Life On Orion

 We are spending the holiday weekend still in a convenient slip at the marina in New Bern. Having a car at our disposal is a game-changer and we ran some errands on Friday, had docktails on Steve and Kathy’s boat and ordered pizza for dinner. Yesterday morning Tom and Steve got most of the equipment removed from the bow pulpit that will be repaired.   I helped Tom lower the anchor onto the dock and he removed the chain, then he and Steve unbolted the roller mechanism ( no easy task as the bolts are on from inside the chain locker). We decided that a break was in order, so after lunch on the boat the 4 of us drove to the town of Bath NC for their Memorial Day street festival. Bath is the oldest city in North Carolina, has a population of 400 and was the home to the famous pirate, Blackbeard. Some of his descendants still live there and they take their pirate heritage very seriously! It is about 15 miles from Washington where we have looked at homes and is  on the water in a quiet bay.  

 Tom bought a car on line two days ago and Steve and Kathy dropped him off at the dealership yesterday to pick it up in Selma NC. It’s a brave new world of car buying and it worked out well for us.  We are the proud owners of a 2022 Volkswagen Tiguan and my only disappointment is that it is black, but for many people that is not a negative.  We literally had to choose from what they had on the lot and this one rolled off the delivery truck 30 minutes before Tom negotiated the deal with the salesman. We knew that we would be wanting to buy a vehicle pretty soon because we are so close to completing our loop, and now that our plans have been slightly altered, it was time. We have elected to have Dave fix our. Bow pulpit here in New Bern, but he can’t do it until July/early August, so we will modify the next 6 weeks to make this possible.  We have arranged to stay here at the New Bern Grand Marina until June 6th and then we will head north to finish our loop.  Steve and Kathy are still on

 As I have posted before, our bow pulpit is cracked (hence no anchoring at this time) and needs to be repaired.  We had planned on getting the work done in Chesapeake VA after we crossed our wake, but Steve had his repaired a couple of years ago here in New Bern and still keeps in contact with his repair guy. Steve offered to have him come look at ours and he did that a couple of days ago. We really liked him, he can do the repair and it would cost about half as much as it would at our destination in VA.  The only caveat (and isn’t there always a “but”) is that he is leaving on vacation for a month, so could not start until July and the work will take about 2 weeks. So…. Decisions have to be made about how and when to finish our loop and still get this done.  Our current thought is to stay here in New Bern for a couple of weeks, which would give us a chance to catch our breath. The marina here has a wide slip we can move into for that time period and I think it will definitely cut down

 We had a very short ride today - 3 and a half hours and the conditions were good, but so hot! We ran from the pilot house and had the AC on to make it bearable.  Even the animals were grateful… Most of the trip was coming up the Neuse River and it is a really wide river, but has a fairly narrow channel with good depth. We waited for one bridge to open right next to the marina and are docked on a long transient face dock. Long, long walk to shore, but otherwise no complaints. It was the last day of traveling with Steve and Kathy, as they “crossed their wake” here in New Bern.  This is their home marina and where they started their loop adventure a year ago.  They hung back and let us get docked before coming in to their slip so I could video their approach and return home.. Their gold looper flag was in the office mail, so tomorrow we will take those photos, but I got some good shots.  Tom had gotten champagne so we took that over and had a toast on their boat before coming back to sho

 I never thought I would be hot on this trip given the crappy weather we have endured, but today I was so hot I didn’t feel good.  It was 91 degrees and humidity to match, which is what gets you. So glad we are weenies who have air conditioning in our boat! LOL. We had a short 3 hour trip to Oriental and we left before Steve and Kathy since they had to stop and get an estimate on boat repairs. It was a nice, calm cruise and we drove most of it from the fly bridge, but once we got here and docked, the breeze stopped and it became stifling. Due to the set up of the marina it was a 10 minute walk to the office so after we checked in we ate a quick lunch at the marina restaurant - in the air conditioning!! That is where we saw the orange kitty who is the marina cat.  I can find them anywhere! Steve and Kathy and another couple docked in front of us came over for docktails and then I made a late dinner of pork chops in garlic cream sauce and mashed potatoes. Nobody went to bed hungry… This

 What a great way to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary! We slept in, Tom rode his bike to a bakery and brought bake bagels and muffins and we spent a lovely day relaxing on the boat and around the marina. He did a couple of projects that we hadn’t had time for - fixed the ice maker and replaced some outside nightlights while Kathy and I walked downtown and did some browsing in the cute shops. They have a free laundry here with big new machines so Kathy did her bedding, but I decided to wait - I was too lazy to haul my laundry up to the office.  Haha. We made reservations at a restaurant on the water for dinner and invited Steve and Kathy to join us for our anniversary meal.  First we had cocktails and appetizers on their boat and they gifted us with a bottle of wine and nice card.  Such good friends…. Our dinner was nice and we enjoyed the leisurely walk back to the boat - nightcaps were on the Orion… The other big news from today is that we listed our boat for sale by owner.  We

What an interesting day it was on the water today… We left our anchorage at Camp Lejeune at 7:30 and were at the swing bridge by 8:30. This bridge only opened on the half hour so we had to time it just right and when we got there we were among 5 boats waiting for the opening - 3 sailboats had arrived ahead of us and by the time the bridge actually opened, 3 trawlers that had anchored with us were also in line behind us. The was a “rumor” that the bridge opening would be delayed due to live fire exercises by the marines, but it opened on schedule at 8:30 and all the boats filed through.  What no one told us is, that we would be held up on the other side of the bridge by a navy patrol boat until 9 am when the live fire exercise was finished…. After we were allowed to proceed p the ICW, there was a lot of jockeying for position according to boat speed, so we were passed by all the trawlers except one and then we settled into cruising mode.  It was such a nice day that we drove from the fl

