We had a nice day today. While we truly enjoy our travels, it's also nice to wake up in the morning and know you don't have to slip the lines-and roll back over for a little more sleep! I gave the boat a much needed bubble bath while Oliver worked on designing the dock for our lot in North Carolina. By this time next week we expect that we will be back in fresh water and the upkeep will be somewhat easier. After showers and dog walking, we set out for a few more errands. Cocktail hour found us back on the boat and we ate dinner at the Firehouse BBQ Dockside again. Oliver and Marina are watching TV in bed-I am hoping to stay up until 10PM so I can watch the new season of The Next Foodnetwork Star-I'm hopelessly addicted to that show!

Marina's Aunt Sandy wanted to see a picture of her, so here she is.

While washing the boat, I finally got to see a big ship going past on the Canal.

We cannot say enough good things about Summit North Marina. They have really gone out of their way to take good care of us today. When we called Enterprise Car Rental this morning (we will pick you up), we learned that they could NOT pick us up so we went up to the office to ask Debbie about a taxi. She was really irate that they wouldn't come and get us and called Hertz. Hertz wanted $20 more for the week-end rate than Enterprise, so then she was irate with them! Enterprise agreed to pay $20 for a taxi so one of the dock guys drove us over and he collected the $20! Everybody was happy. Enterprise needed to upgrade our car as they didn't have the intermediate size we had reserved so we are driving a very cool Nissan Hybrid. Of course, we had to have a lesson in how to even turn the car on but soon we were on our way to Looper Mecca-I mean Wal-Mart Supercenter and West Marina and the liquor store. I wish I had counted how many times we've made THAT run on this trip. I'll miss the excitement of it when we get home and have a Wal-Mart at our disposal every day. The weather was predicted to turn bad today and it sure did. We were in a real downpour driving back to the marina but it stopped just as we arrived. When Debbie saw that we had groceries, she called for one of the dock guys to get a golf cart, dry it off, cover the back in plastic, load our groceries and deliver all of us to the boat! We found that we were in the middle of a tornado watch so we feared it was back to the ol' paint building for us but the watch area moved south of us and we just had more rain. I played on-line poker, Marina watched "Dr. Doolittle", and Oliver took a nap. Tonight we're going to cook hamburgers on the boat. Last night we had a good meal here at the marina at the Firehouse BBG Deck restaurant. All in all we've had a really good day here. Tomorrow will be windy but sunny so it will be a boat wash day.

Here's the current tornado watch. All that green rain went right over us but we were snug on 1-O-II.

Earlier I couldn't even see the canal but now it's cleared off-at least for a while. I waited and waited yesterday to see a freighter go by this opening and when one did, I was at the office and missed it! Maybe tomorrow. The big ships talk to the traffic controllers on the canal so if you listen, you'll here them coming. Debbie has a TV in her office that looks up and down the canal-if you're leaving and she sees traffic, she turns a red light on so that you know not to pull onto the canal until she gives you the green light.

We are in Delaware now! We've had two early, early days-left at 6AM this morning-but we've covered lots of miles. We are at Summit North Marina, which is halfway through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Today was outstanding-sunny, calm and easy. Tomorrow is supposed to be just the opposite-stormy, rainy and windy. We had planned to stay here at least until Sunday but now will likely stay until Tuesday. Yesterday Oliver noticed that the oil pressure guage on the starboard engine was fluctuating and there is a huge Caterpillar dealer close by so we had them come this afternoon. They did their fancy diagnostic computer stuff and think that maybe we need a new oil pump but wanted Oliver to try changing the oil in that engine first. Since it's all under warranty, we were in favor of the plan. We have rented a car for the week-end and the Cat guys will come back on Monday and do another diagnostic test and then install a new pump, if necessary. If your middle name isn't "Flexible", you shouldn't be in boating!!

This is one of the most interesting marinas at which we have stayed. You just pull off the C&D and we're back in a quiet park setting-lots of room for Marina to walk, a very nice restaurant on site, a buy one night get one free deal, and close to a lot of stores, restaurants, etc. We hope the bad weather will hold off til we get the boat washed tomorrow and then we'll go exploring the area.

