Saturday

Despite the aftermath that Hurricane Floyd left in eastern North Carolina, Pat, Bob, and the we leave Durham for New Bern on Saturday. After several detours around flooded areas, we meet Chuck at Blackbeard's that afternoon. Chuck has spent the day getting "Blue Dolphin" and "Daisy June" back to their slips and cleaned up after Hurricane Floyd.

Sunday

After some last minute provisioning on Sunday morning (during which Bob and Pat are able to sing-a-long to a children's music tape!), we load up. Canto and Blue Dolphin head for Adam's Creek, and we spend the night at anchor in Cedar Creek.

Monday

A gray and drizzly Monday (see photo, left) makes a wet beginning for our trip, but after coffee and tea, and with all of Canto's cockpit canvas up, we keep warm and dry. We keep a sharp lookout for debris in the ICW (see photo, right), and we make it into Beaufort in good time. Blue Dolphin takes Gallant's Channel, while Canto goes the longer way via the Morehead City Channel, where we notice at least one ICW marker high and dry in the grass. Kristina and Luke are most excited to see wild ponies (they count four). We drop our hooks in Taylor's Creek, just in front of the post office. From this vantage point, we are able to see two more ponies grazing nearby on Carrot Island.

We suit up in foulies, and take "Can-too" (the dinghy) to shore. We discover that Luke, Kristina, and Pat make quite the fashion statement in their yellow slickers. (See photo, left.) Bob, Adrian, Angie, Kristina, Luke, Chuck and Pat wind up at Clawson's. Monday is half price pasta night, so guess what we all have for dinner?

Later, when back on board, the Canto crew try out their singing on a captive audience. Adrian brings out the guitar, and we sing "Waltzing Mathilda," "Clementine," "Daddy's Whiskers," "This Land is Your Land" and others. Bob is tickled because he says he hasn't heard some of these tunes since grade school.

Tuesday

Tuesday proves to be another rainy, overcast day, and, to liven up the atmosphere and get the Canto crew socializing with Chuck and Pat, Kristina takes to the VHF and invites Chuck to "come over and bring Pat and a teacup." She observes the proper VHF-iquette (unlike some of the other boaters were heard during the week) and we have a wonderful "tea party." After our mid-morning tea, served with Eva's oatmeal-raisin cookies, we decide we must go exploring, rain notwithstanding. So, back on go the foulies, and off we go in "Can-too."

We have lunch at "The Royal James" and sit outside eating our hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches. Nothing fancy here, but we enjoy the fresh air and watch some school children on a field trip across the street. We window-shop (it was very difficult to pull Chuck and Adrian out of the maritime stores) and then make our way to the NC Maritime Museum. This is a must see, as it is Bob's first visit here, and Kristina and Luke (and their parents) also enjoy this museum. We have another wonderful visit. As they have done on previous occasions, the museum staff offer us the use of their "courtesy car" after they learn that we have sailed to Beaufort. The children each leave with a large whelk shell from the museum staff; Kristina subsequently brought this to school for her show-and-tell.

We pause for refreshments at a coffee shop almost across from the museum. Chuck spies the iced coffee drinks, and starts a trend by ordering one. They were delicious! Naturally, Kristina and Luke wanted some iced products of their own (Mom and Dad deemed them too young to have an iced latte) and after we had sufficently browsed all the newspapers (mostly for the weather maps), they each got an ice cream from a shop down the road.

Adrian, Angie, Kristina and Luke dinghy across Taylor's Creek to explore Carrot Island. We are a little hesitant to get into the water, so we just "get our toes wet" and look for shells. Afterwards, on Canto, we meet up with Bob, and invite Chuck and Pat to dinner for shish-kebobs. A delicious dinner was capped by conversation with good friends, and the only sad note of the evening was the late night burial at sea of Adrian's (very well-worn) hat. Despite possible rumors to the contrary, Angie did not throw the hat in the water. It is merely a coincidence that she has been after Adrian for several months to buy a new hat. . . Although Chuck and Pat made dramatic rescue efforts, the hat was swiftly swept out to sea by the current. R. I. P.

Wednesday

By Wednesday, Bob and Luke are buddies, and we nickname them the "Cool Dudes" (see photo, left) because of their matching sunglasses and hats. Bob has also given Luke and Kristina "hat cords" so they will be sure not to lose their hats.

We decide not to go to Cape Lookout. A strong cold front is predicted to sweep through in the next day or so, and we decide to return to the Neuse. Chuck miraculously produces a brand-new Ultimate hat in Adrian's exact size. (I'm telling you, we did not plan this!) After Adrian, Angie, and Luke made a quick trip to town (that coffee shop was calling!) and after Chuck's bottom was cleaned (ask him about it, not me), we set off for Oriental.

