Day 5, April 12, Friday

We slept like logs last night, both of us being exhausted.  The room at the Marina Inn has a balcony that looks out right over where Sea Turtles is tied up.  It has a small kitchenette and living room area with bath down stairs and 2 beds and 1/2bath upstairs. The cat had a ball running up and down the stairs for the first night.  He also thinks he is a coo-coo clock since he meowed every hour on the hour all night long.  He could not quite decide where he wanted to sleep either.  He will settle in but the first night in a strange place is an ordeal with him.

We got up and looked things over and realized that nothing was closer than 2 miles away that would have the few things we needed and forgot to pack.  Our broker was kind enough to run us to a grocery store to pick up some stuff.  There was a pastry shop across from the inn where we grabbed a danish for breakfast.

We did a little touch up cleaning on the boat ( as it is self dirtying.) Then went back to our room for a nap.  We could see the activity on the dock from our room and the line of flags the broker put up to our mast did get a lot of people to hesitate and look but it did not seem like many people actually boarded the boat.  2 couples came back at least twice. It only takes one, so we may get lucky and sell her.  The rep from Island Packet who is marketing the boat right beside us has been very helpful.  He only sells new but will point people interested in gently used boats that are IPs our way.

We skipped lunch and were walking to the restaurant that is with the marina to get dinner when we saw people setting up what looked like a buffet. We inquired at the restaurant what was going on and they told us they were setting up for the vendors.  That was us! We got free dinner. Good food too.   It was windy but sunny, not too hot not too cold, but tomorrow seems we will have some passing rain storms.

Day 4, April 11, Thursday

We didn’t get a log written for Thursday.  By the end of the day we were both too tired to even think about it.

We slept late because we needn’t be in a hurry to get on over to Oriental.  We started doing some of the cleaning.  The wind picked u some so we decided to go on and finish cleaning at the marina.  It was a short hop over and we were in the marina early.  The marina has fixed docks so it was hard tor us to get.tied up properly,  We are used to working with floating docks.  I have a definite dislike for fixed docks.  

We docked stern too.  Did I ever mention that sailboats do not like to go backwards.  Anyway we eventually got tied up and went about doing the rest of the cleaning.  Eventually Lynda decided that the boat would show better if it was in bow too so we turned around and retied.  

Lynda kept telling me that whatever I was doing was the wrong way.  I eventually strongly suggested that she go tp the motel room and commiserate with the cat while I cleaned the cockpit.  She eventually came back  and I went to the room while she finished the interior.  By the time she finished it was after time to go out for dinner so we had leftovers from the boat. All told, an edgy day.  

Day 3, April 10, Wednesday

Lynda is tired so it falls to me to write this evenings log.  It won’d be near as intereting as one the she wrote but . . . 

We had a long day planned today.  Sixty miles which is long for us.  We got a fairly early start except the anchor and chain came up with mucho mud. It took Lynda a half hour to raise the anchor while washing the mud off.  Didn’t want that on the deck that we spent two days cleaning for the boat show.  

The next bridge after the anchorage opened on the hour and there were five boats waiting to transit.  We still had 10 minutes to wait when a Coast Guard tug came through and the bridge opened immediately.  Seems commercial traffic gets priority.  The five boats strung out single file and three of the sailboats traveled together for a good part iof the day.  Eventually the lead boat’s engine overheated.  They pulled out of the channel and immediately went aground.  After a call to Tow Boat US they got towed into a marina.  

We spent a good part of the day transiting Bogue Sound.  The wind was blowing in the 20’s with gusts to 35 or so.  Created choppy waves the splashed over the bow.  The whole front half of the boat is now covered with salt crystals.  A job for tomorrow when we get into the marina where we have fresh water.

We passed through Morehead City which can be confusing if you haven’t been there before.  Luckly we have, so no problem.  On up the ICW for another 20 miles and to our planned anchorage.  We are in a creek that would accommodate 10-15 boats. Beautiful place and we are only sharing it with one other boat.  We had a great sunset.  That is one of the things I cherish about life on the boat.  

