Beginning the Loop

For those of you out there who have heard Joey and I talk about our travel plans - here it is. Our Great Loop Starting Day!
We begin our Journey today at 12:15 on a Thursday, May 13th, 2010. We pulled out of our backyard boatslip at our house on Canal Drive and waved goodbye to our neighbor, Gina. I would like to say we were totally prepared for our trip, but groceries were bought, radar was improved and we still left with projects to do on the boat. We've taken this week while traveling through North Carolina to complete some cleaning and maintenance issues. Not much fun but very much needed.
We arrived at New River Marina around 7:00 pm.(around Jacksonville, North Carolina on the map). We fueled up here because Diesel fuel was very reasonable at $2.54 per gallon and dockage for the night was $1.00 per foot. We grilled out steaks on the cockpit and settled down for the night. It was very windy coming into this marina so we were glad they had a large face dock.

On May 14th, 2010
We left New River Marina at 7:00am and headed for Morehead City, North Carolina. We arrived to Morehead City Yacht Basin at 1:00 pm. Ate at the Sanitary Seafood Restaurant. The food was very good and excellent water views while eating. We then made our way to the local hardware store, where we purchased hooks to hang our Topsy Turvy Planters. We have Topsy Turvy Tomatoes Plants hanging on the boat. Hope to have a good supply of tomatoes while on our trip. Met a nice couple who own a ship named "GRITS." They are on their way to Nova Scotia. Love the Name, being a southern gal and all!!!! I'm sure my Florida friends will love this being they picked at me about my southern dialect and drawwwwwwww!

On May 15th, 2010
We left Morehead City this morning at 10:00 am after leisurely deciding whether we are going to make the trip to the North Carolina Outer Banks. We took a vote and both decided to make the trek across the Abermarle Sound. We fired up buck and bertha, our trustee engines, and decided to go thirty miles up the way in order to be a little closer to the big crossing of the Albermarle Sound to Ocracoke. Our destination today is River's Dune in Oriental, North Carolina. We arrived to the marina after dredging through some pretty shallow water. Our arrival time was 1:30pm. I have enclosed pictures of this beautiful place. We had tuna for dinner and rode bikes in the afternoon around this great neighborhood. Very nice people and lots of ameninities such as a pool, free bikes, courtesy car, showers and laundry. They have a restaurant upstairs in the clubhouse. This place is a nice version of the true south. It is laid back here with tall pines and no one is in a hurry! It is in settings like these that a true southerner says, YEAH YALL, this is how we like to live.