Hours traveled today - 4

Miles traveled today - 74

We turned 500 hours on the engines day before yesterday. Between this 1-O-II and our previous 1-O-II, Oliver has over 1000 hours at the helm. This doesn't count all the previous boats. He's a MOST experienced Captain!!

Oliver is just determined to get in front of this huge freighter

Just kidding-we would NEVER do this! Actually, we went through an anchorage just off of Annapolis.

Here's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The scenery in the Chesapeake Bay is absolutely beautiful

The C&D Canal reminds us of the Cape Cod Canal

Here's the 1-O-II through the trees at this really beautiful marina

We had a beautiful day on the water. Left Tidewater Yacht Marina at about 7AM with sevral other boats. I guess everyone wated out the bad weather yesterday. The first hour or so was quite slow as we made our way through Hampton Roads-lots of Navy ships docked there and we even heard "Warship 21 leaving Pier 6" over the VHF! Navy ships and freighters going in and out as we threaded our way through. Eventually we turned north and off we went up Chesapeake Bay. The water was calm and we just sat back and enjoyed not having to navigate the way we did on the ICW. We are at Herrington Harbour South tonight, just about 25 miles south of Annapolis. Since we've been to Annapolis, we'll bypass and go to Summit North Marina on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal tomorrow. We may have bad weather on Saturday and if so, we'll stay at Summit and move on to Cape May on Sunday. Those are the last 2 new stops for us-we'll go to Atlantic City from Cape May and we've had the boat there already. Early next week we'll complete the Loop.

Hours traveled today- 7.5

Miles traveled - 137

Lots of big boats in Hampton Roads

From the bow of 1-O-II looking out the channel from our marina to the Bay

Mangos was one of our favorite restaurants in the Bahamas and here we are eating there in Chesapeake Bay!!

We had a very nice relaxing day. The weather was spectacular-bright, sunny and hot. Tomorrow is supposed to be very different though-some rain, cooler temps and 30mph winds. We're staying put until at least Thursday. After doing boat and other chores this morning, we took the ferry across the Elizabeth River to Norfolk. It's a cute little paddewheel boat and you can't beat the price - $1 for me and 50 cents for Oliver! We toured the Nauticus Museum which is a hands-on museum of everything nautical. I drove a cruise ship, (right through a reef), flew an airplane, (right into the ocean),stuck my hand in a tornado and operated a submarine. Guess I'll stick to the 1-O-II!! Then we toured the USS Wisconsin-felt that we should! Afterwards, we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, overlooking the river and then caught the ferry back to Portsmouth. We've walked Marina and we're all tired so an early night is in our future. Tomorrow we'll walk around Olde Town Portsmouth and maybe go to the Naval Shipyard Museum-although Oliver says he's a little tired of getting off the boat and going to boating museums!! Thursday we'll hopefully be off to Chesapeake Bay.

This marina has one of just 4 floating pools on the East Coast.

Here's our cute little ferry boat

I stuck my hand right into this tornado

Here's the USS Wisconsin from head on

This is actually the third battleship named the Wisconsin. She's sitting with just 4 feet of water under her-just like us!!

Check out the guns on this girl-the ship too!

From the stern

These are the props Oliver liked-a better picture

We are currently docked right at Mile Marker 0 of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, over 1000 miles from where it starts in Miami! When we leave here we will enter the Chesapeake Bay, for a whole different type of cruising. Today was most interesting. We left Coinjock at 6:45AM, with Lady Grace right behind us. They started the Loop about 3 weeks ago in Punta Gorda, Florida. We only had about 49 miles to go today, but that included 6 lift or swing bridges and 1 lock. It was a beautiful morning and we were really lucky with our timing. We reached the Great Bridge about 9:15 and since it didn't open til 10, we tied up at a rickety little dock and waited. A tow was close behind but 6 of us made it through the bridge and into the lock before he arrived. The next bridge opened for us at 11 and the rest were on demand so we were in Norfolk Harbor by 11:30. Going past the Naval Shipyards is just amazing! There are cranes everywhere and many ships in various stages of construction/repair. We couldn't turn our heads fast enough to look at everything we wanted to see. We arrived at our slip at Tidewater Yacht Marina a little before noon and we'll be here until Wednesday or Thursday, depending upon the weather. Then on to the Chesapeake!