We will sleep in tomorrow, clean some on the boat and then on the the marina in Oriental.  We have reservations at the Inn there for three nights while the boat is being shown.  It should be fun checking out all the vendors displaying their wares. After the show we will start the 3 day track back to Little River.

Day 2, April 9, Tuesday

Got off at  7:30 uneventfully. There was a lot of black muck on the anchor chain. Even with the deck was it managed to bring lots of stinky muddy yuck on the freshly scrubbed deck.  Looks like we will be starting from sq one with the boat cleaning once we get to Oriental, NC.  We traveled about 44 miles today and stopped at Mile Hammock Bay near Camp Lejune. We are here with 5 boats.  Tomorrow should be a long day, 60+miles to the just short of the Nuese River.
Kitty did much better today.  He usually sleeps with me on his half of a king size bed, so finding space to get comfy in a 30" berth was not working out too well.  He must have come and tried 15 times, each time he woke me up meowing I should move over and give him more room.  Lots of luck with that. He did not cry and meow each time we swayed today and seemed to be much more relaxed that yesterday.  He may make a sailor cat after all. He ventured up into the cockpit once we dropped anchor and nosed around looking for a gap in the canvas large enough to get out of.  He did not succeed so opted for the highest point in the cockpit to survey his surroundings.
We had little off and on spits of rain but nothing big.  Maybe tomorrow we will get the rain that has been predicted.  Would help wash the deck if we got a good hard shower.

Day 1, April 8, 2019 Monday

Got gone before 10am.  All went well until we hit the current coming toward us and the wind at an angle that was not helpful for sailing. We slowed to a pitiful 2 1/2 its.   We put out the jib and got a little help but not much.  We arrived at Carolina Beach about 6:30 and I went out to drop the anchor.  The anchor windless would not drop the anchor.  We touched ground but not hard while we fought with the anchor chain.  It was rusty and seemed to be stuck in the gypsy.  After much fiddling and lots of rust dust we got the anchor chain loose.  We got off ground easily and made a circle and dropped anchor in about 8 to 10 ft of water.  We did not come as prepared as we usually do and now we are paying for it.
The kitty, who was a real trooper with the truck and travel trailer clearly is not a sailor cat.  He cried, meowed and generally fussed the whole day until he exhausted  himself and finally slept a while.  He would not come up to the cockpit and stayed huddled below complaining every time we encountered wake and the boat pitched or rolled.  I thought he would do better but I imagine this is his first and last boat trip.

It's been a while.

I just received a notice asking if I still wanted to get posts from our Sea Turtle blog. It has been a while since we made a post. Lynda had knee replacement and we didn't take the boat South this year, ergo no posts. We did, however take our travel trailer to Denver to see #2 son Josh, than on to Portland to see #1 son Seth and just as importantly our #1 granddaughter Vivian. We also loved seeing the ladies Kristi and Lisa.

From there we headed North through Canada to visit the last state on our bucket list, Alaska.  It was a great trip. We saw lots of wildlife and beautiful mountains. It was a trip of a lifetime taking 10 weeks and traveling over 13,000 miles.

We aren't sure which way our direction is going.  We love the boat and trailer both and the trips are quite different. At the current time, Sea Turtle is up for sale. If she sells we will be doing more of our adventures in the truck and trailer.

BTW we have added a new member to the family. He is an endearing cat that has been training us to cater to his every whim.  He sleeps on the bed with Lynda, let's us know when he wants combed or petted and especially when his food bowl is empty. He woke Lynda last night at 3:30 because his bowl was empty.

Anyway, I thought I would do another post so you would know we were still out here kicking around.   I hope you stick with us but if you want, you can opt out with the email you probably got today.

We will let you know when something else exciting is happening with us.

Sea Turtle Pictures