We spent a few days in Oriental. This is a pretty little town and very friendly to cruisers.  We were able to borrow bicycles so we could go to the Piggly Wiggly for groceries.  We spent some time hanging out with SANDFLEA and we treated ourselves to ice cream at the Bean.

When we left Oriental we had a nice surprise, we were able to sail for part of the day.  Sailing on the ICW is rare and special.  Eventually when we were meandering down a creek at 3 knots Bill insisted that we turn on the engine.

On our way into Beaufort, NC we were hoping to find some room in Town Creek. We didn't find any room but we did find a sand bank that provided a very secure place to eat lunch while we were waiting for the tide to come up and float us free.

We anchored, then re-anchored, then re-anchored again in Taylor Creek. The town is great, but the anchorage is lousy.  We went for a nice long walk through beautiful neighborhoods in the afternoon. The next morning I spent doing laundry while Bill was working on boat projects. Once we were done with our chores we dinghied over to the Rachel Carson Reserve to have a picnic. On our search for the herd of horses we found huge groups of Fiddler Crabs (what is the collective noun for crabs?).

Friday we made our way to Mile Hammock Bay.  On the way the radio was very busy with boaters calling towboat because they were aground.  We approached one boat that was hard aground near some very confusing temporary buoys that looked like they were leading to a side channel. The red and green were in line parallel to the starboard shore.  The trick was to honor the markers even if they didn't make any sense. We eventually made our way through this area with only a little bit of a bump on the soft mud.  We had a interesting evening in Mile Hammock Bay watching the marines come in on their boats and helicopters.  Scott and Kitty invited us to their boat for dinner.

Saturday the plan was stop for fuel and water at Swan Point then head for Carolina Beach, just south of Wrightsville Beach.  When we were leaving the fuel dock the shifter cable broke.  Luckily we still had one line ashore and were able to retie to the dock.  While Bill was figuring out a way to jury rig the shifter so we could get off the fuel dock I walked next door to Swan Point Marina.  Evelyn Hobbs at the marina is fantastic!  She called around to see if she could find someone to tow us if needed.  Bill was able to take everything apart so he could shift into forward manually and we limped our way to the end of the Swan Point dock.  Evelyn then called her network of contacts and found Steve the Welder who agreed to try to weld the part for us within an hour.  Evelyn then lent us the courtesy car and gave us very clear directions to the welding shop and suggested that we go grocery shopping since we had the car anyway.  The repair is an all day project so we will spend the night at the dock. 

I feel very fortunate to be traveling with Bill.  Not only is he fun to travel with, but he is amazingly good at fixing things.