We've come full circle... we are back at Morehead City Yacht Basin..HOME! After leaving Carolina Beach, which was really hard.. we left very good friends (Barry and Soula) and a very awesome marina ( Joyner Marina) and headed towards Ocracoke for a few weeks. Along the way, we stopped to anchor one nite in Swansboro.. caught a pic of a sailboat towing a SeaTow boat... how funny!! Next stop was Oriental and enjoyed a quiet evening there and next morning headed across the Pamlico to Ocracoke. The Pamlico can be very shallow in spots and the Captain was careful to keep us right on track. Ocracoke is one of my favorite places.. We anchored out in Silver Lake ( the harbor) . We were able to dinghy back and forth to shore and ride bikes to grocery stores,etc.We even took the dinghy out to clam a couple of days. Yummy!! The people in the village are very friendly and helpful, and we spent a lot of time at the local coffee shop to use their internet and got to know them on a first name basis..We also had a family of mallard ducks that took interest in our boat ( had nothing to do with me feeding them crackers) and they would stop by each day to say hi...They became so friendly they tried to come into the cockpit.. and Dwayne and MonkeyButt would have none of that!!!!!! We had wonderful weather with the exception of one nite.. Early in the evening I took a pic of a funnel cloud forming.. it went on out into the harbor and formed a small waterspout.. We went to bed thinking that we would just have a chance of a passing thunderstorm. Let me tell ya, it was one more BIG LIGHTNING STORM and had gusts up to 60 !! Dwayne and I both woke at the same time and realized that we moved a little bit. The SeaVeyor has a 73lb Rocna anchor that has never moved before.. this was a first.. The harbor has a very soft, muddy bottom. Dwayne actually started the engines and was prepared to move forward if needed. The storm rolled in around 2am and finally rolled out about 5 something...Once daylight arrived we moved SeaVeyor and anchored again. Several other sailboats had also moved during the storm, but no damage done and no one hit anything. Whew, what a nite that was. We also realized that morning that the SeaVeyor took a hit (lightning surge) and we had lost our generator, port alternator and the trace invertor. THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!! We said our goodbyes and headed back towards Morehead City/Beaufort.
We arrived Sunday afternoon and made our way to Taylors Creek only to find that it was packed with boats.. It was the Pirate Invasion weekend! So, we made our way back to Morehead City Yacht Basin and were greeted by the same smiling faces that we left back in November of last year. The Yacht Basin is an awesome marina with wonderful, friendly, and professional staff. It is kept maticulously clean and is a well protected, secure marina. At the docks you will see some of the area's finest Custom Carolina Sportfish boats. It is very convenient to town for shopping and dining.
As you know, "Earl" paid the Carolina Coast a visit. It is standard procedure for most marinas to have all boats leave the docks during named storms. We had to leave out Wednesday and headed up Adams Creek to Back Creek for the evening. We were on a waiting list to be hauled out by Jarrett Bay . When you are hauled out you are put on blocks or stands in their boatyard. However, we were not called. Thanks to some awesome friends, Cory of Triton Marine, his friends Doug and Rick, we were able to use a mooring ball (500lb) during the "expected" storm.Although it was shallow in Back Creek, it was no problem for the SeaVeyor. We draw 3 and a half feet. We did a temporary hook up to the mooring ball for Wednesday evening, just in case Jarrett Bay called Thursday am.. The call never came, so with the help of Rick and his skiff, Dwayne attached us with a stronger chain for the upcoming nite. The winds did pick up some, but nothing to shout about. We went thru safety drills , etc, during the day and tried to nap some in case we had to stay up during the event. We also had wonderful friends to keep us updated by phone of the storm's location and direction. As you know, we missed that bullet and Earl missed us. The next am (Friday) we released the SeaVeyor from the mooring ball. The wind had changed directions and was blowing the water out of the creek. Even though we have a shallow draft, we did not want to get stuck in the mud! We made it back to the MHC Yacht Basin by lunchtime and were pretty pooped! It took as much time to clean and put things back as much as the prepartions.. But all Good!! No complaints here.
Not sure what the fall/winter will hold..we may or may not put SeaVeyor on the hard for repairs,etc.. and stay at our cottage. Not sure what our next adventure will be or where.. The nice thing about this area is you have so much to offer.. Cape Lookout, Oriental, Ocracoke. We love it all.. and it's right in our backyard!
Dwayne has accepted a position at the Yacht Basin here as one of their brokers. He's a natural for it. I've taken part time jobs too, but still have time for my photography. IT'S ALL GOOD!
More news at 11....................
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