R Island: May 22-29, 2014 Morehead City NC

We'll do this one by topic rather than chronological.

Duration: Ger's fault. When he was cleaning the raw water intake strainers, he decided that the one for the main engine had too much "junk" in it (mostly shells) and needed to come completely apart and get a new strainer and gaskets. Good idea except no Marine stores had parts in stock and no one at the warehouse over the long Memorial Day weekend to send them. So had to wait from Saturday until Wednesday for parts to come in - and then they were wrong. I called a distributer I found on-line and had them overnighted. Installed this morning, Thursday, and we hope to leave tomorrow morning. We miss Gordon and Capt. Ryan from the Daytona Beach store!!

One of several trips...

The Marina: Very close to downtown, but not much of a downtown. Very nice facilities, but the A/C in the showers/laundry/club house was out and still not fixed. It is also geared, as all marinas in town, to sport-fishing. Nice boats, well maintained and (Judie hates this) able to rotate on a dime for docking. On Saturday, a bride and her bridesmaids got dressed on one sport-fisher and then delivered to the wedding along with two groomsmen. We are amazed at the rods and reels used by these guys. Ger asked the cost - $500-2000 just for the reel!

Ever feel like you are in the wrong boat?

Our neighbor!

Mahi for dinner!

Here comes the bride!

Food: Only a few restaurants this time. By using the loaner car we had good access to the Super Walmart and Harris-Teeter groceries. First was Floyds 1921, in an old house. Simply wonderful! Ger had Oso Buco (?) and Judie had Meat Loaf - both superb but nothing next to the bourbon pecan pie and the death by chocolate deserts. Our friends from Judie's sorority, Bobbie and Julian Phelps, steered us toward "The Sanitary". Odd name, great seafood. Ger had Broiled Blue fish and Judie King Crab. We were sharing a little kiss, when the owner saw us and stopped over and says - "I see some loving going on over here", and proceeds to chat for about 10 minutes. He is the founder (we think) and "helps out the third generation" in keeping the clients happy. What a great guy.

Our table at the Sanitary

Judie trying to avoid blinding sun

Fish trying to avoid the dinner plate.

Beaufort (Bo-fort, so as not to be confused with Bew-ford SC. We are able to borrow a loaner car - $10 for 2 hours, so visited the Maritime Museum in Beaufort while waiting on our parts. There was a great exhibition on Blackbeard and his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, as this was his home port and the ship was sunk just off the inlet. Parts of the ship and artifacts, are in the museum along with lots of displays about his "accomplishments". Also several boats built in the area and across the street was an active building where small wooden boats are still being built today for locals.