Tieing A Knot...: Very Good Days

We had a great visit with Jodie and Barry on "Love Shack"in Carolina Beach, I apologize to them for forgetting to get a picture of them and Charlie their (real) 'boat dog'. Alas, we were having too much fun catching up! We took an evening stroll through the Carolina Beach 'continual carnival' and laughed at the line outside of Britt's Donut shop. At 9 pm there were at least 75 people standing in line for a donut! Britt's is an institution in Carolina beach and the donuts are yummy (we had them last time we stopped, and no we didn't stand in line) but not yummy enough to stand in line for an hour. Carolina Beach is a favorite of mine. It is a real "beach town", no mega mansions, and loads of people just enjoying the beach. It brought a smile to my face.

Later as we were watching the full moon rise over the Atlantic from the boardwalk Barry commented on how "lucky we were to be experiencing all of this". We agree.

Now for my latest "photo ops"

I must have taken fifteen shots as we were going up the Cape Fear River trying to catch a Pelican "fishing". They were like dive bombers all around the boat. I guess we were churning up some of the 'good stuff'. Here are two in tandem.

Entering Carolina Beach's narrow harbor. They have installed mooring balls which makes for a stress free night! Below..."on the ball" instead of "on the hook"!

Gary "wave watching"......or was that "babe watching"?

The 'Laurel and Hardy 'houses near Wrightsville Beach

This is our 4th trip on the ICW in this area. Before it has always been in May and not much action going on, in fact we hardly ever saw another boat. BUT, let me tell you these Carolinian's (did I get that right?) enjoy their summer. They are boating, beaching, fishing, kayaking, rocking on porches and getting ready for a Sunday "slip and slide"!

That was our weekend. We left on Sunday headed for Mile Hammock Bay at Camp LeJeune Marine Base. What a change from the first time we anchored there. Then it was amphibious training, last year it was helicopter training, this year nada!!! I don't know if it is budget cuts or Sunday off but the place was being used as a boat ramp for the marine's pleasure craft. Upside was no noise at all!

I did catch the moon at about 10pm, it's a bit grainy but you get the drift.

We pulled into Oriental at 3 on Monday. They have a website www.towndock.net, which lets you see if there is space available at the free dock and we are, as always, into that. Since the last time we were here they have put in another "town dock" so they have room for four boats at the free docks. The last time we were here there was one and it was full but that was in "snowbird season" ....this time we lucked out and pulled right into a prime spot. It is posted as a 48 hour stay limit but they haven't told us to leave yet and we are 2 hours over our limit. Hopefully they are glad enough to have us here feeding the economy in our tiny little way. This town is VERY friendly to boaters, I guess it's because they are all boaters themselves.

If you go to Harbor Cam under Web Cams you'll see us like this.......first boat in the "shrimp fleet"

I never was enthralled with Oriental but this 2 day stay has gone far in winning me over. Gary spent and hour using anti -seize and a screwdriver to loosen the totally rusted chains on our bikes, we haven't used them in over a year, they need some LOVE. After he got them road ready we took off to the grocery store to get a few "things"....which always turns into too many things....today we rode all around the back streets which always tells you more about a place. I kind of like it....who knew.

The highlight of the past two days...besides the threat of violent storms which were going on all around us but never quite making it here, was the arrival of the shrimp boats today.

Seven boats came in and unloaded their catch at the dock. You'll see from the photos that this is really a tiny little harbor and with these 60 to 80 foot shrimp boats maneuvering into the docks to offload their catch and then into slips for the night,that these captains are, it was a cake walk.

So here we are with a 46' Morgan sailboat between us and the "fleet"....though, I think I'd rather be a sailor than a shrimper !

SO......I asked around to see if we could buy some fresh shrimp since it looks like they brought in the 'mother lode' today. Answer......YES, tomorrow at the tiny little fish market across the street. YIPEE!!! It'll be shrimp on the barbie' tomorrow night.

I told our 'duck mates' they better behave or we'd be having more than 'shrimp on the barbie'!