Pageviews

05-18-09 Morehead City, NC

[Betsy] If things get much worse, this trip will last 9 days instead of 9 months! We had a wonderful sendoff with nearly 20 friends and family present for mimosas prepared by a neighbor. I knew my brother Steve was planning to come see us off, but was thrilled that brother John also made a surprise visit. Our Power Squadron, Church, neighbors and Topsail Beach friends were all well represented, in spite of the weather which was cold and rainy.

We pulled out of the dock at approximately 11:20 after a special prayer from our preacher, Tim Croft. Friends huddled together in the cold and rain to wave good bye. With me at the helm, we were barely out of site when we got stuck in the mud and had to wait nearly 30 minutes for the tide to come in enough for us to continue on. The boat is so weighted down we’re riding several inches lower than usual, and our channel just isn’t deep enough even at mid-tide. Fortunately Rick had planned our departure on an incoming tide, so we just cut the engines and waited. (A note to our power squadron members: this grounding DOES NOT qualify us for the bent prop award!)

More bad news…we were well underway when I asked Rick what he had done with the Champagne friend Bill Morrison had brought for us to celebrate the first night out…oops! He left it on the sun porch. I heard later from a neighbor that one of my brothers had taken it, so I’m sure he will present it to us on our return (Steve, I hope you heard that!)

Our goal for the first night was Oriental, but by the time we reached Morehead City the winds had picked up even more, and we made the wise decision to stay here rather than attempt the Pamlico River in such awful weather. We were both pretty much exhausted by the time we reached here. The Morehead City Yacht Basin is a wonderful place to stay, within walking distance of several restaurants and with the finest shower facilities and lounge. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that we returned from dinner and decided to turn on the heater just to take the chill off. We immediately heard strange sounds coming from the heater, so turned if off and then noticed a faint burning smell. We opened the hatch where it is located, turned it on again just for a second and saw sparks flying…not a good sign. So we will probably stay here in Morehead City til we get it fixed…not a bad place to be for boat repairs. And with the weather, we were probably going to have to wait a day or two to leave anyway…(look on the bright side).
We said it was going to be a great adventure, and it has certainly started out that way!

1 comment:

  1. You named the right brother for who took the champagne. I had to drive back and go to work, so enjoyed only a couple of sips of mimosa. I was thinking about you today, and now find you didn't even move!

    ReplyDelete