The Land of the Giant Turtles and My Ferret's New Coat

August 25, 2005

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - Oriental Harbor, Oriental, NC
By Tom

It's good to be home aboard DreamCatcher--for us humans at least. We're back aboard permanantly, bobbing happily at anchor in Oriental, NC, having left the Buddy Fred's pier at noon today. The ferrets are a bit disturbed to find that the air conditioned luxury mansion they had grown accustomed to is not, in fact, their home. They pouted for about half an hour after we put down the anchor, but then decided that there was much havoc to be wrought. After an hour of exploration (i.e., total destruction), they are now sleeping happily.

Today was actually the first time we've had people there to see us off. Frank and Judy, Steve and Sally, and Pat all stood out on their respective docks waving us off. That was way cool! We love having neighbors.

After the send-off, it was a motor fest to Oriental. There still isn't much wind to help cool down the cabin. We took a quick dinghy ride into town for ice cream, miscellaneous boat stuff, and a cocktail in an air conditioned bar. Dinner (probably steak, salad, and "grill chips," our new invention) will be waiting until the sun--and the temperature--goes down. Fortunately, the forecast is for cooler temps for the next few days.

Tomorrow morning, we head out to Point Lookout, a bight south of Hatteras. Apparently, there are sea turtles there. Most importantly, we should be able to swim. Steve & Sally (the flying squirrel people) will be joining us there tomorrow night on their boat Dimsan, so we can be neighbors again

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Tom

After a quick trip in to The Bean for book exchange and coffee, we raised the anchor and set the sails bound for Cape Lookout. As you can see from the ending destination, we did in fact make it. It was a pretty uneventful day, but we did get to sail some, so it wasn't too bad.

Once we got the anchor down, we had the running and subsequent dousing of the ferrets. It really is hot here and we are trying to regulate our ferrets body temperature. The general consensus is that Mila doesn't like the dousings, while Milo is ambivalent.

The bight at Cape Lookout is a national land and sea park and it is very pretty. As you can well imagine, the Cape Lookout lighthouse is stationed here as well. There are lots of nice, empty beaches and the park is home to very large (3 foot or so), mega cool sea turtles.

We lounged about and hid from the heat until around 3:30 or so, and then we loaded into the dinghy and went in to the beach here for a couple of games of Koob. (like boob, but less pointy) Koob is some old Norseman game that my brother in law saw at a party he was at and we have recreated here with our own custom Koob playing pieces that we made for $4.50 from Home Depot.

While we were playing Steve and Sally from Dimsan showed up. They anchored and then rowed (yes rowed) into shore. Steve is mechanically challenged and as such is not allowed to operate an outboard. We started to play another round of Koob with them explaining the rules along the way, but mother nature intervened in the form of biting green-headed flies and we had to postpone the event.

We gave the Dimsan's a tow back to their boat and enjoyed a beer or two with them in their cockpit before returning to our boat for tequila lime grilled shrimp appetizer followed by homemade pizza. We're getting back into our cruising groove, so we were in bed by 8:30.

Friday, August 19, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Amy

Last night, we had an attack of the nefarious no-see-ums. The wind dropped off to nothing and suddenly I was not only hot but swore that I was being stung, albeit mildly, all over my arms and legs. My darling husband watched me writhe and told me it was all in my head.

Then he got up about 2:30 AM (because he doesn't sleep like a normal human) and found hundreds of tiny bugs in the salon. So much for me being crazy. I still couldn't see the little nasties without my contacts in, but Thomas waged a courageous battle against the infiltrators. We then barricaded ourselves in our stateroom, where we were protected by no-see-um screen, and made it through the night.

The ferrets, being impervious to no-see-ums, awoke eagerly at first light. I did not. Thomas oversaw their morning round of destruction until I was able to face the day. There was much book-reading and near-napping on both our parts all morning.

By noon, the temperature soared above ninety, much too high for our fuzzy friends, who had suddenly grown winter coats a few weeks ago (perhaps due to Thomas's frigid setting on the Buddy Fred's air conditioning?). The two fuzzballs suffered the indignity of being dunked in the sink once an hour to keep their body temperatures down. They were angry but cooler. Fortunately, we've noticed them shedding, so hopefully their fur will return to summer levels in the next few days.

