Thursday, July 23, 2009

Update, and heading north...

Chris here... OK... I've been trying to get Kristen on here to do an entry but she hasn't done it yet, so maybe if I make a bad blog entry she'll be enticed to come on here to correct it. First off, she's funny looking and smells funny too. On top of that, she never does anything around this place - she just sits around and watches ME do all the work. Hmmm... I just told her that I wrote that section and it really didn't phase her. Whatevah...

Anyway, what's been going on... let's see. Our repair is done and it came out pretty well. You have to look at the hull from just the right angle in order to be able to tell that there was a huge gash in it. I'm pretty happy about that since I was pretty nervous all throughout the repair process, right up to the point where they buffed the area. First they had to overfill the gash with epoxy and then way oversand the area, so we ended up with a 1.5ft x 1.5ft circular rough area in our gelcoat. Ick! Then they painted it, but it rained and bubbled up, so they had to come back again and redo it. Fortunately, when all was said and done, and they polished it and put the wax on it, you can barely tell there was ever an issue.

Side by Side showed up on Tuesday night! They called us when they entered the Beaufort inlet to get our latitude/longitude, and then anchored off about a quarter mile from us. It was an awesome reunion!!!! We missed them a lot and are very glad to be hanging with them.

Yesterday, after they finished the repairs, Side by Side and Pelican both headed up the ICW to Oriental, NC. There, we had a second reunion. Miakoda has been here for a couple of weeks and we all hooked up at the marina they're at. We cooked up the last of the Bahamian lobster tails from Side by Side, shrimp from Beaufort, salad and lots of other food and had an awesome time just talking and hanging out.

Today was more of the same - hanging out and catching up. Tomorrow, Side by Side is leaving to head to Virginia to have their boat hauled, and may then catch up to us. I need to be in Albany for a business meeting on the 30th, so tomorrow (Friday) we're renting a car, driving to Stamford, CT to visit my mom, and then to Albany. We'll hang out there for a few days - see family, see friends, enjoy some time at home - and then head back to Oriental. Miakoda has been talking about heading to Ocracoke, NC, on the outer banks, so when we get back I think we may join them over there. From Ocracoke, we may head to Manteo, and then we're seriously contemplating an offshore hop from the closest safe inlet to Block Island or Rhode Island. We'd love to get to New England, and it MAY actually work out. We'll see!

We'll have our SPOT going for our drive north if you want to follow along :).

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