dowry creek, oriental, spooners creek, topsail sound, and southport.

we left elizabeth city on monday, october 26, 2015.  the problem was that the night before, i was told that we were not leaving and then later told "i don't know."  well, that's fine - that's cruising.  no one woke me up the next morning so i figured we were staying but as most cruisers know, the plans can sometimes change from minute to minute.  so i started up a load of laundry and took aurora for a walk and in the midst of that, i was told "we are leaving now." 

so we left.  down the pasquotank and into the albemarle sound where we proceeded to get beat up.  water came in through the cockpit scuppers, the cockpit hawse pipes, and through where the isenglass buttons on to the boat.  i was on my hands and knees trying to plug up these holes which, ordinarily, would have been plugged up if we had known we were leaving.  it's just something that got overlooked.  our shoes were floating in the cockpit.  anyway, by the time all of that got done and i got up off the floor, i wasn't feeling too good, what with us going downwind and all that diesel exhaust coming into the cockpit.  yuck.  so back to the pilothouse - we were rocking and rolling and poor aurora was terrified because i had left her all alone.  tom was too busy driving, trying to get us not too beat up and avoiding crabpots, too.  i just stepped out the port pilothouse door and let the cold air wash over me.  i did not puke and neither did aurora so there was nothing to clean up.  just had to pick up all the stuff that had been put down on the floor prior.  luckily, tom  had made a reservation at the alligator river marina - just in case.  last year, we had made it all the way to dowry creek.  this year, we were ready to stop, especially since we'd never been to the alligator river marina before.  there were many good reasons to stop - fried chicken for lunch for starters.  we also had ribeyes for dinner at the diner.  the boat got washed down and i had internet.  only one other boat from the rally was there with us.  a few had gone ahead and actually made it all the way to dowry creek.  some stopped at the STM 100 mark and anchored for the night, but most stayed in elizabeth city.  two had started down the pasquotank and turned back. 

we left for dowry creek the next day and stayed there three nights.  the internet speed there was terrible.  i was so stressed out trying to work.  even the signal on my aircard was bad.  but dowry creek marina is a really nice little place with such a great staff.  happy hour every night (not really my thing) and on the last evening, milton bullock, the last  surviving member of the group, the platters, sang for us after we had a big BBQ around the pool.  i think we stayed too long in that place - by the time we left, we were ready to go.

dowry creek sunset

shrimp trawler

from dowry creek, we headed to oriental.  we bumped into a lot of old friends over there and it was good to see them.  oriental had a big party on halloween night but i was working and tom was sleeping - we are such party poopers - seriously!  however, i stopped working for a few minutes to listen to the band playing talking heads' song, psycho killer.   i don't think i've ever really gotten to see oriental the two times that i have been there although it is a cute little town.  i've always been so busy working, or people are coming over and i'm stressed because we are docked but not plugged in.  my preference, if we're not going to be plugged in is to be anchored.  however, we got some really nice shrimp from the seafood market and i finally had coffee at the bean and it was really good. 

from oriental, we proceeded to spooners creek - in the rain.  not much in spooners aside from the fact that it is an excellent provisioning place.  the plan was to bring down the bicycles but it rained and rained.  at least we were plugged in so i did gobs of laundry and ran the dehumidifier practically to death.  in the end, we ended up sharing a taxi with some people to do our grocery shopping.

when we left spooners creek, our group split up.  some had gone to beaufort to stage for bumping out.  tom led a group to topsail sound - i call them the broken boats (including us) - as we were to arrive earlier at southport where zimmerman marine is located.  all the boats that came with us needed some kind of yard work done.  the last group was led by mark to mile hammock - this was the party group, docktails every night! 

the passage to topsail sound was uneventful.  people had been talking about the missing marker at brown's inlet but it was no longer missing by the time we got there. our people came through the onslow beach bridge in one clump as well and there was room in topsail sound for all of  us to anchor.  we dropped the dinghy and took aurora to the beach.  it's too bad that she can't be trusted off the leash or i would have let her run around.  i miss consuelo terribly every time aurora pulls on that leash - it was just one less thing.  we had a quiet dinner that night at anchor and it was nice and peaceful. 

the next morning, we woke up to fog but we left anyway and everyone in our group lined up behind but not close enough and half of them had the figure-8 bridge close on them so we had to wait for them to catch up and take the wrightsville beach bridge together.  passage through cape fear river was also uneventful and we all wound up scattered throughout southport's busy and just about full marina.  we went straight to the travelift and were hauled out.  a friend of tom's from long ago who lives nearby showed up with his car and he and tom took our propeller to the prop shop to be reconditioned while aurora and i wandered around, homeless, until tadhana was plopped back in to the water propless and we spent the night in the travelift slip.  we are supposed to get the prop back sometime this afternoon and they will haul us out again, install the propeller, and then we will go to our assigned slip.  we are, again, docked but not plugged in so have to run the generator to top off the batteries.  it's not as bad as in oriental though - not as congested.  it is kind of embarrassing to run the generator when one is docked - all that noise and exhaust. 

so, anyway, here we sit, waiting for our propeller.  it is going to be a stinking hot day.  last year here at southport, we were all dressed like nanuk of the north!  one thing nice about southport - DECENT internet speed! 

i have been terrible about updating the blog but i've just been too busy and i haven't taken any photos either.  i have to say, though, that this is a really nice group of people that we have for the rally this year.  the whole thing, too, is much more organized with just the two leaders instead of three.  no one butting heads.  and that is all i am going to say about THAT  :) 

one more thing:  here is the link to this year's rally's blog.  it is updated daily by diana doyle but i get to edit it and put in missing commas haha....    sail the icw

temporarily out of commission