Tuesday 10/15, we woke to 48 degrees! It's time to get going south! We left Coinjock making our way to Alligator River Marina in North Carolina. The ride was great....nice and warm in the pilot house!
Alligator River Marina is an isolated marina/truck stop/restaurant. We were the 2nd of 3 boats by the end of the day. Bill took the opportunity rinse off some of the salt spray on the deck and windshield.
Bill stumbled upon a stowaway!
Wednesday morning we were the last boat to leave the marina. Bill had to move our little buddy to the dock because he was still on the boat. We had a 5 hour ride to Belhaven NC, where we stayed on the town dock. The town is small, but really cute with several restaurants and pubs. Roxie loved the mowed field just off of the dock!
The next morning was pretty chilly and wind was in the forecast. We had a 7 hour ride to Oriental, NC where we have a reservation at the marina.
Cursing the intercostal in NC!
Coming into Oriental. We stayed at the Oriental Marina and Inn. They only have a couple of slips and we managed to score one of them. Just off the dock is the pool and bar tiki bar. Another cute place with provisions close by.
Friday morning we left Oriental for a 65 mile ride to Mile Hammock Bay NC, where we anchored in the bay just off of Camp Lejeune. There were 8 boats already anchored, but there was plenty of room. After getting anchored, the next order of business was to get the dingy down and get Roxie to the beach and she was ready to go!
We got the dingy down in the water without any issues, but Bill found that the battery was dead. After messing around with that, he discovered that the batter switch was turned off....so no batter issue after all. Lol! We got loaded up into the dingy and started to drive away when Bill noticed the steering was frozen! We couldn't turn! Lol!
We got back to the boat after a bit by using the paddle as a rudder and after some manhandling and WD40, he was able to loosen up the steering. All this time Roxie waited patiently in the dingy. The old boat saying is true, you got to use all the accessories on your boat or they will break. Lol!
Anyway, we finally got Roxie to the beach and all was good in her world again. On the way back from the beach, in the distance we saw what looked like huge drones and they were coming our way. Once they were closer they were actually military helicopters called Osprey, which we learned later.
The Osprey flew over the bay a couple of times then landed just behind the trees on the base. A few minutes later they were back up in the air and flying around again. They looked super cool and you could definitely hear and feel their power!
Practice was still going on when we went to bed at 9:30....when the boat was not vibrating from the power of the Ospreys, the shrimp were snapping below the boat. 😊
P.S. We saw our first dolphin and pelicans on this leg of the trip.......were getting closer!
What an anchorage!
What a sunset!
Moving on tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment