May 1 - May 5

May 1 - We left Beaufort after a nice slow morning. We had to wait for a 9:00 am bridge opening, felt lazy. As we left Beaufort we met a convoy of large military landing craft. It was cold but dry, the Abermerle Sound was very bouncy. There was a boat parade, we counted 13 boats behind us and 5 ahead of us. Imagine what it's like when the masses decide to head back North, must be boat bow to stern for hundreds of miles. We had planned to go in to Belhaven, but there was a very low wind driven tied, so we decided to head on to Oriental. As we came in Clay helped another sailor in distress. His engine had died, had managed to sail in but didn't dare try to attempt coming in to the dock. Clay gave him a side tow and just slid him in to the dock like he was an experienced tow boat operator. I was impressed, along with the crowd watching on the dock - the pressure was on! We enjoyed a nice walk around this quaint little town, talked to lots of nice folks.

May 2 - Clay got up early and went to the town park and watched the sunrise. He left me sleeping on the boat not even aware that he had left. On his way back to the boat he picked up some fresh blueberry muffins (that was his real goal), started the engine and we were off again. We had another rough day crossing Curratuck Sound - very choppy, very narrow shallow channel although you're in a very wide waterway. Clay went in to take a shower while I was at the helm and missed seeing a deer taking his bath at the waters edge. We anchored just as the Alligator River widens. We were treated to an airshow by several airforce jets.

May 3 Another day of the same - very narrow channels. The sun is out - actually put on shorts! These channels are lined with cypress stumps - so you don't dare deviate from the channel - who knows what's under the dark black water. Another afternoon storm was developing and we needed fuel, so we stopped at Pungo Ferry for the night. Clay said that had a really good restaurant the last time he was there - but of course it was closed. We had dinner on the boat and walked around the little marina - nothing much else there. We tried to take Orion for a walk, he liked the idea of being on land, but did not like the leash.

May 4 Left at 6:45 trying to time ourselves with the bridge openings. We had 13 bridges to go through before we get to Norfolk. We even had two railroad bridges closed, which are almost always open. It was interesting as we approached the city - big ships and barges - alot of shipping industry here. The military also has a very big presence here. We took a dock at Waterside Marina, right downtown, close to all the expensive restaurants and shopping!! We've been having a terrible time with our cellphone, so we set our priorities to get that straightened out. We walked eight blocks to the mall - how convenient. The store there told us the phone needed to be replaced, but we would have to go to the main store (did we tell this story once before?). The main store was only a 10 minute car ride away, but being adventuresome like we are, we decided to try the bus system once again. Two hours later we arrived at the store, replaced the phone and headed back to the boat - another two hours. We did get to see a lot of Norfolk and met some very interesting people. We did get back in time to take a nice walk through the historic district, along the waterside and checked out the battleship Wisconsin. Having a wonderful time!