Happy happy HAPPY birthday to our dear friend Rose!!

Hours traveled today - 5

Miles traveled - 47

The Jordan lift bridge, coming into Norfolk Harbor

Coming up on the Naval Shipyards

The Dwight D. Eisenhower under renovation

There are 2 ships under renovation in this picture

Oliver liked the propellors on this monster!

A big freighter being pushed by tugs just outside our marina

We had a long way to go today, as far as traveling the ICW goes, but the weather was beautiful, the traffic relatively light and there are a few areas of open water-the Alligator River and Albemarle Sounds are easy to cross at cruising speed. We arrived in Coinjock by 2 PM and have been relaxing a bit since then. I walked Marina while Oliver took on some fuel, then I showered while he napped. This is pretty much just a long dock by the side of the ICW but we hear that the restaurant is excellent so we should have a nice dinner before an early bedtime. Tomorrow it's on to Portsmouth, VA and the end of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. We have just a little over 400 miles to New York City and the completion of the Great Loop!

We just got back from the restaurant. It is just about the best place we have eaten since we left-outstanding!!

Hours traveled today - 6

Miles traveled - 83

The Alligator River-Pungo Canal looks a little like the Tenn-Tom and a little like what I imagine the Amazon River to look like!

This is the 1-O-2 sitting at the south end of the dock at Coinjock

And here's the north end! This was before all the late afternoon boats tied up. Perhaps I'll get another picture.

Here are the pictures from today.

This is the shrimp fleet in Hobucken, NC

This is the bed and breakfast at River Forest Marina in Belhaven, NC

I found a way to take a picture of both of us!

Looks like this is a "crabby" town!

We're still having trouble getting a strong internet connection so I'll post this blog and then attempt to post some pictures separately. We had thought we might stay in Beaufort and visit the lot again this week-end but rain was predicted for today, so we decided to head north. We left about 8:30 and by 9, we were at the lower helm with rain beating down. By the time we reachd the Neuse River, the wind had picked up and it was rough enough that Marina assumed her panting and drooling position. We finally turned onto the Bay River and the wind died down, the sun came out and the drooling dried up. We thought about cruising down Vandemere Creek to see the lot from the water but decided to keep moving. By 1:30 we were in sight of Belhaven and shortly thereafter we were tied up and had taken on fuel. I walked Marina and Oliver washed down the boat before we showered and had cocktails. We had dinner at the bed and breakfast here at the marina and it was excellent. Oliver said his flounder was about the best he's had on this trip and my salmon was really good. We took Marina for a long walk around town and we're now settled in for the night. Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day so we plan to move on to Coinjock. At that point we'll be just 50 miles from the end of the ICW in Norfolk, and less than 350 miles from New York and the completion of the Loop. Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day week-end. Remember our troops.

Hours traveled today - 5

Miles traveleled- 60

I forgot to read my previous blog so I'm not sure what I wrote but we have had a hectic few days. We came to an agreement on the lot and have been working through the contract with the developer. We also have dealt with bankers and lawyers here, since that is easier than doing it all from home. Oliver has decided what he wants our dock to look like and will be contacting several marine construction companies. Because of CAMA (Coastal Area Management Agency) regulations, we will build our dock right away, even though we're a couple of years away from building a house. They could change the rules at any time so we'll build according to the current regulations which are quite liberal. The boat's been back in the water but we weren't ready to leave so we're in the marina here at Jarrett Bay. We thought about going back to the lot tomorrow but I think maybe we'll move a little bit further north. We will probably go to Belhaven tomorrow and stay til Monday or Tuesday, depending upon the weather. Our internet here is incredibly slow so I won't be able to post any pictures until we get a stronger signal. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday week-end.

