Wednesday June 7^th – Wednesday June 14^th

Second attempt to get the boat ready for this year’s sailing.  We originally came out a month ago but had to return home after a week as Chris’ brother John had died.  He had been ill for a while so it wasn’t unexpected but still sad.

Last time we were out we came via Baltimore so we could pick up a new cruising licence there. We then hired a car and drove to Oriental, as we still had it when we had to return we could drive to Raleigh-Durham and get a flight to Boston and then on to Gatwick.

When we came out this time we did the return journey and had a rental car from Raleigh which we returned to New Bern Airport which is only about 30 miles from here.  Penny drove the rental car and Chris followed in the boat yard pick-up truck. The marinas and boat yards over here are very generous with lifts for shopping and using their trucks.

The boat was launched last Saturday and everything seems to be working ok.  The captain made the mistake of trying to fill the diesel tank with water – he realised fairly quickly, but we had to have the fuel polished.  The yard thought it was quite amusing and as they pointed out, we are not the first to do this!  In the process of accessing the fuel the fuel sender had to be removed and was broken so we are awaiting a new one.  It’s now 3pm and it’s not here yet so hoping it arrives before the yard shuts as we want to leave at 08.00 tomorrow.

Our plan is to first get out of the creek the boat yard is in without incidence.  The channel is quite shallow, and depending on which way the wind blows can have more or less water.  But the US BoatTow man is opposite so he won’t have far to come if we get stuck.....