Wrightsville Beach

     We're now at our next stop, Wrightsville Beach, NC. A spot close enough to an airport for Carol to get to work. It's kinda protected but with a strong current but... it's NOT Charleston. What's wrong with Charleston you may ask? Okay, go ahead and ask. I'll wait.

     We love Charleston but the Ashley River anchorage has way more current and it's more exposed so we're going to try some new spots for work breaks.

     Since my last entry we had new engines installed at Pleasure Cove Marina in Pasadena, MD by Bay Shore Marine. Of course it didn't go smoothly and cost way more than planned. We had one bad engine bed which meant a major unplanned repair and delay to even get started on it. The total cost, including normal annual maintenance and future maintenance supplies, approached $50K. Ouch. Oh well, a deduction from Heather's inheritance.  

   
     After leaving Pleasure Cove, we spent a week and a half in Annapolis. This is one of our favorite stops. We went to the boat show and went on zero point zero boats and only spent $5 not counting lunch and Painkillers. What did we do? Spent six hours talking with services and supply people. Accomplished a lot.

     From there we had a great sail to the Solomons, a lumpy trip to Deltaville (5-6ft seas) and a choppy passage out of Chesapeake Bay into the ICW at Norfolk.

     Once on the ICW we decided to go down the Dismal Swamp Canal. The weather was forecast to have gale force winds and we had the time to go slower down the Diz. It's much more protected. We stayed at Elizabeth's Dock at Deep Creek and had a nice visit with Robert Peel, the lock master there. We also stopped at the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center for the first time. Pretty nice. This was followed up by a one night stop at Elizabeth City. We got to know and chat with a number of fellow cruisers at each of these stops.

     One of the incidents we had involved hitting a tree in the canal. If you've cruised you know that occasionally you encounter floating logs and branches that need avoiding. Sometimes there are submerged deadheads, too. We hit a couple of those here but I'm talking about hitting an actual tree, the kind that grow overhead. How, you may ask? Go ahead, ask.

     Anyway, there was a tree that had fallen into the canal and lay across it covering at least half the width. We have a 24 foot beam and when I squeezed over to avoid the floating tree the mast and spreaders got entangled with the branches of a tree, or two. Several came raining down on us. A new experience.

     After the Diz our next NEW stop was Oriental. We got a spot at one of the new free docks and explored the small but cute harbor town.

     I've skipped some of our stops to tell you about the unusual (for us) ones. Our next stops were expensive ones. Because of our new engines we had to do 50 hour oil changes and valve adjustments. We got hauled at Jarrett Bay at a cost of $600 to change our saildrive gear oil. And I did the work myself. 30 minutes out of the water and we moved on. Ouch again.

     Then we stopped at Town Creek Marina, Beaufort (Bo-fert) for two nights for the oil and filter change and the aforementioned valve adjustment. Another $500. This boating thing is expensive. But... they did throw in a new hat.

     Between Beaufort and Wrightsville is Mile Hammock, the anchorage at Camp LeJeune. We stopped there along with two dozen of our closest friends. Okay, not so close as friends but close as well, imagine Block Island on the 4th of July weekend.

     We survived that and a thunderstorm and boat bumping early in our stay in Wrightsville. Let's see what new adventures await us.