Life On Orion

 We took the Ocracoke passenger ferry today to Hatteras. It’s a one hour ride so we arrived there at noon and took the 4:30 pm ferry back here, giving us a few hours to explore.  Unlike Ocracoke, Hatteras is not a walking destination, so we were limited to the area around the ferry terminal for our exploration, but that was still fun. We ate lunch at a tiki bar, nosed around all the tourist shops, toured the Shipwrecks museum and spent an hour on the beach. The museum was fascinating - there are 50+ sunken ships dating back to the 1800’s on the Atlantic side of Cape Hatteras and they are still dangerous waters today. There was a nice boardwalk down to the beach and this beach was slightly different than here at Ocracoke as it was a steep decline into the ocean and you could tell there was a big drop off in the water.  Still beautiful and still pretty good shelling. Sad to think that it was my last visit to the beach for awhile…. Dinner was aboard the Orion and afterwards we walked down

 We have stayed a day longer than we planned in Ocracoke due to some snarky wind and waves out in the sound today.  We don’t have to travel in less than ideal conditions, so we choose not too. The only downside was that the marina where we were did not have space for us to stay another night, so we both had to move our boats to the next set of docks next to the marina which are actually the State Park Docks. They are quite inexpensive and do have power, so it turned out ok.  The reason we didn’t stay here the whole time is that they are first come, first serve and if they are full you are SOL since you don’t have a reservation anywhere. On Sunday we all got our bikes out and rode the 2 miles to the beach and hung out there for a couple of hours.  Boy, the ocean is so beautiful here and we were mesmerized by the waves.  Kathy and I collected our usual bag of shells and we walked for another mile down the coast of the island. We broke up the ride back to the boat by stopping at Howard’s

 It was a fairly uncomfortable ride over here today due to the wind direction - it caused us to get pushed around from the side and rolled a lot.  Dewey was not a fan! Also met a huge Army Corps of Engineers dredge in the channel, so we had to wait until it was safe to pass him.  Car and passenger ferry’s were also out there since you can only access this island via boat. We are in a real marina tonight and it is quite handy to everything. They have a really nice pool here too which we hope to take advantage of. Tom and I walk a couple blocks to get some lunch after we got settled, then to the souvenir t-shirt shop and back to the boat. We put the dinghy down and tied it up behind the boat so we could set up the chairs on the fly bridge and it gives us lots of room now.  We might even take a spin around in the dinghy tomorrow…. Dinner was on our boat and then we took a short walk, hopped the free trolley (golf cart) and toured the town.  Now we know what is out there and where to explo

 We learned early on that there are docks masquerading as marinas - some are delusional and some are just crafty.  We left Manteo at 7 am to take advantage of the calmer seas in the morning and made the 5 hour cruise to Engelhard NC which is a spot in the road over on the mainland side of the state. This town seems to have fallen on hard times and the “marina” is no exception. Michael’s parents bought it in 1989 and from all accounts, it was a  cute little marina with a fuel dock. His mom died last December so he moved his family into his parent’s house and his dad moved to a small house at the rear of the property. Needless to say, nothing has been kept up and it’s pretty sad. Michael, however, is such a nice person and it was so cheap to dock here for a night.  We felt safe, out of the wind and had power - what else do we need? It was a halfway point between Manteo and Ocracoke and no matter what they call themselves, it was a long dock that could accommodate both boats. Tom took his

 Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate for your travel plans and today was one of those days.  We need to travel in waters where too much wind will produce waves that are too big and make an uncomfortable, although not dangerous trip.  We elected not to do that, because there is no reason to and stayed an extra day here in Manteo.  There are worse places to spend an extra day and this was a fun one. Yesterday we did some boat chores, took Madison for a long walk and relaxed in the afternoon. Kathy and Steve brought a nice pork chop dinner over to our boat and we went for a long walk around the neighborhood before bed. Today Tom and I walked to Ace Hardware to look for a drill bit he wanted and on the way back saw that they have an Original Pizza Hut here - like the big eat-in building straight out of the 70’s. We decided to go there for lunch with Steve and Kathy and what a throw-back experience.  They have updated and re-done all the finishes, but have not changed the layout or vibe

