Heading Down the Stream

After months and months of patience, the stars aligned and we are on our way. We are learning to trust a new boat and rediscovering the magic of cruising.  Happy days!!!   

Weather Delay

We are ready to leave Oriental after months of preliminary refitting but now, the weather isn't cooperating. 25 to 35 knot winds have us pinned to the dock. Winds are supposed to lay down this afternoon. Hopefully we can make our way to Moorehead where we will anchor for the night. 

Engine is looking much better and runs great. 

Easter was totally kosher. Had egg hunts and whatnot. I celebrated ever lasting life by punishing my liver and glycemic index. 

 God wants to teach Oriental with a flood. 

Time to enjoy a cup and wait for the howling winds to subside. With any luck we'll be off and running in a few hours. 

Towers, Forts, and Other Stuff (by the kids)

While Mom gets the cockpit and back locker tidy...

Kai-  My fort is part hotel, store, waffle shop, and cake shop.  That's all.  Kayden and Fallon buy stuff with screws and nails and they use the screws and nails for money.  

 

(Fort by Fallon and Kayden)

Fallon-  I built it with my brother and we built it with teamwork. I bought a little carpet from Kai for Pipa (dog) to lay on.  It kept Pipa comfortable in the shade.  My job was to watch the dog so I brought her in the fort.  

Kayden-  My Mom started cleaning out behind the cockpit.  She had stuff she wanted to throw out so I had the idea we could build a fort with it.  I took my sisters chair and my chair and put them four feet from each other.   Then I took this little bench from my Grandma and made a triangle shape with the chairs.  Then I took the old enclosure pieces and draped them over the bench and chairs.   I used all of mine up.  Then I used a plexiglass panel and we had a little window.  Then Fallon let me use her enclosure pieces to cover up the space left.  I had an extra piece so I gave it to Kai.  My Mom gave us a hose.  I put one end in our fort and spread the other end out into the rocky land we built the fort on. You could talk into it and hear each other like a telephone.  It was the length of our boat.  It was rocky so I put an old towel on the ground.   Then we had some beds.  We built a little table too.  We put tarps over the fort to make it darker.

No luck fishing.  We weren't using the right bait.  

Jenny- People in the yard got quite the show; I watched many smiles and chuckles as people passed by.  A man working across the yard made a point to come up and tell us how impressed he was with the way the kids entertained themselves.  He was amazed they could carry on in a boat yard simply using things laying around.  It was nice to hear.  Nice job little ones :). You made me proud.  

Wasting Time

As we are in the finishing stages of boat engine work, the kids and I have become accustomed to making ourselves scarce throughout the day.  The morning knock comes around eight am and we stay away until five pm.  Such is tough in a small town.  Resturaunts and the library are our second home.  We run random errands and log many miles with dog in tote.  Who knew wasting time would get so old?

Luckily we are currently in the midst of warmer temps.  It makes it much easier to stay away (and have something to do) when the weather is pleasant. 

We went on a bear hunt in New Bern.  

 

Rode the ferry...  A few times. 

We painted pottery.  The kids carry around their ceramics everywhere they go. 

 

And picked a dandelion ... Or ten.  

Soon we will be underway, but for now, we will see all that we can of this place in the world.  

Gotta Go With the Flow

JL-  

  Sometimes things don't go quite as expected.  In our world, this is the norm. We might have our ideas about how we want things to go or when we want them to happen, but we have learned that ideas are set in sand.  

  As we have to work around Mother Nature, work schedules, boat yards, etc, it is impossible to abide by a firm idea.   Things happen and plans change.  When we surrender to the universe, we find that everything works out much better than our minds could ever conceive.  What's meant to be will be... So we go with the flow.  Everything for a reason. 

  At this stage we planned on being a few days into our transit of the ICW from North Carolina. Such is not the case.   Unexpected paperwork glitches and engine parts missing in transit have caused us to be delayed.  So be it.  We aren't sweating it.  Everything for a reason.  

 

  With the impromptu Florida vacation, we found opportunity to meet our newest cousin, enjoy the amenities of a retirement community, see dear cruising friends, spend glorious nights in hotels, and enjoy the presence of our grown up cousins.  We had FUN!  Everything for a reason.  

  So now we wait and see what the universe has in store for us.   We will be on the move- destination unknown- when the time is right.  It all makes sense in the end.  We go with the flow.   

Steady As She Blows

JL-

I feel the need to expound on the tire blow out from the standpoint of the ultimate spectator.  

We were within two hours of our destination in Florida when the unmistakable pop indicated we were no longer mobile.  As we had already spent HOURS  in a car for the THIRD day in a row, this was an interesting twist of fate.  We could have chosen to flip out, become stressed, etc etc etc... But we opted to view it from a completely different vantage point.  With that pop, we were handed an opportunity to add more adventure to an alreay epic road trip.   Game on.   

I thought to myself in those first initial minutes, "Okay- this is gonna be fun to see how this works out." I truly never had an ounce of panic. 

We limped to the nearest exit and right beyond it was a gas station where we parked the wounded trailer with the gas attendants blessing.  Low and behold, there was a store five minutes down the street that, sure enough, carried the very tire we needed for our trailer.  I must add that this was a Friday night after the close of business.  The universe totally took care of us.  

 

My hero was like minded through out our delay.   He stayed steady and dedicated to solving the problem without any negativity.  He had the tire located, purchased, and installed in no time at all. 

Kai, Fal, the pup, and I went on a brief walk around the parking lot.  

Kayden didn't bother to look up from his book the entire time.

Kai even endured a scraped elbow, but did not shed a tear.  

Soon it was time to hit the road again; about an hour had passed from blow to go.  

Lesson mastered in keeping cool under pressure.   

  

More coasts than coats

GL-  The First Coast, Palm Coast, Space Coast, Treasure Coast, Gold Coast, The Keys, Lee Island Coast, Cultural Coast, Sun Coast, Nature Coast, Emerald Coast, and not to be forgotten, The Forgotten Coast. If you knew all those then you probably drive a 1998 Lincoln Town Car with 560 miles on it. 

Georgia, not on my mind. 

We had a pretty good run down to the Treasure Coast. This is where we will leave our vehicle while we head south from Oriental in the boat. NC named all their coasts The Banks. Pretty full of themselves. 

Trailer tire to the tender torn to tatters 

Somewhere along the Space Coast we had a tire explode on the dinghy trailer which was pretty cool. For a second I thought we were in Miami until my wife said Sweetheart we lost a tire. 

One great thing about Florida is the minimum freeway speed is 80 mph.  We were in the far left lane passing everyone when the tire blew with the report of a canon. We slowed down to the minimum speed and crossed the 4 lanes over to the berm,proceeding to drive on the rim to the next exit. One hour later we had the tire replaced and were back on the road. 

Jenny reacts to the loss of the tire. 

Anyway we arrived here in the Moonshine State.  In about a week we should be taking our first trip down the ditch in this boat. 

Best cow sandwich this side of the Mason Dixon