside the dock. How kind is that? He felt he had made enough money off all the other Port Stanley boats all ready. Dennis and Karen were here so we were happy to see them again. We filled up with Diesel and paid for a shower. Our free dock age includes wifi. May many blessings be poured out on Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbour.