Spooner's Creek to the Pungo River Anchorage

Jim visiting the Summer Wind

Wednesday May 5th - Spooner's Creek - Early in the morning we rose to see if Mother Nature had indeed settled. The forecast for the day was back into the high 80's.  Spring weather can be very unpredictable and fluctuate wildly. The sky was still grey but the sun was desperately peeking out. We made the decision to head out and found very calm seas. Our destination today was Oriental Marina. As we were entering Adam's Creek we heard Tow Boat US on the radio notifying cruisers that he was 'towing a Sea Ray'. Well when we came upon the Tow Boat, it didn't look like they were getting very far. The Sea Ray was heavily aground, it looked like they had a rough start for the day. There were small red and green channel markers for fishing boats, but not the ICW markers, if your not paying attention, you can get into trouble fast. Our trip across the Neuse was fairly easy and we made it to Oriental around noon.
 Oriental Marina Resort is a neat spot, they have a tiki bar, pool, great showers and laundry facilities. Oh, yes, this is where we tell you to make sure when you provision the boat, "Don't forget the coffee!" Elle was sure we had a can somewhere aboard but alas, none to be found. Hmmm, so we visited "The Bean" and purchased a freshly ground l lb bag of coffee, at $12.00/lb, YIKES!!!

That evening we made arrangements to meet our friend Jim Schneider for happy hour and then went out to a lovely dinner at M & M's. Dick and Jim's friendship go back to their Harlem Days. We had a wonderful time together, Thanks Jim! After dinner it was a beautiful warm evening and the marina was having Cinco De Mayo celebrations with $4 margaritas at the tiki bar. What a great way to finish off the evening.

Early Morning Spooner's Creek

Heading towards Beaufort, NC

Getting Help from Tow Boat US

Plugging us in for air conditioning

Thursday May 6, Oriental Marina, NC - Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, Elle ran over to get some fresh muffins with our wonderful coffee. Untied the lines and headed up the Neuse River. Thank you Mother Nature for settling because this leg of the trip can be rough. We had a great trip up,  as its always an adventure on the Neuse! Just before making our turn off the Neuse we spotted a coast guard helicopter doing maneuvers. You could see the spray for miles. When we headed down Hobucken Canal and we came across the coast guard station where the helicopter had landed. We noticed the coasties were the same women we had talked to the day before at The Bean. They had been practicing rescues from the boat to the helicopter. Our destination today was the Pungo River anchorage just before the P & A Canal (Pungo/Alligator). NOAA had predicted north winds for the early evening so we dropped the hook accordingly. We made sure there were trees to our north so we'd be nice and protected and also we'd be far enough from the giant flies in the marsh.  As the early evening wore on, the winds had still not changed. We watched several boats drop their anchors for a southern protection. Dick put out more chain just in case NOAA had the winds predicted completely wrong.  That evening the southern winds shifted and we were nice and protected.

Early Morning in Oriental

Coast Guard Maneuvers

Pungo River Anchorage