 As we near the end of our great loop we are having a series of “lasts”. Tonight is our last anchorage on this loop, rafted up with Steve and Kathy. We had a beautiful 5 hour cruise north on the ICW to Mile Hammock Bay, which is where Camp Lejeune is (Marines). It is an iconic anchorage for loopers and I can certainly see why.  Wow, is it gorgeous in here.  By the end of the evening we have 8 other boats anchored in here and as darkness falls all is silent and the night is lit by scattered anchor lights dotting the water. We passed lots of huge beautiful homes today, which is just the norm for the homes on the water and at one point passed a group of folks stationed out on their deck on the water with a homemade No Wake sign. They had a radio and would radio passing boats that they didn’t think were going slow enough and tell them to slow down.  Tom dubbed them the Porch Nazis.  Just for the record, we did not get yelled at - Tom is always careful not to wake people’s docks and boats….

 After a fairly short day of cruising, we are anchored (rafted up with Steve) in a shallow bay in Wrightsville Beach NC. It is said to be the prettiest beach in the state and it does go on for miles…. There are about 8 other boats anchored in here, but we have plenty of room and it’s a bit bumpy, but not unbearable. We spent the afternoon relaxing and then Steve took his dinghy down and we all rode across the bay to the dinghy docks - even Madison. We walked the 2 blocks to the beach and spent awhile there. The wind is really strong again today, which made lots of wave action for us to watch. I made dinner on the Orion and now we’re snug in our boats while a storm passes through.  Madison is NOT a fan of the thunder.

 We entered North Carolina today - one more state under our belts… We had a pleasant 4 hour cruise up the ICW to Southport and ended up in a parade of 5 looper boats all going to end up in our marina.  As Steve called for a slip assignment since he was in front of us, we heard the marina tell him they didn’t have a reservation for him or for Orion.  Oh no no no - do not mess with me on my reservations. I had a radio conversation with the dock master that we found out later was heard by several boats informing him that we did indeed have reservations and had had them for a week and a half.  They decided they must have mistakenly left us off their board because they had another Orion coming in on Wednesday.  In the end, they were gracious and made it right by finding both boats slips and it all ended well. It is a lovely marina in the heart of town and there are no less than 10 other looper boats here tonight. Once we got settled the four of us walked over to the restaurant district and

 What a nice, fun day we had today. No alarm clock to wake us up, home cooked breakfast and a walk with the dog started the day right. Kathy called mid-morning to let us know that their friends here were loaning them their car for the day to run errands, sightsee or whatever they wanted to do, so they invited us to tag along. First stop was a laundromat where we did all of our laundry at the same time without multiple trips to the laundry room, then lunch and then the beach. It was a perfect beach day and we spent about an hour wandering up and down watching the waves and water. If only I had had a chair - I could have spent the afternoon there listening to that water…. We finished the trip with a quick stop at the grocery to fill in on essential items and then trekked it all down to the boats from the parking lot. It was such beautiful weather that we invited Steve and Kathy over to sit out on the flying bridge and watch the passing boat traffic and then moved inside for cocktails. Ka

 Another beautiful, uneventful day of cruising and we are now in Myrtle Beach SC at Barefoot Marina. It is right on the ICW across from the entertainment district known as Barefoot Landing and has tourist shopping, breweries, restaurants/bars and a theater. We were actually in a looper parade of 4 boats planning to dock here, so we slowed down quite a bit to each take our turn getting help catching our lines. Steve and Kathy are backed into a slip across from us and we are side tied on the face dock - I was worried we would get rocked from passing boats, but most have been respectful of the no wake zone and it is wide enough here that it doesn’t seem to be a problem. We met another couple who started their loop from Jacksonville FL after moving onto their boat from California and they are only a month or so into it. It was so interesting talking to them and remembering how “green” we were and how much we didn’t know. We were able to give them several pointers for their journey, such as

 We are halfway to Myrtle Beach from Georgetown in a place called Murrells Inlet SC and staying at the Wicca Wache Marina.  It is a lovely little hidden gem on the Wacamaw River.  Think the Indians had an influence here?? They only have room for 2 transient boats as far as I can tell, and what nice, helpful people! We got tied up in our slip just before it started raining, which was the plan… We washed the boat down a little so the rain could do the rinse, took Madison for a walk, then settled in for a rainy afternoon reading and relaxing.  Might have had a nap…. LOL! Steve and Kathy came over for Mexican night and they brought the makings for margaritas. I made the tacos and Kathy had fresh sweet corn to add to the mix.  As usual it was a fun evening - my favorite part of traveling with another couple. Tomorrow we head to the Myrtle Beach area and will be at a large, fancy marina called Barefoot Landing.

 What a nice break today - not traveling - getting to explore Georgetown. After a leisurely morning the 4 of us set out for downtown and went to the Maritime Museum and then to the Kaminsky House, which is a huge mansion from the 1700’s. We didn’t want to wait for a guided tour of the home, so we wandered the grounds and marveled at the setting and beautiful gardens. A delicious lunch at Rolling Local where Kathy and Tom had freshly made Sushi and Steve and I had Hibachi. It was delicious and quite unexpected! The guys returned to their boats and Kathy and I did some window shopping in every cute little shop on Front Street. Tom and I took Madison for a pretty long walk through the neighborhoods and I wanted every house we passed…. A stop at the Shrimp Store for some fresh shrimp finished out the afternoon and it was time for docktails and dinner with Steve and Kathy.  Surprise - she made a shrimp and pasta dish! We are in the heart of fresh shrimp country. There are 8 looper boats in