The First Step is the Hardest

Sign at the lock at Great Bridge, VA

Right now I'm wondering just why it was that I thought Carry On needed a blog! My computer skills are definitely seeing new challenges here and I'm too stubborn to ask the captain for help-- or at least too many times.

So bear with me while I try to get this all together-- hopefully at the minimum, it will at least answer that basic question, "where r u".

So--here we are today, having just arrived in Oriental, NC on a very windy, very chilly Sunday early afternoon. We were hoping for cell coverage as we've been without since leaving Coinjock, NC early Friday morning, but no such luck. We are in a very sparsely populated part of NC, surrounded by some very big bodies of water (ie the Neuse River feels like an ocean it is so wide in places, as did the Albemarle Sound and the Alligator River).

We've had some great times since leaving Salem, although the trip down to the Chesapeake involved a lot a pitching and some rolling besides gray skies and high winds. We spent a few days in Oxford and Cambridge, MD, a week in Solomons, MD and another week in Washington, DC, which was well worth the two day trip up the Potomoc.

Crew Tours DC on Segways

Our marina had a view of the Washington monument which was well within a half hour walk. The location, plus the great public transportation system made sightseeing a pleasure. Our friend, Andre, from Tokyo, joined us in DC and travelled with us for a week. Some of you may remember that Andre was aboard for the infamous engine disaster and helped us keep our sanity in those first few days.

We're in need of firming up our plans for the winter months-- and need telephones to do it, so we're leaving Oriental tomorrow, after our shrimp feast tonight. We're in shrimp country now and expect to take full advantage! After our night in Beaufort, we're going to Cape Lookout National Seashore Park for a couple of days and then offshore to Wrightsville Beach. Over the weekend we'll be in Southport, NC visiting friends that we met in Maine last summer.

After that, we'll be in South Carolina and we are both looking forward to a week or so in one spot where we can catch up on projects and ongoing boat tasks and relax a bit. There may be a service person or two figured into the equation somewhere-- the smaller generator just won't get fixed despite the ministrations of Northern Lights dealers up and down the coast!

That's all for now (enough already, huh?) but let me just say-- I welcome your feedback-- I'm new at this!