ball creek, NC

we met dave and sandy when they cruised through the chesapeake a couple of years ago, when we were still living at regatta pointe in deltaville, VA.  our common denominator was the rosborough boat - they had one and i used to have one.  we also shared mutual friends in craig and tammi, also rosborough owners.  we got together with dave and sandy when they came through the lower Bay and stopped at deltaville and we hit it off right away.  they are former sailboat owners and very experienced cruisers.  at the time, they had a sweet yellow lab named misty who had to be the largest yellow lab i had ever seen -  misty was a BIG girl! she was also quite old but she was a boat dog and where they went, she went, too, kind of the way consuelo was with us.  it's how dog people are.  dave and sandy lost misty on that trip and i remember thinking how terrible it must have been for it to happen while cruising and so far away from home - to have to make that return trip minus one member of the crew, which is the situation in which tom and i find ourselves now.  in any case, they talked about maybe getting a smaller dog because, really, it is much harder with a big dog that you have to muscle on and off the boat, especially when they start getting older, but, not surprisingly, they ended up getting another yellow lab, sadie, who is now 2 years old, and she is a sweetie :) 

dave and sandy came to see us at vero beach and we got to meet sadie then but it was a very short visit so it was nice to pass by their place this time and stay for a little while to get caught up.  they have a beautiful place on ball creek and tom and i spent a couple of extremely relaxed days there while spring was springing, grass was growing, and birds were singing. the nights were wonderful, too, with very little light pollution so that the moon and stars were so bright in the very black night.  it was like being anchored!  but more than that, it was the pleasure of the company of a couple who have become good friends :) 

let me just say that it would have been easy to overstay at this marina - free dockage and electricity and wifi, courtesy car and driver to the grocery and for running errands, homemade dinner two nights in a row and sandy even folded my laundry because i didn't get back for it fast enough!  we really enjoyed our brief stay with them. we will be back!

tadhana at the ball creek marina

early morning fog on the water