Spandex is a privilege, not a right

October 15, 2004
By Tom

Friday - October 8, 2004 - Tar Creek, Oriental, North Carolina

We repacked everything onto the mother ship this morning and I finished up a few loose ends. Then we cleaned the house from top to bottom.

This afternoon we cooked up our final batch of crustaceans and I put away the Buddy Fred traps we had been using. Afterwards, we took the Honda downtown to Oriental and had a couple of beers at the outdoor marina cafe there.

Also of note, we gave Maggie here bi-monthly shower this morning and she is still not speaking to us. It usually takes a few days before she'll come out of her little burrow. Early to bed as we anticipate a dawn departure.

Saturday - October 9, 2004 - Oriental Harbour, Oriental, North Carolina

We returned the Honda first thing this morning (Thanks Steve and Sally!) and then cast off for Oriental Harbour, a whopping 8 miles away. I deployed the fish whackers and we promptly caught three more bluefish, all of which were returned to the wild.

We managed to sail half way there in a dying breeze, but ultimately had to resort to motor power to get in. The harbour here is really tight, but everyone tries to make room for everyone else and we squeezed in at the head of the field and dropped our anchor in 10 feet.

Apparently, there is some sort of festival for bicycle riders going on. There must be about 5000 of them. Quite a colorful display of spandex, but please remember, spandex is a privilege, not a right. There seems to be live music playing, so we may launch the dinghy and head into town to check it out.

Sunday - October 10, 2004 - Beaufort Harbour, Beaufort, North Carolina

Last night we went into the Oriental Tiki Bar and listened to a blues/country/rock 5 man band(the singer was a women) called One Night Stand. There were quite good and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We met up with two other cruising couples who are also heading south. Rick and Lucy on Flying Cloud and Nancy and Bob on Merganser. We all shared a table and listened to the music.

We woke up this morning and decided to move the boat down to Beaufort in preporation for our offshore run to points south. We had an uneventful motor south of 30 miles. On the way here we passed an old acquaintance of ours named Ao. We met him about four years ago back on the Potomac River when we were at the Fort Washington Marina. It was kind of funny to see him and maybe we'll meet up on the way south.

We saw more dolphins today, but Maggie defended us and chased them away. She is a loyal fur ball.

The harbour in Beaufort kind of blows. It seems private citizens have taken all of the good anchoring spots and installed mooring buoys that all have signs saying things like "Private - Keep Off" and "I will shoot you if you use this.". I was really disappointed as Beaufort is suppose to be a must see cruising town.

We ended up wedging the boat into an anchoring spot way to small for us and we went ashore to sample the local color. We wound up at a waterfront pub where we had a few brews and I got to watch the end of the Nascar race. Afterwards, we returned to the boat for a dinner of spaghetti with meat balls and garlic crisps.

The weather report is good for an offshore jaunt tomorrow, so we plan on heading for Charleston, South Carolina.

Monday - October 11, 2004 - Somewhere in the ocean of North Carolina

We left out of Beaufort with the ebbing tide and set the sails to head south. We made it about an hour and the wind started to fade. Faced with the prospect of having to motor for two days, we have altered course to Wrightsville Beach and our currently making a whopping 3 knots over the ground, but at least we're sailing.

Tuesday - October 12, 2004 - Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

We made it into Wrightsville early this morning. We crept our way in through the ocean inlet because the charts are not very detailed here. We got in behind the breakwater and just dropped the hook right outside of the channel. We re-anchored at first light to a more suitable area.

Wrightsville Beach is a cool little beach front town that reminds me of a much less commercial version of Ocean City, Md back home. They really seem to welcome cruisers here and I would definitely recommend coming here. The anchorage is huge and reasonably well protected from everything except the south.

We went ashore this afternoon after catching up on our sleep. First we walked two blocks to the beach and I played in the surf. Afterwards, we retired to the local pub for happy hour brews and buffaloes wings, medium spicy. I took one home for Maggie, who did not accompany us as she had yet to recover from the offshore experience.

Dinner back on the mother ship was bourbon chicken and rice.

Wednesday - October 13, 2004 - Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

I tackled several small boat projects today. First on the list was our compass. It developed an oil leak which in the end turned out to be terminal. I took my super snazzy, fold up, Montauge mountain bike to sure and biked out to West Marine twice. It's about 3 miles each way, so I feel like I got my exercise for the day.

I ended up replacing the compass with a new unit that appears to be spot on, unlike our last one which had seemingly random 30 degree plus margin of error at most times. I also picked up some bait whilst in town and proceeded to catch a fishy cast of characters. Present this time were three spot, two sheepshead and some terror from the deep (12 feet) that I couldn't identify and didn't want to touch. All were from the juvenile department and got thrown back.

This evening we went back into the pub from yesterday and had more happy hour beers. We weren't hungry when we got home, so there was no dinner on board the mother ship.

Thursday - October 14, 2004 - Southport, North Carolina

We motor sailed 25 miles down the ICW and across the Cape Fear river today so as to set ourselves up for another try at Charleston offshore on Saturday. NOAA is predicting doom and gloom tomorrow, so we wanted to move to safe place.

Currently, we are in a hurricane hole just south of Southport (MM 311). The anchorage is quite secure and we expect to ride out the blow coming tomorrow in relative safety. Hopefully at first light on Saturday we will head out the Cape Fear river and into the Atlantic Ocean bound for an overnight sail to Charleston.

Dinner tonight was a house specialty of fresh baked Grissini's and steak fajitas. Yum. After dinner entertainment consisted of mystery shadow puppet theatre where Maggie stands in front of a flashlight and makes faces at the wall. We're definitely living high on the hog, or the ferret.

More to follow, end of line.