On Tuesday, May 1, we left Isle of Palms and continued our journey north with stops in Georgetown; Bucksport Marina to pick up hot sausage; Myrtle Beach Yacht Club to visit with Jim's good friends, Dale and Joe Gibson, who took us to The Crab Catchers on the ICW for a wonderful seafood dinner; and Southport, NC. The picture on the left is the Sunset Beach Bridge with a vertical clearance of zero feet that opens only on the hour; it is about three miles north of the SC/NC border. On Friday, May 4, we arrived at The Beach House Marina in Surf City, NC where we thought we would stay two nights -- wrong! A Noreaster' with winders of 30-35 mph with gusts of 40+ were predicted along with gale warnings in the ocean. As it turned out, we discovered that this was a great place to stay......two blocks from the beach, numerous restaurants within walking distance, and a grocery store only a block away. After the storm blew through and headed south and its winds had lessened, NOAA named it Tropical Storm Andrea. By then we wanted to actually go to the beach and relax, so we stayed. On Monday, May 14, we cruised to Morehead City and had a wonderful dinner at The Island Grille in Atlantic Beach with our friends, Brenda and Geoff Brown. We met them in November 2005 when we were both headed south; they are currently without a sailboat....time will tell.

On Tuesday, May 15, we arrived in Oriental, NC; however, we docked at the Oriental Marina & Inn until Sailcraft Services had room for us. We spent a relaxing week doing small boat projects and socialized with many boaters who came through. Jim and I celebrated our fifth anniversary of being together at one of the local restaurants.....where did the time go? Alex spent most of the week being lazy, and as you can see, he thinks the lower helm station is his since Jim always pilots from the upper helm station.

On Monday, May 21, we traveled 2.4 miles to Sailcraft. On Sunday, May 27, we celebrated Memorial Day with our friends, Bob and Barbara Lauzon. As usual this was no ordinary cookout, there was enough food to feed a small country. On Wednesday, May 30, Palmetto Moon was hauled....slightly nerve-wracking!

The props looked great, shafts don't appear damaged from our grounding in Biscayne Bay, and zincs need replacing according to my assessment......the captain's assessment may be different.

This is our neighborhood for the next 30 days!!!