Lay Day in Oriental

Weather: Windy! Small craft warnings posted, 25 knots gusts to 30 out of the South; Some rain (a shower or two throughout the day, but not enough to get us wet until around 2200 hours), but not the 2” in two hours predicted.

Comment: We awoke to an overcast, windy day, and the wind kept building, making it to 25 knots with gusts to 30. We were glad to be secure in a slip in a safe harbor… or were we? One of the fenders keeps rolling out of position, but we keep jamming it back in place. It wasn’t problematic because it took about three or four hours to roll out.

We met Fan and Larry at the dockside restaurant for breakfast. We can highly recommend the omelets. They were excellent! During breakfast, Larry and Fran told us about the discovery of a Palmetto Bug in their boat. Larry saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It took a few seconds to realize what it was. He got up to catch the bug but missed. It fell to the floor and scooted away before he could grab it. They don’t know where it got to, so after breakfast, we’re all borrowing marina bikes for a trip to the hardware store where Larry hopes to purchase bug spray, bug bombs and bug traps. He and Fran really want to get that little rascal!

After Larry sprayed the chemicals and set 17 different traps, we walked to a waterfront park. The Adirondack chairs were most inviting, and we sat for a spell to chat and watch the waves, whitecaps and foam build on the Neuse River. While we were gone, “Kallista” was closed up as tight as a drum in a effort to allow the spray and traps to do their job.

Back at the boats, Larry opened the hatches to air “Kallista” out while we went aboard “SUNSHINE” to attend to the logs. Both Anna Marie and Fran found time to do laundry. The bouncing motion on “SUNSHINE” was rocking me to sleep.

At the height of the blow, the boats were bouncing quite a bit. Rather take our evening meal aboard, we chose instead to dine at “M&M’s.” We all enjoyed our meals and dallied over coffee and tea. By the time we returned to our boats, the wind had eased to about twenty knots and we weren’t bouncing nearly as much.

Fran and Larry suggested that we do a “movie night.” That sounded great to Anna Marie and me. They brought over a few flicks from which to choose. We all agreed on a comedy and “Wild Hogs” (Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, John Travolta and William H. Macy) was the selection. We thoroughly enjoyed this movie about four middle aged men who need a “bikers’ road trip” to relieve the boredom of their hum-drum lives.

This was a good lay day. We dodged a few rain drops and were still able to bike, walk and do some things in town. We watched boats eave the harbor, but we were happy to be secure in our slips.