Once the heat of the day was achieved, Thomas and I joined Steve & Sally snorkeling off the rock jetty. Despite the poor visibility, we observed various fish--Atlantic spade, yellowtail snapper, spots, etc. None big enough to eat, so we will not be returning with spears. S&S report having caught numerous croaker and kingfish with good old-fashioned casting rods earlier in the morning, so we may give that a try tomorrow.

The day ended with very welcome cold showers for us humans, sundowners with S&S, and a dinner of steak on the grill and salad, strategically selected because neither required us to turn on the oven or stove inside.

The next couple days are forecast to be even hotter, making us consider a run to a marina where we can run our air conditioners--for the ferret's sake of course :)

We hate the heat

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Tom

Another brutally hot day here. We hid inside, each of us parked under our own designated fan and read books for most of the day. I did try my hand at some fishing earlier this morning but I only caught small spot and 1 shark.

The fish are chanting : No eating here tonight. No eating here tonight!

The ferrets passed the day taking alternating turns in the ferret wading pool. They have given up complaining about it and now just suffer through with quiet indignity.

It being Saturday, all manner of North Carolina red neck has descended on the Bight. You know their rednecks when their boat is painted camouflage and it flies the confederate flag.

All told their was easily 100 little run abouts ferrying people back and forth through out the day. The only real problem I have with them is that for whatever reason (small penises) they seem to think they have to show how cool they are by driving past our catamaran at 35 knots.

Yeah, real cool. Ass.

Later in the afternoon we braved sun exposure and went over to Steve and Sally on Dimsan for cocktails. Afterwards it was back to the mother ship for a large dinner salad and then bed.

Sunday, August 21, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Amy

Another scorcher. Steve & Sally decided they'd had enough and left early this morning. I was still sleeping off the effects of a Benadryl pill, which always seem to knock me out, and didn't get to say a final goodbye. I'll try not to be sad, as I expect we'll be seeing them in a few months if their plans to take Dimsan to the Bahamas hold. Without us there to nag them about it, though.... :)

Fortunately, the powerboaters steadily filed out of the anchorage. I suspect there will be no more talk of "filthy A-rabs" on the VHF, thank goodness.

The day was spent reading books, napping, and dunking ferrets. Just before sundown, a nice breeze struck up, and Thomas and I made drinks and retired to the foredeck. We enjoyed the bug-freeness on the tramp and observed a sea ray go for the record in the high jump. The guy cleared the water by several feet and actually flapped its "wings" as if it were going to fly. Quite a sight.

We punted on dinner and decided to munch on tortilla chips with topping of choice (avacado and salsa for me, cheese for Tom). More book reading in a slightly cooler cabin until bed. Again, NOAA has put off cooler weather another day, so tomorrow will probably be a re-run of today.

Monday, August 22, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Tom

From the ferrets: The weather was still in the mid 90's with a heat index of 105 according to the local weather station. North Carolina sucks balls.

Ok, now that the weather is out of the way, it was another day spent hiding from the sun. I did this inside in the salon while reading books, Amy chose to do this hiding under the boat in the water. I think she was cooler, but I got more reading done.

I have now finished 9 books in the last 6 days. Lest you think we do nothing all day long I can assure you gentle reader that today I waged war on the most evil of boat bound enemies, the ever elusive pin mold. I spent a good 3 hours this morning tracking down and slaying pin mold colonies of all flavours.

Oh yes, they come in multiple flavours.

Suffice it to say, that in the end I was victorious and the boat is now once again free from single cell organisms. For the record Milo cowered behind me the whole time with his gas mask on (It was chemical warfare), while Mila ate and then sneezed out stragglers of the mass mold retreat. She is a loyal ferret.

The weather man swears tomorrow will be cooler. If not he is not only a dick, but a dead man.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - Bight at Cape Lookout, Cape Lookout, NC
By Amy

Relief at last! Our five-day, 18-book reading binge has come to an end (many thanks to the Buddy Fred for donating those books). The weather was cooler, so we actually did something with ourselves that required movement.

