Vicki says that we made it far enough north that the trees are changing colors and that’s TOO far north – and I completely agree. Before we got here, the idea of cooler temps and crisp fall air sounded exciting and exotic. That was before my toes and fingers went numb, my nose turned bright red, and my lips chapped. We woke up several mornings to temps in the 30s with stiff breezes blowing over the dodger. We wore almost every piece of warm clothing we have on board, but let’s just say that we have definitely added long underwear to our Hampton shopping list.
Aside from this strange chilly business, the rest of our trip north was great. Oriental, NC was the highlight. The anchorage was super close to the dinghy dock where there were loaner bikes for cruisers to borrow to get around town. We pedaled down to a marine consignment store where we snagged a super deal on a stern rail mounted Magma grill. (We managed to break our Kuuma grill somehow…) The anchorage was full of sailors headed south and amongst all the other boats we saw three other Tartans! We even hopped onboard Tyler J to explore a newer 46 foot Tartan and swap sailing stories with four cool Canadian dudes. Oriental is indeed a happening town.
Winding up the ICW was scenic and peaceful for the most part. I guess I will share this bit of “embarrassing” news. Stella Blue finally ran around. Not in the shallow/reefy Bahamas, but in the infamous Albemarle Sound. The channel gets really narrow with super shallow shoaling on either side. We were cruising upwind when the depth alarm went off at 9′, 7′, 6′, BAM! Bump bump bump. We throttled down and luckily had our headsail out which blew us back into deeper waters. Everyone says it has to happen eventually and now it has happened to us – hopefully just the once.
We are at a dock again here in Hampton, VA but this time we aren’t doing any sightseeing. We are working, meet and greeting, working, shopping, working, going to seminars, working, and constantly monitoring the weather. It’s busy. Today is Wednesday and we are tentatively set to cast off our dock lines next Monday. It’s almost time for us to earn the right to call ourselves Salty Dawgs.
It got a little chilly here in Carrabelle but warms up to 85 in afternoon.
We can’t WAIT to get back to the warm weather!
I hope the shirts arrive in time for the next voyage! All sounds exciting! Still warm in Houston so hurry back! We miss both of you!
We miss you guys too – you should pick an island and we’ll meet you guys there! Thanks for the shirts – we’ll let you know when they get here.
Nice story
Thanks!
Well, looks like you need to come back here and let me install a hot tub on that boat of yours. I have installed several now on boats, but this will be a first on a sailboat. Stocking caps, long sleeve fleece shirts, gloves, trees changing colors, frost, all are things I really don’t miss…………..but hot tubbing with a hot babe, now that is something I miss.
You guys rock! I think I am going to write a story about you and put it in Cruising World magazine.
If you pay for the hot tub, we will find a place to put it…..might have to be more the size of a foot bath 🙂 We miss you Cap’n Ron – we can’t wait to meet up somewhere closer to the equator.
Thank you for sharing your travel note! What brand of boat do you have? I have an Albemarle, and for this “cold situation,” I’m considering buying something like a cabin space heater.
Hi! Stella Blue was a Tartan 37. This was 7 years ago, so fun to go back and re read the adventure!