Trip to Pensacola

We had to move out of the Schoolhouse Condos for a week so a quick trip to Pensacola was decided on.  Pictures to follow.  The dinghy needs to rejoin the boat but first it has to fit on a Toyota Corolla for the drive back to Oriental.

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House-sitting

People are running from the heat and that is providing empty houses with a thing they call air conditioning.  The nights of last week were not so bad because of a  breeze that lasted almost all night and the lows were maybe 75.   One day we had one of those…

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Beat the heat

Trying to plan a little trip up to Watauga Lake for a few days of chillin.  We did a install today of a NuTeak flybridge up in Little Washington.  The process is hard but the results are very rewarding.  It really dressed up the boat.  All of a sudden we…

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Croakerfest

This weekend is Croakerfest in Oriental and the crews are busy making the town look pretty. Temps are dropping to the mid-60’s at night and low 80’s during the day. I am still at anchor and haven’t been plugged into a dock in months.

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Safe and sound anchored in Steven’s Cove

I am back in Oriental and had coffee at the Bean this morning after a night anchored in about three feet of water. The boat has been great with just the one real breakdown and a minor hiccup here and there. It’s hard to go boating without something breaking so…

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Swansboro

I am anchored here in Swansboro with an internet connection that is helping me monitor a storm cell headed this way and packing wind. I went for a swim yesterday in Wrightsville Beach and saw that the hull was covered in heavy barnacles. This morning early I pulled “Spark” onto…

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Cool Cruising

What a difference. Today was in the high 80’s and I hardly broke a sweat. The boat did 70 miles of travel and that was including opening 4 bridges. I just put the anchor down in the little harbor here in Southport and thought I was next to a rock…

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From freezing to melting

There is a reason that people do this certain times of the year. I was late to leave when I turned south in early December and this is not a good time again with heat index about 114 degrees. Georgetown has been great to layover for a day. I was…

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Endurance rowing

I couldn’t time the tide right yesterday and did a lot of upstream rowing. It took me four hours to wash a boat for Elfin at Complete Marine Services. When I finished we all sat around and talked until almost 10pm. It’s a good group of people. My part was…

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Autopilot

The new autopilot is old. It hasn’t been of much use yet because it goes into a crazy panic trying to be perfect. This morning I discovered a sequence of button pushing that allows you to enter how many turns from stop to stop and even some dampening control. I…

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Searching for the right part

My day started with a shower on shore and then a five mile hike to Walmart in an attempt to undo the shower. It’s about 90 degrees here. Mission accomplished. I decided to track down the transmission cooler now that I was so refreshed. Ron asked Alan and Alan said…

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Back to Isle of Hope

The last 3 days have been good with only Jekyll Island Sound causing any trouble. I still had southeast winds and the ocean waves kept trying to slap the dinghy off the davits. Today I woke up to northwest winds that stayed light while I crossed St. Catherine Sound and…

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In Fernandina Beach

The first day underway I only made 39 miles because I tried to sail for 2 or 3 hours but the winds were light. By 4 o’clock I was anchored in Julington Creek and rowed in to the Whole Foods store for a few things. I met a man in…

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Spring cleaning

These last couple of days have allowed me to address some boat issues. Not the big boat but the dinghy. It’s a Zodiac and would a great outboard powered ride but it doesn’t have very good oarlocks and one was lost when I bought it. The one I found as…

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Palatka for the Blue Crab Festival

We were at the Milltop in St. Augustine and heard Will Pearsall play on a Monday night in front of us and a couple other tables. What a treat! Now it looks like he will play here in Palatka at this weekend’s Blue Crab Festival so I might have to…

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Work report

This is the last day of a deck installation in the Jarrett Bay complex. The shed is leased to a company called Lightning Yachts that builds boats and also do refits. All the employees have been easy to work with and that helps a lot when you have 6 or…

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The Big Boil

Some friends had a big crayfish boil tonight with plenty of other food added.  Live music and a cool breeze made for a nice evening and we still had some light at 8:30.  I was back in the little camper by 9 and spent the last hour researching ways to…

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Cinco de Mayo

A date filled with good memories for me.   It would be great to relive some of them but they tell me you can’t do such a thing.  Don’t look back they tell me.  Live in the present and have no regrets is what I hear so often.   I’m trying.  HAPPY…

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The Big Spill

Here we go again on opinions divided.  I just heard that the environmentalists might be responsible for the oil rig explosion.  You put an environmentalist in a Prius Urban Assault Vehicle and you never know what they are capable of doing.  I sure am surprised they would cause such a…

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