October 23, 2010.

We wanted to head out across Albemarle Sound at first light but when I raised the mainsail, I looked up and realized that we had a broken batten. I dropped the sail and gingerly climbed up onto the new bimini. I designed it so that I would be able to stand on it but really had no idea if I could. Actually being able to reach and touch the sail made it easier to remove the pieces of the broken batten. Oh well, something else to fix once we get to Oriental.

The wind was ridiculously light forcing us to motorsail the majority of the day. We passed through the Alligator River with nary a breeze and then it was down the Pungo Canal where sailing opportunities are
always very rare but the opportunity to dodge disaster is always around the corner. We stopped for the night at the southern end of the canal.

Day break found us within striking distance of Oriental, about 55 miles away. The wind was from the southwest which wasn’t the best direction but at least there was some wind. We got to sail about 40% of the day which, while not great, did beat the hell outta yesterday. While the wind was light we did get the opportunity to chat with the Savages while sailing 9 feet off their stern. When the wind finally did pick up it was right on the nose forcing us to motor the last couple of miles into Oriental. As you can see, even though the water here is 20 feet deep and several miles wide, the powerboats can't seem to find any other route than right up your ass.

Once we arrived in Oriental we threaded our way into Whittaker Creek and were soon tied up behind Ken & Carol’s house once again. While it’s great to see Ken & Carol; the Savage Sons, Fine Lion and Sapphire are all in town as well. So there will be a bunch of socializing but we’ve also got chores to do.

On our first full day here we removed all the battens and found that one of the remaining three battens was splintered so Christy went down to the local sail loft and ordered us 4 new ones. We also had 13 other chores scheduled for the day and I was quite pleased to be able to knock out 11 of them. Of course more things have cropped up since we’ve arrived so we’ll be pretty busy while we’re here waiting for a weather window to jump out at Beaufort and head south to Charleston.

Don’t worry about us working too much though; Tennessee Tom was cookin’ up some pig for a local fund raiser so we found time to grab a fork and eat some pork…..