May 13th through the 20th next hurdle Arbemarle sound

Pics:

Entertaining Willy on the VICTORIA

Helping Willy with the prop

F R O G- furnished room over garage

Man made beach

house overlooking the harbor that runs the towndock.net web cam









Saturday the 13th:
We arrived in Oriental, gassed up, and pulled into a slip. We were exhausted. But things had to get done and fortunately for us we have a "sponsor" here in Oriental. Gil and Laura just moved here like 6 weeks ago. These two very nice people offered to take us grocery shopping! So thats exactly what we did and Laura invited France as well. The market is a local one and not as well stocked as a Stop N Shop or a Publix but it was just fine. Seems like Oriental is too far off the highway to get regular deliveries of fresh produce so that was expensive and a little iffy. Granny Smiths were 2.09 a lb. France said,"I never even paid that much in New York!!" It was wonderful getting to know Gil and Laura better. Laura is my friend Jan's daughter. I'd met Laura a year or more ago when Brittanys girlfriend Sarah was in the hospital for an asthma attack. Laura is Sarah's older sister.

When we got back with the groceries Gary was donned in his wet suit getting in the disgusting water to help a new friend. Willy is a fascinating 70 year old character who has been around the world 3 or 4 times. He goes to the Azores like we go to Newport. Amazing fellow. Anyhow he was at the free dock with a propeller problem ...........he had to get it off and it wasn't budging for him. Something was mentioned about a cavitation issue. Gary got under the boat and muscled it off. What a MAAAAAN!! Willy then instructed Gary to get in the shower right away after they got out. Willy told us a story of when he was having other under water problems in Spain I think it was. Water in this particular area was disgusting and he and his first mate got in the water. It wasn't until 3 months later that he came down with a skin disorder that left him with large boils and blisters all over him. He called his former first mate who was now on land and she had the same problem.

Later on in the day we found out that there was gonna be a fundraiser with a live band up till 12:00 midnight. There was too and the music was great. They played mostly classic rock and oldies. Kind of the same thing I guess. Our bow was facing the bulkhead almost directly behind the band. I had no problem sleeping surprisingly. Perry Mason in my head and I was out like a light. ( I have a Perry Mason collection on VHS). At 5:20 Sunday morning a stray yellow striped Tom cat came on board for a visit and Misty was not very gracious. The cat fight was in the cabin, it was loud and sounded quite vicious. Cat hair was everywhere and it smelled like male cat pee and one of them got scared *&%$less . What a stinkin mess. We all jumped out of bed and met in the hallway in a state of confusion. Then I woke Eddie up to let him know something was going on. Gary chased the intruder off the boat, and he was gone just as fast as he appeared.

Sunday the 14th:
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! !

We found a local church. St Thomas Episcopal near the Neuse River. After church we stayed for refreshments and the people were wonderful and friendly. Brittany got invited by an older teen to join them later to meet other church teens and watch a movie. This same teen had earlier made quite an effort to come from the front of the church to shake Brittanys hand at that part of the service. He was a cutie too. Brittany did go and she had a nice time with her peers. We went up to the Toucan to grab a burger and a beer. Shortly thereafter Gary left to walk Brittany to the movie site. At the Toucan we met Larry Walker. For his Bio go to this website: http://www.wegivethetest.com/
In short he gives the tests for all those captain wannabe's to get their license. An excerpt from that site reads: We hold U.S.C.G. license classes in twenty locations in NC, Virginia, NY, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri

So needless to say Larry knows alot of people. Before I knew all this the subject of Tow Boat US
came up and I told Larry of our experience with the Driftwood and the over the top Tow Boat US guy. Larry got upset and said he would talk to the owner of that TB US and let him know that one of his employees behaved like that. He also said that I gave him an idea for an article. He writes for a syndicated column called From The Helm. If your interested in the article he's gonna write you can Google : Pamlico News . They have a link on there. We ended our visit with Larry telling us that neither we nor Fred on the Luna Maris did anything wrong. Driftwood should have called T B US back and told them that he had on site assistance. We did hear Driftwood offer the guy his TB US membership # so that he could recoup any expenses like fuel etc. I'm sure Driftwood was upset and thinking of getting his boat off the bottom. Neither Driftwood or Luna Maris got on the radio to take the heat either. Larry said that mariners should help each other, and that noone should discourage that!!
Gary went back to pick Brittany up and by the time they got back to the boat we were all zonked. Off to sleepy land.........but not for long. At 12:30 the yellow striped Tom cat returned for round two and we helplessly responded by chasing him off the boat again. Unfortunately all of our hearts were beating double the rate already, and for me returning to sleep wouldn't happen for a few hours.

