Number 6 is in the books…and then there were four!
Cruise 6 began on a Friday, October 20 to be exact, with folks leaving the docks all afternoon. Angela and Ed Weber on Longview, Steve Youngson on Restless, Wes Jorgenson on Endeavor, Bruce Woods and Al Schroeder on Last One, Mark and Mary Hittner on Miss Mary, Jerry and Mal Harwood on Magic Spirit II, Gay and Dave Whitney on Silent Pursuit, and Joe and Kathy Gormley on Tarsie all enjoyed the sunset in Cedar Creek. There were no incidents of note – thank goodness!
On Saturday morning, Gay and Dave Whitney headed back to Blackbeard’s with Minnie, having survived the night. It was Miss Minnie’s first time aboard, and they figured to quit while ahead! Maybe next time, Gay!
The rest of the group ventured on to Morehead, out the inlet and dropped anchor early afternoon on Saturday in the bight. Hey, Wes…that’s not the way to Lookout!
The gang finally gathered on Magic Spirit II late afternoon for the usual goodies and libations. The entertainment was provided by Jim and Joni Floyd on Salty, as they anchored…anchored…and anchored…to the encouragement of the group! Finally, we got far enough away from the Coast Guard buoy (Thanks Steve!) to be safe from late night training exercises! Many thanks to Steve Youngson, again, for rescuing us with his dinghy as we just didn’t have the energy to get our own going! Anyway, another successful sunset “sundowner” in the books! (BTW where are these apocryphal “books” everyone keeps talking about??? Huh??)
Saturday dawned on an absolutely gorgeous day at the Cape…blue skies, high puffy clouds, gentle breezes, soft waves, clear water – it was yummy! (Now THAT’S a nautical term for you!)
At this time, we were 8 boats at anchor…wait! What’s that? Mal thinks Jerry may have scratched his cornea when he lost his contact lens, and they wanted to get back to home port to his ophthalmologist … so there were 7. Oops, Bruce and Al were watching the weather forecast (what a silly thing to do on such a beautiful day!) and decided to head back early…so now there were 6. Wait! Wes decided to join them in an early return. So now there were 5. Oh, Mark and Mary Hittner decided to head back to Beaufort with Miss Mary to trailer her home. So now there were 4…Ok, that’s it! Everyone else to the beach!
Whether people walked the cut-through, around the end of the bight (did you know there is now a lagoon at the end?) or up past the fishermen, everyone agreed it was a perfect day at the beach! Late afternoon found us all on a sand bar uncovered by the tide with our hot dog forks, kindling and marsh mellows ready! Jim, Ed, Steve and Joe got the fire going while Joni, Kathy and Angela cheered them on from the sidelines. Horrors! Mal took the graham crackers with her when they left. What a tragedy! Oh well, the graham crackerless s’mores tasted great anyway!
Did I mention that pesky front coming in?
Kathy and Joe, with their radar, got up well before dawn to take advantage of the tide at the inlet, while the rest of us (Salty, Restless and Longview) had to wait til first light. Of course, by the time we got to the inlet the tide had turned and we three had to fight it all the way to Cedar Creek!
And of course, the wind was on the nose…but as soon as we passed the ferries, we could put up the sails, right? Wrong!
Black skies, roiling layers of clouds, torrential rain and gusting winds took care of that! One by one, we all docked back home. Steve took the top prize with single-handing Restless into her slip in 20 knot cross winds! Whew!
All in all, it was a great weekend and we all cannot wait to go back and STAY LONGER!!