At Oriental, we launch the dinghy to set out a second anchor, and, afterwards, Adrian, Luke and Kristina go zooming around the harbor. With just the three of them, the dinghy can plane (see photo, right), and Luke hangs on with white knuckles to the tether as he is bounced up and down on the seat! Kristina and Luke return grinning from ear to ear.

After a dinner of subs, Adrian brings out the guitar and we have a sing-a-long in the cockpit. "Yellow Submarine" (complete with British accent) is the last song of the night. Much later, in the wee hours of the morning, we are all relieved to be anchored at Oriental rather than Cape Lookout as the cold front moves through with winds abruptly clocking around from the SW to the N and very strong gusts!

Thursday

The two-boat flotilla breaks apart on Thursday. The Blue Dolphin crew decide to remain at Oriental as they are expected at Blackbeard's on Saturday; the Canto crew head for Ocracoke. Conditions of 15-20 knot winds (on the nose for much of the trip) and choppy waters make for a roller-coaster like ride, but Canto is in her element (although that can't be said of all the crew) and at least the sky is clear for the first time in days! We arrive in Ocracoke by late afternoon with a tired crew, including a hat-less Bob. Bob, like Adrian, had lost his beloved hat. (We had been having a bit of difficulty getting Luke to use his brand-new "hat cord" from Bob to clip his hat to his shirt. Now, Bob had to explain to Luke how, had he himself been wearing his hat cord, he would not have lost his own hat overboard.) We anchor in Silver Lake, which had only two other anchored boats. After a quick dinner of hot soup ("Soup is good food!") and some cursory constellation viewing, we are all in bed by 8:30pm.

Friday

Friday dawns clear, cloudless, and cool, but no one actually saw the dawn come because we had slept almost 12 hours! Adrian, Angie, Bob, Kristina, and Luke are all eager to explore Ocracoke, and we head to shore and tie Can-too to the Park Service dinghy docks. We window-shop: Bob is looking for another "cool" hat and Kristina and Luke want food, preferably ice cream. We settle for an alfresco lunch.

Adrian, Angie, Kristina and Luke rent tandem bikes to explore the island, and Bob is determined to find himself another hat. We have great fun on the tandem bikes, and ride them to the Ocracoke lighthouse (see photo, left) and all around town, and even a little ways out of town to a beach access, so that we can see the Atlantic Ocean and beach. We notice many of the cedars by the road and on the dunes are brown, probably from the infusion of salt water. We also snap a photo of some folks who just didn't want to have to work too hard to get back home (see photo, right).

After returning the bikes, and enjoying ice cream and milkshakes, Adrian, Angie, Kristina and Luke, tired but happy, meet up with Bob late in the afternoon by the Park Service docks. Kristina has piggy-backed "Neigh-Neigh", her pet horse, all over the island (see photo, left), Luke and Kristina have worked hard to do their share of pedalling on the tandem bikes (Luke never wanted to stop!), and Bob is pleased as punch to have found a cool "Ocracoke" hat - and at a cool price, too.

We slosh back to Canto full of ice cream and hardly hungry for dinner. The clear evening is just right for stargazing and we see Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Pegasus, Andromeda and Cassiopia, four moons around Jupiter and a few meteors. What a day.

Saturday

At the crack of dawn on Saturday we set off, just behind the first ferry. We are hoping to make it back to Oriental tonight. The winds and water were calm, and we had a relaxing sail back. Kristina and Luke are budding shutterbugs, and take pictures of everything, especially stuffed animal crew members like Jessica Bear (see photo, right.) Kristina and Bob play chess, and, when that is over, Kristina prompts us for words that she can practice spelling. At about the time she gets to spelling list word #120 and we are running out of ideas, the wind pipes up. We confirm that that the Neuse River marker ("NR") is indeed missing, and with the nice breeze, we make it back to Oriental by late afternoon. We witness many brown and dying trees on the entire Neuse shoreline.

Sunday

Another pre-dawn start on Sunday brings us back to North West Creek Marina by mid-morning. We've had to motor the whole distance, and see logs and other debris, but it is flat calm and we have no trouble avoiding obstacles. It's beginning to be quite a hot day, a big change from the cooler temperatures that we had enjoyed on the trip up until now. We wonder how long it will be before we feel safe swimming in the Neuse again.

We back Canto into her slip, and clean and unload. We also say good-bye to our neighbors, Gary and Jackie and their dog, Katie, on Celebration, a Tayana 42; barring any further tropical disturbances, they will be sailing south to the Bahamas in a day or two. We load the van, and head to downtown New Bern, where we cap off the week with lunch at Denisia's Pizza, and coffee for the road from the New Bern Roasting Company. Ah!