Monday the 15th:
We waited around for Ians boat part to come in but it never did. France and I walked for an hour all around and it was great.

Tuesday the 16th
Brittany got more of her laundry done today and Ians boat part came in ! ! We met Bernard and H'elene on the Countre Currant. A funny couple from Canada. Bernard entertained us with stories of his trip with his Mother-in-law on the boat all the way from Canada to Brunswick Landing. Gil and Laura took us on the local tour. It was a gorgeous day and we rode around looking at all kinds of things like a man made beach, and Gil and Lauras apt called a F.R.O.G. = funished room over garage.

Wednesday the 17th
I got up early and did a last load of laundry. We asked Gil and Laura to come by for a send off cup of Joe, which they did. I also snuk in one more walk before leaving terra firma. We backed out of the little harbor and waved goodby to Gil and Laura. Then we passed Willy who had gotten his prop back on and had moved out to the anchorage. Gary had assisted this time and didn't have to get in the water, which we were both glad of that. We travelled for while and got into the Pungo River. It's a huge body of water and we witnessed small and large groups of sting rays riding the waves. Some were in groups of 5-10. I made Italian Vegtable Soup for dinner.We pulled into Belhaven about 3:10. You have to anchor either N or S of the dinghy dock and for us with a slow dinghy it seems VERY far. We enjoyed a quiet night in eating the soup and watching a movie. I think it was "White Christmas".

Thursday the 18th
Gary put Eddie in the dinghy with the garbage and too the big ride to shore. Eddie was grateful.
We overheard Twin Spirits on the radio and chatted a bit. The Alligator River and the Pungo canal are for a while one and the same. The channel is narrow say a couple of hundred feet. The Army Corp of Engineers boat patrols up and down up and down. One time we were trying to give him room and not get waked when we hit bottom for the first time. I didn't even notice it. Gary said it felt like someone had grabbed onto the back of the boat and was draggin. It only lasted a few seconds and we got right back into deeper water. Thank God. The Dismal Swamp has a couple of inviting signs along this waterway. One reads:

We're often read
and duly quoted
but its our hospitality
for which we're noted

The more people that use the Dismal Swamp for travel help to ensure future funding. We are struggling with our decision as to what we're gonna do. It's faster to take the Virginia Cut but we heard not by much. The Dismal also has more locks and is a NO WAKE zone. We'll wait and see.

Friday the 19th
We arrived in South Lake just S of Albemarle Sound at 4:53. Although Skipper Bobs says that there are grassy areas to take a dog ...........there isn't. Eddie hasn't gone to the bathroom since Belhaven. I continue to try to "walk" him out onto the bow with leash and harness and all but he refuses. He's sure "dad" will take him to shore. At one point Gary and I got into the dinghy and did try to take him. Hoping that we'd find something but to no avail. We prepared dinner and watched as the sky darkened and a thunderstorm front passed over. There was the usual rain and wind as well as thunder and lightening. Off in the distance we watched the lightening show.
A flash of light here another over there and then the whole sky over the land lit up. It reminded us of watching the fireworks on the 4th of July from the middle of the Narragansett Bay. First Newport then Middletown, turn around and Jamestown wanted to show off their fireworks then NK and Wickford, and on and on. But it was the second front that really scared me. The first front was nothing. This second front was more powerful. It was so loud and there was hail too! It storm lasted for an hour. The show was spectacular as the lightening flashed, rained poured down and the thunder boomed across our anchorage.

Saturday the 20th
We pulled anchor and got underway hoping to beat the wind before it "woke up". We failed in that attempt. So far we've motored over to just south of a bridge and anchored. It was too uncomfortable. The VICTORIA doesn't bob up and down like a sail boat , we snap from side to side whenever the wind is on our beam. With our mechanical steering, its an exhausting workout for Gary. We've returned to the anchorage for another night and we'll try again in the morning. The rest of us batten down the hatches and hang on. Brittany is on crab pot watch and I'm bloggin.

Our weather locally is at this site:

http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/AM/130.html

Sarah just called Brittany..............she'll have to call her back :)

Keep us in your prayers, your in ours
XXOO
Victoria's Perspective