I did a little morning cleaning of the interior wood and rewarded myself with a pot of coffee. I haven't had coffee in days because I didn't want to heat up the already sweltering cabin. I'm sure the effects were evident to Thomas. Addiction is a bitch. And without coffee, so am I.

While I sipped, Mother Nature manifested a pretty good rain storm. The sound of pounding rain on the cabin roof was a new thing for the ferrets, and they ran about investigating. Luckily for Milo, he had Mila to protect him from impending doom.

By the time the storm cleared, the ferrets were tired, and we humans headed to the Lookout Lighthouse. You can't go up the lighthouse, but there is a small museum there. Nothing terribly exciting, but they keep stats on the loggerhead sea turtles that swim around in the bight. We got an up-close view of one today in the dinghy, but he was too crafty for photographic evidence.

An evening round of Kuub on the beach resulted in a 2-2 tie. No tie-breaker due to bug invasion. In case we haven't mentioned it, Kuub is our new beach game--kind of like a combination between horseshoes and chess. Anyway, it's better than Bocci, which the French Canadians were always playing in George Town. (Thomas refuses to participate in anything vaguely French.)

Spaghetti for dinner and, yes, more book-reading before bed

Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - Taylor Creek, Beaufort, NC
By Tom

We motored out of the Bight after breakfast. Our destination was the coastal city of Beaufort, North Carolina. We stopped at Beaufort (pronounced Bow-fort) last fall on our way south. As I recall, last year I didn't think much of the town, mostly because the preponderance of ghetto mooring balls.

Apparently, for whatever reason, the city fathers of Beaufort have allowed every moron with a skiff to install a "private" mooring ball right off the town proper. The crowd of never used, floating waste barges has pretty much taken up all of the usable anchorage spaces for cruising vessels.

Last year we wedged our catamaran in between two garbage scowls for the 10 hours we were in town. Well, the floating junkyard is still here, but we did manage to find a place to anchor amidst the wasteland.

As it turns out, it's really ashame that the town isn't a little bit more accessible to the cruising sailor. We wandered the town water front and found lots of friendly people and plenty of worth while sight seeing.

Anyhow, we walked around the town for a while to stretch our legs and find some supplies. There isn't much within walking distance, so we ended up buying bread at Big Daddy Wesley's convenience store and got some sausages from some crazy guy running a bed & breakfst.

We went to Finz for our first happy hour out in a little while. The beer was way over priced and the food was mediocre, so I can't really recommend the place. The only upside was that we could see our boat anchored right from the bar. After a quick ice cream cone for the road home, we returned to the boat for a dinner of grilled sausages with white wine.

Ah, the high life

Thursday, August 25, 2005 - Taylor Creek, Beaufort, NC
By Amy

Today's goal was to avoid eating based on the grocery selection available at Big Daddy Wesley's, which amounted to beer, bread, and more beer. We read in the guide book that the Beaufort Maritime Museum had several courtesy cars available, so we headed there soon after they opened to check it out.

We were shocked to find out that the guide book was right. By "courtesy car," they're not talking about some van that'll take you where you want to go and abandon you for hours awaiting for a return trip. Nope. Give these folks a look at your driver's license and let them write down your boat name, and you can get your very own car to drive. Way cool. We used our two hours of car time to do mega errands, including groceries. Yay. We won't have to eat Vienna sausages for dinner :)

We hit the waterfront in the afternoon in our quest for Beaufort's best ice cream. There are three shops here, and I am determined to find out which one is best. Of course, ice cream necessitates exercise, so I headed out for an hour of kayaking. Thomas joined me at a little beach for sundowners and Kuub--another tie (1-1). We also watched the dolphins frolicking just off the beach.

Dinner was awesome--fish taco appetizer, steak, "grill chips" barbecue style, and asparagus. We started to listen to football on the Sirius radio, but I couldn't make it past the first quarter. I forced myself to read until it was past 9 PM and then fell fast asleep