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 :(