Lay Days

Date: 22 October, 2017
Location: Oriental, North Carolina

We're on our way South and have decided to take a few days off.  We left Deltaville on Wednesday, 18 October and, after 4 long days, are in Oriental, NC.  The weather has been beautiful with the exception that there hasn't been any wind to speak of, so we've been motoring all day.  On a few occasions we've managed to get a sail out for a while, probably more to appease ourselves than doing any real good.  

Yesterday we decided to stop at some friends' dock for a few days of R&R.  We've been going pretty much constantly since we got back from Vietnam in April, and, with the excuse of bad weather approaching, were able to convince ourselves to take a few days off.  Don't get us wrong – we're still going to be doing boat jobs, but we're not going to be doing them while we're under way.  It's all relative, you see...

The new solar panel is keeping us well supplied with electricity for our new fridge, and the systems we cobbled together before we left have been working well.  The new manual windlass needs some adjustment, but we are confident that we'll have a good system once that's done.

We met a huge tug pushing a barge with a big crane

The ospreys have already headed south – but we did see a bald eagle on the Alligator / Pungo Canal.  And it's nice to be seeing pelicans again.  We've always imagined them being the stalwart working class of marine birds.  As groups of them fly by us just skimming the wave tops we like to imagine them all wearing blue and white striped railroad engineer hats and carrying lunch boxes, off to another day on the job.  It seems growing up with Disney cartoons can have that effect on one.  

And yesterday when we were approaching our friends' dock, we were welcomed by 6 dolphins 'putting on a show', so close we could almost touch them.  Lovely.

Our first cruising friends on Barefootin'

It's great to be back out on the water.  We've already reconnected with several old friends and met some new ones.  It's beginning to sink in just how much we've been missing the cruising life.  Somehow we've managed to fall right back into it's rhythms almost without skipping a beat.  

The boat moves under us and we are content.

All Aboard!

Location: Deltaville, Virginia

Just a quick one to let you know that we're finally finished with the flood damage repairs. Woohoo! What a roller coaster ride! We may tell you about the last 5 weeks sometime in the future, but we don't even want to think about it anymore right now. That being said, we are very happy with the results and hope our tenants are too.

And we finished up none too soon. First, because we were getting absolutely, totally, utterly, unreservedly, wholly, and altogether sick of the whole project, and second, because we think we may have enough time to get our most important boat jobs done and still be able to head south before it gets too cold for us.

So now we're back on Rachel and it's boat jobs, boat jobs, and more boat jobs for the next week or two. Then, once we leave, we'll have yet more boat jobs to do while we travel south. At least all these improvements will be for us to enjoy and we won't have to rely on anyone but ourselves to get them done!

We look forward to seeing many of our old cruising fiends on the water for the first time in – wow! Has it really been three years? Sheesh!

Fair winds!