Long time since last post. Photo's in next post. You gotta bear with us.
At North Myrtle Beach we were able to take advantage of something that was completely unplanned by us. Our good friends Bob and Cherrie Ritsema had reserved a time share less than a mile from our marina at NMB. We discovered they would be where we would be and when we would be there just by a chance conversation. The result was that they were able to visit us and have boat cooked dinner with us and another rendezvous attendee, Jim Conlin who lives in Hudson, Ohio. Bob is the man who married us aboard the Salt Shaker back in 2008.
When we returned to the boat after being in Florida for the earlier week, we stayed two more days to give Pat's back a chance to recover and repair the muscle spasms that befell her during the long auto ride and other activities. For her, these two days were unpleasant and would have been really enjoyable had it not been for that.
We did eventually get to leave and take a nice ride to Southport, NC where we met up with our new friends Steve and Carolyn Wood aboard their boat the "Here and Now." Pat and I had a nice dinner at a local well known eatery called "Fishy Fishy." Excellent fare and great Margaritas. We left Southport the next day together and we followed Steve and Carolyn on the portion of the journey that took us to Surf City, NC. This is the portion that included a segment of the Cape Fear River. The tidal current there was pretty swift and unfortunately it was running against us to it extended the time of travel just a bit.
Surf City was a really small small tourist and fishing town with a really friendly and easy to navigate marina that was sized for the town. We were within a block of the Atlantic. Pat, Steve and Carolyn and I walked over to the ocean and found a nice place to have dinner called "Daddy Mac's." The view of the Atlantic with it's sandy beach and incoming surf made this a leisurely experience.
The following morning we departed Surf City bound for a stop at Casper's Marina at Swansboro NC. The interesting part of this day was where we passed Camp Le Jeune just in time to watch a bunch of our country's finest young men and women staging aboard their attack patrol boats preparing for a live fire practice session.
Little did we know that when we just a little way past them, there was a sign that said "Live fire, proceed no farther when the lights are flashing." Needless to say the lights were flashing so we did the smart thing and proceeded no further. We dropped the anchor in the middle of the Intra Coastal where there was already an anchored sail boat and an anchored trawler.
The attack patrol boats seen earlier made their way past us and eventually disappeared from view. Soon after we were treated to about an hour of sounds from what I would figure were 30 caliber and 50 caliber machine guns as well as fire from gatlin guns.
Swansboro was a delightful stop for us because it is the home of Pat's younger daughter, Amanda's in-laws, Charles and Joy McKee. They picked us up at our dock gave us a tour of this really laid back and picturesque town before taking us to their house where they had already prepared a perfect recipe of jambalaya. We were able to enjoy this home cooked dinner with their daughter Marney and her children Brandon and Rachel. This time we spent went well into the evening. Nice time was had by all. We could hear and feel in the ground the sounds and vibrations from the big guns from Le Jeune, lobbing a few shells off to somewhere, a few an hour.
From Swansboro we took what turned out to be pretty trip to Beaufort, NC where we currently are staying at the Town Creek Marina. Here we will have the boat serviced, the engine oil needs to be changed and numerous other scheduled maintenance items need to be attended to. Town Creek was recommended to me by one of the fellow who are involved with www.rinkerboatowners.com . I think he gave us some good advice based on how it is proceeding. Once all the work is done, I will need to write him and thank him for his selection.
Getting into the marina was a test of my developing close quarter maneuvering abilities. Pretty stiff and gusting breeze and not too much room for error. I surprised everyone and got into the slip on the first attempt and without anyone gasping at what they were seeing. I am starting to get a bit more comfortable and it is starting to have the same appeal to me as I used to have landing my 172 and later my 182 (airplane) in crummy wind conditions.
Beaufort is a town with a lot of history and we will probably get a couple of days to explore. We will also have a couple of days to be taken over to North Augusta, SC by Amanda's in-laws to help Amanda and Chuck celebrate the 3rd birthday of granddaughter Ellie and a visit with new grandson, Ethan.
Tony n Pat
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