Ocracoke, Morehead City, Cape Lookout and back to Morehead City

We have been watching the weather closely, since Beryl; a tropical depression is heading our way. We have been tracking him and looking at the forecast and have decided to leave for Ocracoke on Tuesday May 29^th. We hope to get a space at the Parks Service Dock and spend maybe a week or two just relaxing at one of our favorite places. We fell in love with Ocracoke long before we starting boating and it continues to be a favorite place to go. We were very disappointed that we didn’t get to spend any time there last year and hope to make up for it this year.

The weather was calling for strong winds during the week and we hope this will discourage some boaters from attending the Ocrafolk Music Festival this weekend. We’re going over a few days early and hope to get a spot at either the Parks Dock or Anchorage Inn. Who knows, we may even check our “Bruiser 2012” and see how he holds in Silver Lake.

We left the earliest we have for any trip, 5:45 so we could get there early. You know what they say about the “early bird catching the worm” and we wanted to get a spot on the docks. This was not our best “crossing”. It was rainy, choppy, and we had white caps. Not the best of conditions.



Dark clouds



Getting closer



And here's the rain



You can barely see the lighthouse in the distance, but we know its Ocracoke.

You can see Morehead City, where we started and then Ocracoke, where we stayed. We left Morehead and went north to the Neuse and then east to Ocracoke. Follow the white dots to see a very rough plot of our trip.



We were anchored in Silver Lake near the docks at the lower corner of the lake, just below the "13".

See all the shallow water? You have got to pay attention to the markers or you will be in big trouble.

Ferry docks

 We got to Silver Lake around 2 pm. When we arrived the wind was blowing about 20 kts and forecast for much faster in the next few days.  We checked out the Park Service Docks on the way by and they were full. We heard on the VHF radio that the Anchorage Inn did not have any place big enough for us so we started looking at the anchorage.

We have talked before, about how different things look from a 26’ boat and a 49’ boat. When we were in Silver Lake in “Miss Lauren” it looked like there was lots of room to maneuver and anchor. Well, looking at it from the flybridge of “Escape” made it look lots smaller and tight. Of course, there were lots of boats in the anchorage. It looks like everyone had the same idea, get there early and get a spot. Remember “the early bird gets the worm”, and in this case the worm, was a spot at the dock or anchorage.

We talked about what to do and Shay even said something about going back to South River and just hanging out instead of staying here. In the end we decided to stay and try out the new bigger anchor. After all, that’s why we got him, to use, not just to look pretty on the bow.

Our view of the lighthouse

We found a place in the southeast corner of Silver Lake, where we could anchor with reduced scope. We had just put on a new 177lb anchor and thought that it would hold our DeFever 49 CPMY with the reduced scope.  We only had room for 50’. We got anchored and decided to go to land and see if we could find a dock we could use. We started at the Parks Service Docks and found out that no one was leaving. Most of them had come over for Memorial Day weekend and planned on staying thru the Festival. We walked to a realty agency to see if any of their homes had docks for rent but had no luck. We also called and check several places around the lake and had no luck.

We got caught in a shower and got soaking wet on the way back to the boat. Of course, we had left things open and had a wet mess inside. We cleaned up the water, got out of our wet clothes and settled down to see what was next.

Things look better after the storm passed by.

The rainbow after the rain

They wind was up that afternoon, evening, and night. We were concerned and Shay stayed up late to keep an eye on things. He got up a lot during the night to check and make sure things were holding.

We woke up to wind and rain. It rained all morning and Shay took a nap and told me if it stopped raining to let him know and we would put the dinghy up. It stopped raining about 2 pm and we put the dinghy up. We talked about moving the boat since boats around us were dragging, but it’s not something you want to do in these conditions.

About 5:00 pm, thank goodness it was daylight, the wind got up and lots of boats started dragging. A small sailboat was dragging toward a sailboat near us. He had put out an anchor buoy and we were concerned that the dragging boat would catch on his line and pull up his anchor and cause even more problems.  He put out more line so he could stay away from the dragging boat but this reduced our swing room and finally we started slowly dragging toward docks that were behind us.  The small sailboat finally stopped dragging but it was close to us and that meant we had even less room to maneuver. We had been using the engines to keep us from pulling too hard on the anchor but realized we were loosing the battle. It was time to move.

