Friday November 4: Moorhead City, NC

It was an early start yesterday from the RE Mayo fishing docks - as you can see by the fog. The sun quickly made it history though so there was no problem being able to see. We had checked the harborcam in Oriental (our short 25 miles away destination) and the docks were empty. These were the town docks - no charge to stay but no power. Room for only a few boats. The Nuese River was perfect as was the day. Our arrival into Oriental was timely as there was still one spot left. Normally it would not be deep enough for us on the bulkhead where we docked but the strong north winds had pushed enough water into the harbor so we were fine (at least that's what the local told us :-) ) It was a bit of a tight squeeze but we made it! Amanzi (Lance and Mary) had arrived the night before so Mary helped us in which made it much easier for Steve as we just barely fit in the space! It was good to see them again - and we met Mary's brother and sister-in-law who drove out from California. They'll stay for a week.

The harborcam was fun! I could look back and see us coming in and tying up at the dock. The picture is taken every 10 minutes so the "action" was a bit jerky. Must have taken us at least 10 minutes to dock though as there was a picture of us just approaching and then we are just docking on the next one. Anyway, it was fun :-)

After lunch, it was time for a bike ride around this rather small town (population 1000 if I remember correctly). Very quiet, very friendly place. Folks out working in the yard would call out "hi" as I rode by, even people in the cars waved to me. How unusual. And dragons must be their thing. The first one is on the webcam in the pond. Others were spotted around town: on the store, a yard ornament, a yard table and a very fancy dragon in front of a house.

The funniest thing I spotted though was a mailbox made out of an old outboard motor! We've seen dolphin, manatee, golf balls, and fish as mailboxes but never an outboard engine!

Friday: We left Oriental early this morning in the rain. If we didn't make it across the Nuese River this morning, we were going to have to stay at least until Sunday as high winds and rain were forcast for most of today (Friday) and Saturday. First time we've intentionally left in the rain. Driving the boat was more like playing a video game: watch the GPS screen and steer the little boat between the lines (channel). Worked great - we arrived at the City Docks about 11 am and beat the oncoming winds. Tonight: higher wind yet! Just call us plugged in and happy :-)