Hurricane Irene
I have been watching her since her birth off the coast of Africa. She has caused havoc in the Bahamas and now is heading our way. We left the Keys to get away from this stuff!
     We spent a few days in Beaufort and finished up Lyric's bedding, then shipped it. We scoped out sites to sit out the storm - in case it headed this way. Found a great spot on South River off the Neuse River. Southwest Creek had an amazing lagoon up against banks lined with pine and cedar trees.  It is straight across Neuse River from Oriental but has NO cell coverage or Internet access. So we left on a quest for getting word to friends and family where we were going to be. Ended up back in Oriental for one more night before coming here to begin preparations for Irene. This is our first big storm to weather on the sailboat. We have too much experience tying up dive boats for wind and surge (2005-2010 in the Keys).  One step is to get anchors ready and lines to shore ready. Another is to completely strip everything off the above deck area. We were extra careful during all of these tasks as an injury at that time could mean disaster for us and the boat.  When we returned from Oriental, there were 2 boats in Southwest Creek - but neither one had found "our" spot!!  We decided to have a hurricane party after all the chores got done. After all, we had 2 pounds of fresh shrimp. Met some cool cruisers - boats are Saga and Island Girl. Fun party but ooooooohhhh the fun was about to begin!!  They left in mid afternoon and the outer bands had already begun. About 10 pm on Aug 26, the winds started and didn't let up until the eye of the Hurricane came over us at 8:10 am and stayed for 2 1/2 hours - it was eerily calm and HUMID!  Then the wind on the back side came in. As I write, it is 2 pm and hasn't let up yet. One of our new  friends' boat has been dragging anchor and we may be donning life jackets and foul weather gear to go help him - no engine and single handed sailor. He did get anchors to hold and we didn't have to go help him. 
     We were talking about how some terms we have encountered lately don't produce confidence. Cape Fear is one. The other is the river close to where we are anchored. The Neuce River pronounced like the knot used to hang someone. In spite of these terms, we have persevered over Mean Irene!
     I almost forgot to tell about how we cooled off after all our hard work prepping the boat. As I said, we were in our own little deep lagoon. The three of us went skinny dipping. Nice diversion from the stress. 
     Time to begin the travels south if the weather will cooperate. 
     

     Another story I forgot to tell in my last update was our dolphin. We see bottle nose dolphins a lot. While traveling the ICW to get to Oriental, we had one following us. The crazy thing swam right beside the boat and surface every few minutes and "blow" air/water at Roxy. It stayed there for several miles and only left us when we had to slow down for a draw bridge opening. Funny thing is that almost every time it "blew", it scared me!  Darrell tried to get pictures but digital cameras are too slow!
     We spent a few days in Beaufort and even visited a dive shop!  Nice town and nice people. We completed the crib set and room decor for Baby Lyric while here. Mailed them to Amarillo on the 22 Aug for the next baby shower. 
     Now we are moving inland to try to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irene. Not sure where we will ride it out. Hope she misses us and all our friends!  I have been keeping a wary eye on her since she exited Africa!  Where we are headed and how it will be is kinda like the best boat name we have seen so far:  Damifino

     Charleston, South Carolina
     Man, you don't realize how much of the boat is interrelated!  Small thing, take off the transmission - no big deal. However the ground for most of the boat is to water, through the shaft. Big deal if all your electrical systems aren't grounded. I make it habit to check house battery levels daily and I began noticing the levels weren't as high as they normally are with input from the wind generator and two solar panels. Voilà. There were some wires we had to disconnect to get the transmission off. 
    Important, since it will be about a week before the rebuilt transmission comes from Colorado. Yes, I said Colorado. It was rebuilt in Grand Junction last month and is the only one we could find in the USA for sale right now!  We could order a new one from Japan and wait who knows how long for it to be shipped to us here. But with the word of the eBay seller to take it back if it doesn't work, we decided to try it.  Good news is that in our searching for the tranny, we learned of a rebuilt Yanmar engine like we have - should we ever need one of THOSE!!
     I guess we needed some time to work on a few small projects that we have been putting off. Got many of these done in spite of the heat!  But nothing quite as big as the transmission work. 
     Transmission arrived at 11:30am on Aug. 1 and we had it installed by 4 or 5 that afternoon. It sure went in a lot easier than it came out - thank goodness!! We had the motor for the windlass (electric motor to raise anchors) rebuilt while we were here so that is next on the list to get finished.   I told Darrell that we are getting a new boat one part at a time. 
     A few days later, we said good bye to Charleston and traveled on the "outside" (as opposed to the Intra Coastal Waterway ICW) to Georgetown, SC. A very cruiser friendly town but not fun to enter at night!
     We have decided to travel the next several days to get to Oriental, NC where we will meet up with Al and Martha again (Daytona last).  They want to show us their home water/country. On one stretch of water we had a good laugh. Much of the time we are scanning the horizon for the next channel markers. In Snow Cut, near Carolina Beach, NC, I thought I spotted a green can buoy near the shore (out of place). I asked Darrell to double check me on the location and he saw it but said it was moving. When we got closer - thankfully I didn't go toward it - it turned out to be a man wading next to shore fishing . . . . in a green shirt!  By the time we reached him, he was on the shore!  Don't trust every day marker. lol
     We reached Oriental on Friday afternoon and got lucky to get to tie up at the town dock. www.towndock. net see us on the harbor cam!  Made it here to learn that Al and Martha can't sail with us because they have some necessary rudder/shaft repairs to make. Anyway we got some repairs done (boat things only break if you USE them) and explored the town with the free bicycles we can get here. This is a very, very cruiser friendly place!
     In the next few days, we hope to visit the Outer Banks (on my bucket list for a long time) and go to Beaufort, NC plus Morehead City before considering our options weatherwise for heading south.  
     Many places are ones that we want to return to - like Carolina Beach plus many others. Darrell went exploring yesterday morning and returned with 3 pounds of fresh shrimp - I mean off the boat FRESH!  Can't beat it!  
     Baby Lyric is due in just about six to seven weeks. We have got to decide if we want to take this boat farther south with the peak of hurricane season coming soon.