 What a nice day! The weather has been slightly cooler With less humidity and we actually were able to open up the boat and let the beautiful breezes in for a cool day! Tom took Madison for a nice long walk at sunrise and then he and I walked to a coffee shop 10 minutes away for some coffee and a pastry. Mid morning Kathy and I walked to the Piggly Wiggly to get a few fill-in items for dinners and then it was lunch time! Steve was involved in a generator project on his boat, so after lunch Tom walked up to the automotive store to purchase oil for his oil change tomorrow and Kathy and I went downtown to browse the shops.  A lot of looking and a scoop of ice cream later we came back with no purchases in time to start dinner preparations. It was my night to cook and I made Teriyaki chicken kabobs and rice and the guys grilled them out on the dock. We took a nice long walk after dinner through the neighborhoods here and then relaxed before heading to bed. What a beautiful place with pristi

 We traveled down the river and across the Albemarle Sound today to arrive in Manteo NC on Roanoke Island. This is the start of the Outer Banks region and somewhere I had always wanted to go. What a lovely beach town! Our marina is right next to the downtown area with tons of shops, restaurants and wineries and craft breweries and there is a brand new boardwalk that literally goes right there from our boat. We got here about 1 pm, so after we got settled we walked downtown and had lunch at the brewery. We did a quick overview of the shops and Kathy and I decided we have a date with that area tomorrow. The wind was blowing pretty hard as we crossed the sound and was coming from the west, so we had following seas and that made it hard to steer the boat.  Combined with more crab pots than I’ve ever seen on the Chesapeake. Tom says he doubts there is a crab alive on the Albemarle Sound! How quickly do those things reproduce anyway??? It was too windy to maneuver into a slip today so we pul

 There are a handful of iconic stops on the Great Loop and Coinjock Marina and Restaurant is one of them. Until today, the only one we had not been to. We left Chesapeake VA this morning and headed south again on our way back to New Bern where we will have our bow pulpit repair done. There was a fair amount of boat traffic in what were pretty narrow channels, so it was nerve-wracking much of the morning. We had to wait 25 minutes for a scheduled opening of a highway bridge not too far out of Chesapeake, otherwise we cruised right along. Coinjock Marina is basically just a really long face dock and we are tied up to it right in front of Steve. We were met by 3 dockhands who helped us get tied up and Madison is thrilled because she can easily get off the boat and the first patch of grass is oh so close…. The restaurant here is famous for it’s large portion of prime rib so we tried to get reservations, but - Father’s Day…. We put our name on a list and did get in after an hour and had a d

 It’s taken me a whole day to sit down and write this entry because I was actually more emotional about crossing our wake than I thought I would be. All of the months of dreaming, planning and finally executing came together on this day. It was a series of individual day trips and looking back I’m astounded by all of the places we went and all of the adventures (and mishaps) we had. Traveling to different places was a wonderful benefit of the loop, but as everyone will tell you, meeting the people along the way and making lifelong friends is the very best part. We never felt alone - ever. This looper community is by far the most supportive, helpful and friendly group of people I have ever encountered. We slogged through the Great Dismal Swamp yesterday on our way to Chesapeake VA and I can now say I’ve done it and I’ll never have to do it again. It was beautiful and peaceful, but the canal was narrow, the water was skinny (shallow) and full of debris.  We definitely “bumped” into a few

 Today didn’t start out very well, but things turned out alright and here we are. Tom noticed that our steering was a little sluggish yesterday when we arrived in Elizabeth Cith and had to make a 180 degree turn in the river, so he investigated when he got up this morning. There was definitely a problem and a loud clunk when the steering wheel reached a certain point in either direction. Two hours of phone calls, consults from Steve, conversations with divers, etc. our son Dan happened to call.  He suggested that it sounded like a problem with the top steering column bolt and that prompted the guys to take a closer look.  It looked dried out and they noticed it had a place to lubricate the connection, so Tom hopped on his electric bike, went to the auto parts store and returned with a lube gun and lubricant. Once applied it fixed the problem immediately! Probably something we should have been performing regular maintenance on, but who knew??  Thank you for sons with mechanical knowledg

 Another beautiful day to cruise on the Albemarle Sound! We played the fun game of crab pot dodging all day - they should be eating nothing but crabs here judging from the number of crab pots! And the black floats are terrible to see in the water until you’re on top of them.  Who decided black was a good color to use? We’re all the good colors taken? Sigh…. Fun story - today after we turned into the Pasqutank River to head up to Elizabeth City Steve and Kathy spotted a full size float mat floating in the river.  This thing was as big as a king size bed and brand new.  They circled and Kathy was ab le to snag it with her boat hook and now they have this huge pad rolled up on their cockpit.  They plan to cut it down and use part of it as a lounge pad on the bow of their boat and they will still have enough to use as a pool float at their house.  You never know what you’ll find in the water…. We are docked at a nice long free dock at Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Elizabeth City and