Hey Yall,

We have been doing all kinds of stuff related to sailing, but hardly any sailing at all until now. From May 28 - June 12, we stayed at a house at Ocean Isle beach for the annual family beach trip. We taught our nephew, Mika, how to surf. It was great. The expression on his face showed how much he liked it. He kept saying,"More, more." Our house is on the canals, so "For Pete's Sake", our current 21' daysailer had a dock to tie up to. We had worked on her for a month and a half trying to make her liveable and seeing her on the water was long over due.



Last year we traced everyone's foot andPiper's aunt, Karen made a new flag for the beach house she stays in every year.



Sailing on the ICW was just like I had expected. Crowded, narrow, and not really fun unless you are actually trying to go somewhere like another town. It is shallow and running aground happens often. The wind was in our favor a few times, but usually, it was difficult as the wind was coming right at us. However, running aground was GREAT! Now I know what to expect and I learned a lot. Nothing traumatic happened such as damage to the rudder or centerboard. I was particularly worried about this because our first sail to Ocracoke, in July, 2004, left an 8" crack a half an inch wide on our centerboard casing just above the waterline ) The designer, Bill Lapworth, must have taken accidents like this into consideration. It is a California Boat. It was most likely designed for deep water coastal daysailing and racing.

After the beach trip, we took the boat out of the water and drove to Wilmington, NC to work on Piper's parent rental house. The had bought it ten years ago when Piper went to UNCW for marine biology, a short-lived endeavor.The house had a bunch of young guys who painted all the walls, doors and ceilings, gloss black and blue. The hardwood floors we ruined after three years of sandy dog feet. There was a circle in a bedroom where I believe the pitbull walked in circles for hours waiting for his master to come home in a neurotic frenzy. Working on this place was a great oppurtunity to make money and stay at the coast.



Finally, our chance to go sailing had arrived. The weather was good and and Ocracoke was calling. So we headed up to Cedar Island, our point of departure for Ocracoke. We arrived at the boat ramp at about 11:30pm and tried to sleep in the cockpit of the boat. There were no lights except for the ferry station; the stars were magnificent. You could actually see the milky way which cannot bee seen back home because of all the light pollution. We were worried it might rain in the morning, so we moved into the cabin.


It was a wise decision. The next morning there was a downpour all morning. It was clear by eight and we were ready to leave. We shoved off at 11am with dingy in tow. The winds started out at ten knots but died down to five or less for half the trip. We made it to the half way marker at about 4pm. The waves were starting to get pretty big. They came at us from behind diagonally making us surf the waves a little. The wind picked up considerably, and the second half of the trip only took 3 hours.

We tried reading a couple times but sailing was far more exciting since we haven't been out much yet this year. The books will be read later when time needs passing.

We passed a few odd peices of debris. A log, a balloon, a boogie board and possibly a trick ski. Our phone doesn't work here. It stopped working just after Morehead City. However, we are picking up a few wireless internet signals in the harbor called Silver Lake.





Keep an eye on us. We want to keep you updated. Piper and Paul