Fun times with friends

One of the best parts of this cruising lifestyle is meeting new people.  And every so often, you find yourself lucky enough to meet some really great people--which we have, a handful of times, since we set sail.  Bob and Dori Arrington are two of those wonderful people.  We just spent a long weekend hanging out with them in Oriental, North Carolina.  To say we had a fun time would be an understatement.

Dinner at Bob and Dori's on Wednesday evening (photo credit: Bob and Dori Arrington)

Blurry phone photo of Bailey and Sophie, their extremely well-behaved and sweet-tempered Portuguese Water Dogs.

Virginia Dare entering River Dunes Marina
(photo credit: Dori Arrington)

Bob's new dock line design :)

Tommy's braid

Our helm was in dire need of restitching.  It had been partly restitched at one time with heavy duty cotton thread which had become weak and broken.  This was a project I had been meaning to do for a long time.  These sorts of tedious tasks (like painting trim around windows) are my favorite.

Ta da!  (There are no less than 684 holes to stitch in this beast.)

We were invited to join Bob and Dori at their friend's house for dinner on Friday night.  Happy and Wade were delightful hosts....and another fun and delicious evening was had by all.

One morning I rode a bike out to see the ponies at River Dunes.

Their little stable.

Beautiful (and very friendly) animals

I wanted to move the stray strand of hair out of her face.

Love the blonde mane.

:)

Trimming the grass.

"May I please come to your side of the fence?"

We left Oriental on Sunday morning.  It was a gray day with just one short rain shower.

The Alligator-Pungo Canal is the marine equivalent of the Seney Stretch in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  21 miles of straight canal........zzzzzzzz.

The water is filled with tannin which makes it look like root beer.

Canal to our stern.

Eagle!

This boat resembled a military construction.....

....but it was a private vessel (all metal).

Sunday evening sunset.  Neighboring boat (Barefootin') at anchor at Deep Point on the Alligator River (NC).

This guy hitched a ride with us today.

He was not afraid of people.

Just before a storm on the Albemarle Sound, we were inundated with midges.  GROSS!

Ew!

They were all over the surface of the water, too.

And, last but not least, we experienced our first thunder/lightning/rain storm while underway (we are the blue dot).  Thankfully, the greatest wind we saw was 33 knots.  The folks on Barefootin' saw 60 knot winds yesterday and were knocked down to their rail.  ZOIKS :(

Cape Lookout Bight

Taking the advice of our friends, Bob and Dori, we aimed Virginia Dare toward Cape Lookout Bight when we left Beaufort on Monday morning.  We found a very protected anchorage with very few other boats, dropped our anchor in 25' of pretty green water, and relaxed for two days under the watchful eye of the Cape Lookout lighthouse.

Beaufort is just off the top of the map.  We motored out Beaufort channel, turned to the east, and headed for the bight.

Happy to cut the engine and sail(!!) over there (lighthouse in the distance).

Cape Lookout lighthouse

Thank you, Randy from Durango, Colorado, for giving us a bag of mahi.  It was delicious!

Monday evening's sunset

Looking east toward the lighthouse at sunset

It shines its beam every 15 seconds

On Tuesday morning, we explored the perimeter of the anchorage in the dinghy.

About to catch a fish!

Abandoned house on the Cape Lookout National Seashore

Three pelicans, one perch

Shackleford Banks, a deserted island with over 100 wild horses.

We found lots of hoof marks in the sand and plenty of fresh "evidence" but never spotted a horse on Tuesday morning.

We don't know why there were so many horseshoe crab shells on the beach.

Nature's art

Amber waves of grain

So pretty blowing in the breeze

More evidence.........

A couple of bright spots in the scrub

David on a high dune looking for horses which we suspect were hunkered down in the shade of the trees.  If you look closely, you can see their trail to the beach curving across the bottom of the picture.

Prickly pear......you DON'T want to step on one of these!

Lighthouse as seen from Shackleford

Horseshoe crab just off the beach

Virginia Dare at anchor 

Reading in the shade -- many hours relaxing here!

Happy Cap'n

On Tuesday evening, the horses came right to the area where we had hiked that morning.

We stayed off shore and took pictures from a distance.

We saw a total of nine that evening.

On Thursday morning, we headed up the ICW to visit our friends, Bob and Dori, in Oriental, NC.  This sign along the way says, "Leslie, will you marry me?"  I wonder if she said yes :)

"Traffic"

Miss Rebecca, a shrimp boat

Beaufort, NC - Fourth of July weekend

Before I write about Beaufort, North Carolina, I want to post two photos that I found on my phone from our early morning departure from Little River, South Carolina.

Reflections at the marina

Sun peeking through the clouds as we made our way to the ocean on the ICW (fishing boats blasted past us)

Something we learned on our way south this past winter.....Beaufort, NC, is pronounced BO-fert.......Beaufort, SC, is pronounced BYEW-fert.  Heaven forbid you confuse the two.  You will be politely corrected.  But I have to say, Beaufort and Beaufort have been two of our most favorite towns.  They're quaint, very walkable, and graced with some pretty terrific restaurants.  So, we are hanging out in Beaufort (NC) for the holiday weekend and are really enjoying the surrounding area.

The port of Morehead City is busy, but not like Charleston or Savannah.  We spotted this NOAA boat on our way to Beaufort.  We spend A LOT of time analyzing weather and referencing the NOAA website.  We also subscribe to Chris Parker's weather forecasting and buoyweather.com.  Of all the experts we consult, Chris is usually right on target.

When we pulled into our slip at Beaufort Docks, David spotted a wild pony on the shore across the channel.  Carrot Island is part of the Rachel Carson Reserve where 30+ wild horses live.  We took a dinghy ride today and spotted a few.

Carrot Island is pretty sparse

Spotted a couple!

This one was knee deep in marsh muck

When I was going gaga over the horses, David's jaw dropped when he spotted Steve Dashew's Wind Horse in the channel.  He'd read about these boats and couldn't believe one was docked a mile away!

Wind Horse

The town has a small boardwalk, cute shops, and a lot of restaurants.  We're dividing our meals between cooking aboard and exploring different eateries (based on Yelp reviews).

Flowers and flags along the boardwalk...the town is ready for the Fourth

The flags along the arc, from top to bottom, spell B-E-A-U-F-O-R-T

Bikes for rent

Lots of historic homes...Beaufort is the third oldest town in North Carolina.

Zoomed in on a horse as seen from our slip at the marina

Nothing says summer like a gin and tonic :)  We haven't had gin on board for a long, LONG time.  Hello, summer!