I found a better way to show where our next few weeks will take us. Look at the maps and the white boxes show our planned stops-always subject to change, of course. We're currently in Beaufort, next we'll go to Belhaven, Coinjock, Portsmouth, Solomons, a stop on the C&D Canal, Cape May, Atlantic City, Sandy Hook and then up the Hudson River. I'll put more maps on when we get to that point.

It is a beautiful morning here! By request, I have updated the map showing our route and current location. The yellow line shows where we've been since September 3 and the little bit of red shows how much more of the Loop we have left-not much!! Then of course we will follow the route from New York to Port Washington, which we've done 3 times already. I've also updated the weather location. Got to run now but will update later.

Here's the updated map

This has been a very hectic, productive, weird, scary kind of day. It's Oliver's birthday and he is slowly - very slowly- getting over his virus. He feels better but still gets extremely tired and seems to run a temp at night. We've about decided that he might have West Nile virus-which is much more common than you might think and for which there is really no treatment-you just get better over time. When we first went to look at the lots in Vandemere, Marina and I stayed near the street while Oliver and the developer walked all over the land and both got eaten alive by mosquitos. Only about 20% of people bitten by an infected mosquito ever show any symptoms and only 1% of those have any serious effects. Too bad he's not a horse-they have a West Nile vaccine for horses but not for humans!

We had an appointment with the developer but just as we were leaving, the Caterpillar guys came and we have learned to never EVER let a service guy go once he shows up! The things they do are amazing-hook up a computer to the engines and it tells them everything about how you've been running the boat. It took him a while but he updated everything and then replaced the one readout that had gone bad so we're set with that. They have to come back when we're back in the water to check the starter on the starboard engine.

The electronics man also came this morning. We've had an intermittent problem with the chartplotter on the bridge-nothing major but pretty annoying-so we're taking this opportunity to have that looked at. They'll be back tomorrow to do some trouble shooting. While all this was going on, there were people under the boat putting on bottom paint.

We finally got away and took the ferry across the river to meet with Thomas, the land developer. We had narrowed our choice down to 2, but we spent well over an hour trying o decide-even though the lots are right next to each other! Finally we decided on one of them and made an offer on it. Thomas will present the offer to his partners tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

We took the ferry back across the river and drove to Morehead City for quick stops at Wal Mart, Staples and West Marine. After that we went to the Sanitary Fishmarket for dinner. This is a very old and popular restaurant here-and certainly looked nice and clean! Upon arriving back at the boat, we noticed that the sky was turning dark and since storms were predicted, we turned on the weather radio. We found that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch. Since we are sitting on the hard-for you non-boaters, that basically means we are sitting up on blocks in the yard, about 12 feet off the ground-a tornado or even the 60 mph winds they were suggesting might occur did not sound like anything good for us. The three of us jumped in our car and started driving around the yard looking for a brick building. This place is huge and we found one building with an open door but there was no one there and we decided we'd only go in if we had to. Then Oliver noticed that the lights were on in the painting building so he went over and yelled through an open window. A very nice guy came out and when he saw how black the sky was, he said he would go call someone and see what we should do. He came back and said we could come in the paint building and hide out in the bathroom, which was a brick room within the building. Soon the Security guard showed up and said the yard manager had called and told him he could unlock the office for us if we wanted a place to sit down. We decided we liked the idea of the brick bathroom better so we sat in the car for awhile, until the storm really cranked up. We sat in the paint building until we heard on the radio that the tornado watch was canceled and the rain let up enough for us to climb our ladder back to the boat! All is calm now and Oliver and Marina are in bed. We already thought this was a great place, but we're even happier with them now, since they showed so much concern for us. Still hoping to have everything done and be on our way as soon as Oliver feels up to it, and we finish up with the lot. Stay tuned.