Shay manned the flybridge while I went down to the anchor. I kept directing him which way to go so we could pull up the anchor as easy as possible. He had his hands full --bringing up the anchor, keeping away from the docks, and staying clear of the other boats. Finally I gave him our signal that the anchor was off the bottom and he started to leave. Just then he heard a loud crash and knew we had hit the dock behind us. He couldn’t leave the helm to check for damage, we had to get anchored again. We moved to the other side of Silver Lake, close behind the ferries. The ferries had stopped running because of the wind so we were ok. He checked the boat for damage and saw that we were ok. There were some pieces of wood from the dock, but not enough to do any real damage. We felt like we came out pretty good. We talked to other boaters about what was going on and one boater said the winds were 50 mph! No wonder “Bruiser 2012” didn’t hold. If we had been able to put out enough line we would have been ok but it was too much wind for the amount of line we could put out. The forecast was for strong winds all thru the night, so we set the alarm for every hour. We stayed put and were glad for that night to end.

Shay woke me up at 6:30 and said we were leaving. He did not want to stay in these conditions any longer. The trip was a little bumpy at first, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We talked about our experience and decided we would not take the boat back to Ocracoke during a busy time like the festival or holidays. They just don’t have enough room for us to dock or anchor and it’s not worth it. If we want to go over during a busy time, we’ll get reservations at Anchorage Inn docks or stay in a hotel. That would probably be less expensive when you think about fuel and dockage. Remember, boating “ain’t cheap”.

We talked about spending the night in South River but decided to come back to MCYB, since the wind was supposed to be even stronger tomorrow and we wouldn’t want to dock then.

We knew docking would be a challenge, since we were going to a different dock and we didn’t have any lines on it. Well, the wind was not bad and we went in at high tide, so I did OK. Yes, it sounds like I am bragging and I am a little. I was able to get the lines over the pilings and get us secured. I told Shay not to expect that every time. That was just luck. Remember, we are still very new at docking and so many things can go wrong. High winds can blow you into the dock or away from the pilings, inexperienced help (me) can have trouble with the lines, or a meteorite could hit us. OK the last one is very unlikely, but the first ones do really happen.

We called our friends, George and Pam, from Mount Airy and told them we were back at our dock. We told them they were still welcome to come for the weekend, but we would not be at Ocracoke. They decided to come and visit anyway. We talked about taking a ferry and spending the day at the festival, but decided we’d just spend a relaxing day around Morehead City. They got to the boat late Friday night; we sat around and talked for a while then settled in.

We had parfaits for breakfast the next morning and decide to walk around town. We ate lunch at the Sanitary Restaurant and came back to the boat for a nap. We had Shay’s grilled chicken, salad, and baked beans for supper. We were all stuffed but did manage to enjoy key lime pie for dessert.

The next morning they got packed up, we ate lunch at Cox Family Restaurant and George and Pam started back home. We enjoyed having them visit and hope they come back again soon.

Our friends on “Rocking B”, Ken and Margaret are making a 3 day crossing from Bahamas to Morehead City and should get here June 4^th. We have been tracking them and they are making great time. They are making a long trip in just 3 days. They got here around 2 pm and we were all so excited.


Rocking B is back. Margaret, Ken, and Chris-- their crew.

Do ya think Margaret is glad to be back at the dock? This is after a 3 day trip from Bahamas to Morehead City. Great job! Welcome back! We missed you!

They were tired and hungry and wanted to go to Ionnies to eat. We took them and their “crew”-- Chris and had a great time. They met Chris while in the islands. He is single handing (traveling alone) on a boat the same size as “Rocking B”. We talked about how much trouble we have doing things with 2 people on board, how difficult is it with only one? Well, he makes it work and loves the travels. He brought his boat back to the states, and then flew back to Bahamas to travel with “Rocking B”.

We had a big dock party the next night. Escape, Rocking B, Seaveyor, Maximum Exposure, Bad Bunny and others and had a great time. It was fun to get together with all the boaters and celebrate our lifestyle.

Margaret and Ken---back from the Bahamas.

Shay and Elizabeth---back from Ocracoke

Margaret and Ken left early the next morning, heading for Baltimore. Shay took Chris to New Bern to catch a plane to start his trip to his final destination Columbia, South America. They tried to talk us into going up with them, but we have plans to go back to Mount Airy for a visit and don’t have time. We promised we visit them by boat or car. We look forward to spending more time with them and they have told us they are going back to Bahamas this fall, so we’ll see…

Shay has started working on our teak. We washed it, then sanded it in places, and stained it in places. We will sand it all and give it a coat of clear to protect it.

 

Shay working on the teak.

We left for Cape Lookout on Friday. This is another place we didn’t get to visit last year and it is another of our favorite places. We had bought fishing license and we are ready to start fishing.



This is Shay "fishing".

This is Shay "catching" fish. There is a big difference in "fishing" and "catching" fish.

And this is me "catching" fish. Do I look happy or what? This was so much fun.

