Only One Go Around

Monday morning arrived early, and Rick was right on time for the 8:00am launch. He delivered Kantiya to River Forest Marina, which is right next door to Turkey Creek, our neighborhood.  The boys in the boatyard quickly went to work, setting the straps on Kantiya to safely lift her off the semi trailer. Off she goes to the dry dock! The 'boy' in the shoulder strap harness was wearing the controls to the travel lift.  He was operating the joy stick like he was playing a video game moving our 20 thousand pound boat through the lot! And down she goes for her final splash! We left her in the sling and followed Rick home so that we could deposit the boom and mast in the driveway next door.  We want to re wire it all, add led lights, a new masthead kit, weather station, windex, spreader lights, radar, etc. Next off the truck was the boom. Lord, don't let it fall and go BOOM! Jerry got Lavern's forklift from the barn to offload the mast fr...

This is the beautiful Bristol sailboat I had to squeak by to get Kantiya docked at Sailcraft Services in Oriental, NC. You can see my dinghy hanging off the davits, and how we are 'overlapped' with our neighbors.  Tight squeeze! We got a rental car the previous day and got an early start driving back to Maryland.  We had to get our truck back from Old Bay Marina. We are on the move yet again! Here we are passing by the Pentagon. Seeing the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC are always a thrill. We also passed by Andrews Air Force base in Maryland, and I was reminded of when I visited my oldest step-daughter, Jennessa when she was stationed there.  Good memories :) It was a full day of travel the day before, and then the following morning we worked our tails off to prepare the boat for transit- Rick called and said he would arrive a day early! The sails came off and were folded. the dinghy and davits were removed, the boo...

After a late wake up and coffee with blueberry muffins, Len had arranged for a rental car for a few days from the New Bern airport. This is about 30 miles away, and on Mike's way back to his home in Greenville, NC.  Since Mike was so willing to oblige us, we wanted to treat him to lunch.  He suggested Stingray Cafe in New Bern.  Where it was once famous for its fresh seafood, it was made infamous for the fundamentally Christian restaurant owner penning a letter to a lesbian couple who were his customers.  It made the national news.  If you are interested in more, click here.  Stingray-Cafe-proprietor-serves-lesbian-couple-poison-pen-letter-for-dessert-in-North-Carolina   I had a scallop burger, Mike had the black drum, and Len had trout. Being NC, we had all the sweet tea you could hold. After paying the bill, were were told to have a blessed day as we left their establishment :) After checking the weather on several sights including weather.com and...

We were so spent from sailing the extra miles the day before, we decided to sleep in Sunday morning.  We were hoping to find a coffee shop or bakery open in Belhaven, but no such luck. We cast off at 10am, for a 44 mile run to Oriental, NC. We had an easterly wind and motorsailed comfortably from Belhaven, to Pamlico River, across the tip of the Sound and in to Goose Creek. From there we turned in to the Neuse River. From Belhaven, the Pungo River makes a 90 degree turn to the south for a 10 mile run to the Pamlico River.  We passed the Hobucken Coast Guard Station, and some Coasties when zooming by us, perhaps on a call to the Pamlico Sound.  We have heard several distress calls on Channel 16 this trip, and one may-day where three boaters were injured and their boat was taking on water.  Thankfully our course was not taking us down the length of the Pamlico Sound, but instead we only caught a five mile western tip of the Sound.  This was shrimp country! ...

Coinjock Marina (mile marker 50) was a lovely place; they had a band that evening dockside, a delicious dinner menu (we didn't get their famous 32oz prime rib), clean air conditioned showers, and mosquitoes that would carry you away!  This place it quite famous, particularly in the fall and spring when boats are transiting the ICW for the winter season in the south.  Coinjock even has a helicopter landing spot for the fine rich folks.  We were one of only five boats there, and I preferred it quieter. I can only imagine the party like atmosphere when the season is in full swing- boaters are typically big partiers. We were up at 6 and off the dock by 7am.  I wanted to get across Albemarle Sound by noon.  There was a front scheduled to move through, and I didn't want to be caught in the sound when that happened.  As we headed out to the sound, we passed some veteran sailors Len had spoken with at Coinjock.  They chose to go to an anchorage for the ni...

Good morning!  We had a leisurely morning aboard Kantiya.  The Dismal Swamp Lock didn't open until 8:30am, so we enjoyed coffee and breakfast, and I checked email and worked on the blog some. The main salon is my 'office' on board- it works out fine :) The best laid plans, well.... are just that.  As we passed the 'road sign' for the Dismal Swamp it said the canal was open, but the lock was closed.  Knowing it was nearly 7:30pm and the last lock through was at 3:30pm, I figured," ok, it's closed- for the day".  I even remarked to Len that it looked like the kind of sign at a bar, that you can change from 'closed' to 'open'. Well, this morning, a man paddles by in a canoe, and Len thought, "That must be the guy changing the sign." Ah, no. I pulled off the dock at 8:00am for the short two mile jaunt to the lock.  At about one half mile out, I hail the lock on the VHF to request the 8:30 scheduled opening. I was politely ...