Rickshaw left Morehead City Yacht Basin on June 5. We have been working very hard at getting both our Cary house and Rickshaw ready for us to leave. Rickshaw is looking better than ever! She has a new bimini and curtains (no more packing tape holding the curtains together), a new dingy cover and a new helm cover among other things.
The weather on Saturday morning was just beautiful and we felt good about leaving. We both were a tad nervous for a while because we haven't taken Rickshaw out in a year and were feeling like our boating skills were rusty. But we fell into the routine pretty quickly. We had the dolphins swimming with us within 45 minutes so life felt just fine! We anchored out one night in Broad Creek but the weather was going to get nasty so we moved into the River Dunes marina for the next 2 nights.
Our friends Rick and Jayne own property on Broad Creek so they came over the next day to pick us up in their motor boat and took us to their property. Rick and Jayne spent a couple of years building a 'little house' and we were anxious to see it. The little house started out as a small shed and quickly grew into a house that has sleeping quarters, washer/dryer, shower, bathroom and tons of space. After getting a tour they drove us into Oriental and we had lunch at the Toucan Grill (best hamburgers around) and helped us run a few errands. It was just great seeing them before we left and we appreciate their hospitality.
Yesterday morning we left River Dunes for a 5 1/2 hour trip to Ocracoke. It is an island on the Outer Banks just south of Hatteras and can only be accessed by ferry or private boat. We had a beautiful, calm day. Crossing the Pamlico can be tricky as it is a big body of water and is fairly shallow. If the wind kicks up it can quickly become choppy and very uncomfortable so we were feeling fortunate. That is until about 3 hours into the trip and the Coast Guard came on the radio to announce a 'marine weather update'.
Doppler radar had detected a fierce storm that had developed and was crossing the Pamlico. The storm had thunder and lighting, winds at 34 knots and had produced water spouts, which they informed us, could turn over a boat. GULP! We had been in a similar storm getting back to the US from the Bahamas and had no desire to do so again. The Coast Guard said to seek shelter immediately. Unfortunately, there was no place to go except to continue on to Ocracoke about 2 hours away. It continued to be beautiful weather and we kept fingers crossed that it would not come our way. We were in luck! It went well northeast of where we were so we got into Ocracoke with no problems. Phew!
Lynnie wrenched her back the morning we left River Dunes wrestling the power cord aboard, so she spent most of the trip on her back on top of the freezer (if you know the freezer, you'll understand!). So, today we are taking it easy on the boat in Ocracoke where Lynnie is popping ibuprofin and using the heating pad. Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow and we can go exploring the town via golf cart. We'll post more pictures tomorrow.
The Little House
The Little House