OH MY GOSH! It was so exciting to hear the rod when we got a fish on the line! Shay brought in our first catch. It was a Spanish mackerel. We were trying to decide if it was big enough to keep and it got off the hook. Well, that made it easy to decide. I got to bring in the next one and it was a keeper! At least 18” and enough for us a meal. Shay put him on ice and we kept on to the Cape. I called Daddy, Jason, Travis, Lauren, and others to brag about my catch. I asked daddy if he was proud of me and he said “yes”. He has fished a lot and keeps saying he is going to get started again. We’ll see.

It is still beautiful. There are several boats, but still plenty of room. No worries like Silver Lake. We had no problems getting anchored.


Cape Lookout Lighthouse

 

Cape Lookout from space




Shay got the fish cleaned and we relaxed for a while. We saw several big turtles while coming in and while we were there. Of course, no pictures since they only stay up for a second and then go back underwater.



Looking at the anchorage

Putting out the new "snubber"

Beautiful

He gets all the yuckie jobs!

This will be sooooo delicious.

Washday at the Cape

We didn't have any rain, but we had the rainbow.

Beautiful sunset



The fish was delicious! We had grilled fish, salad and a foil pack of potatoes, carrots, onions and peppers with butter and seasonings. The food was great, the scenery great, and the company wasn’t so bad either. Tomorrow is Shay’s 62^nd birthday and I guess this may be his birthday dinner. Does count if he has to clean the fish and then grill them? I say yes. So Happy Birthday meal.  Oh, we had key lime pie for dessert and you know he loves that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAY!

After breakfast, we decided to take a dinghy ride. First we explored the anchorage to see scout out other places to anchor. Then we went for a long walk on the island. We got attacked by mosquitoes on the way across the grassy area, but they didn’t bother us once we got to the sandy beach. There were lots of fishermen and we bragged about catching our dinner the night before. In case you haven’t figured it out, there is a big difference in fishing and catching fish. We caught fish last night, that won’t always be the case.

We visited several boats in the anchorage, no we didn’t know all of them, but we stopped to talk anyway. Remember, Shay has never met a stranger. We got invited on for drinks at one boat, but it was a little too early. Another boater told us to come back in an hour for grilled chicken. It looked like mostly legs so I’ll past that up. We did actually go on “Tide Hiker”. Dee-dee and Bob are new boaters. They bought their boat in March and are learning a lot. Dee-dee has “signed on” for a year and then she will decide if she wants to stay on the boat longer. She told me she has decided she will stay on longer than a year but hasn’t told him yet. I guess she’s going to keep him guessing. That’s ok.

We had a quiet night. This is the way boating should be. Calm waters, gentle breeze, beautiful location, and a great boat. Unfortunately, it’s not always that way but we’ll enjoy it when we have it.

We decided to take pictures of “Escape” at the lighthouse. It’s not easy to get the boat and lighthouse in the shot at the same time and have everything in focus, when you’re taking pictures from a dinghy in the water.

"Escape" at the lighthouse

We had planned to go to the lighthouse and walk around, but Shay got side-tracked and we started visiting boats again. So, after visiting we went back to the boat and got ready to head back to our slip.

Of course, we put the lines back in the water and started fishing as soon as we could. And we were lucky again. We caught two Spanish mackerel, 2 tinny tuna, and 2 blues. We weren’t sure about the tinny tuna so we called Dwayne, our fishing expert, and asked him. He said they were bloody fish and most people didn’t mess with them. Well, we got rid of them cause we didn’t want the mess. The other fish were too small except for a mackerel. So we put him on ice and headed on in.

We had no problems docking, which was good since the marina people were busy with boats in the Big Rock fishing tournament. We washed the boat to get rid of the salt water and then Shay cleaned the fish while I fixed the sides. This fish wasn’t as big as the first one, but we still had enough for us. By my calculations, we have paid for our fishing license. Not bad for a weekend trip. We had another great meal.



Back at MCYB. We followed the magenta line to get back. That is the Intercoastal Waterway or ICW.

We are back at the dock and back to working on projects. Shay made new dock lines and we used shrink-wrap to mark the lengths, so it will be easier to grab a line the correct length. Shay and a fiberglass guy are working on the back deck. We have spots that crack when you walk on them and that indicates “delamination” or separation of the fiberglass from the deck. So they are drilling holes in the deck and putting in epoxy to adhere the fiberglass to the deck. Hope this fixes it, cause it “ain’t cheap”.  



Working on the deck.



Pay attention so you can do it yourself next time.

Shay "marking" the lines.

We have plans to go back to Mount Airy this weekend and visit. We will spend a few nights with my dad and then a few with Shay’s mom. I am cooking lunch on Friday for us, my dad, and Chelle and Marty.