And here's how the day ended-sitting in the painting building.

We really weren't as sad as we looked!

How about this very cool pink boat!!

First of all, thanks to everyone who has left a message or email or voice mail about Oliver. He's doing somewhat better today and we're hoping that he'll be back to 100% soon. He felt well enough to go out today (as long as I was driving) so we went to look at the property we've been considering. There is a free car ferry that cuts a lot of miles off the trip by taking us across the Neuse River instead of having to drive around it so we were only gone for a few hours. We have our choice down to one of 3 lots and hopefully we'll be able to make up our minds soon! We're back at the boat now and the wind is howling at about 30 knots so we'll stay in the rest o the afternoon.

We passed this LST loading site shortly after we left the Beaufort Docks the other day. Oliver can remember the 1st Airborn from Fort Bragg loading up here back in the Vietnam days.

We enjoyed the quick 20 minute ride on the ferry

Here are the lots we're looking at. You can see how deep they are in the first pic. That's Oliver standing way in the back-although he's not all the way at the end of the lot. In the second picture, I'm standing about 3/4 of the way towards the creek end of th elot.

I didn't know there were beaches in Minnesota? Oh wait, that's Minnesott!!

Just an update on our progress-or lack thereof!! The Enterprise rental car man came to the boat this morning to pick us up and on the way back to the office, we dropped Oliver at the Urgent Care center, then I went on and got the car papers done and came back to the doctor's office. Oliver wasn't too happy there-the doctor wasn't there and he saw a Physician's Assistant-she was perky as all get out but not terribly confidence-inspiring! She did blood work on him and all the usual poking and prodding and decided she had no clue what was wrong-probably a virus. He was bitten by about a million mosquitos a couple fo weeks ago when we looked at the property and she thought that might be the cause-said he was lucky he wasn't even worse!! I guess that made us feel better! We went to the grocery store and then back to the boat and he's been in bed since. If he's not better by morning, we may try the local hospital ER. He talked with John this afternoon, who suggested that maybe HE was the cause-he's had numerous yucky MidEast maladies.

He'll have time to rest though since the Cat man had to order the part he needed and won't have it until Monday and we won't get the bottom touch up paint done til Monday also. Probably here until Wednesday, which is no doubt a good thing. Not much to take pictures of, so probably won't post again until Monday, unless there's more news on my patient.

Oliver has finally given up-he had a bad night and was still feeling awful this morning so we made a strategic decision. We moved the boat about 5 miles to one of the best boat yards we have ever seen. They have 1100 acres and every service you could ever imagine. There is a Caterpillar service center, ZF transmission, Detroit Diesel, a machine shop and 12-15 boat manufacturers right on site. There is some work that Oliver has wanted to have done but we didn't know where to stop so this works out great. We will have the zincs replaced, the bottom paint touched up, they have already power washed us, Caterpillar is doing a small warranty job for us and anything else we decide to do while we are here. Tomorrow morning we will pick up our rental car and go to the doctor. We will likely stay here at least through the week-end-maybe longer, until Oliver is totally recovered. We are within easy driving distance of the lot we are considering, so if he feels beter, we may drive up there. We will keep everyone posted.

Hours traveled today - 1

Miles traveled - 6

After an early start, we arrived in Beaufort, NC at about 1:45PM. We left our slip a little before 7AM to make the Wrightsville Bridge opening on the hour. We had three more bridges after that one that required an opening and we got really lucky and were through all 4 of the bridges by 10:30. After that it was just cruising along until we got to Morehead City. Oliver boated here many, many times when he lived in NC. We crossed through Camp Lejeune but didn't see any action-fortunately. When the Marines are doing live fire tests or beaching training, the ICW can be closed for 3 or 4 hours. Beaufort is an extremely nice little town but Oliver is still quite sick today so once we got in our slip, he took a nap, got up to eat and is now back in bed. We really should have stayed in Wrightsville Beach but we're glad to get a chunk of geography behind us. I walked over to chat with Gary on Endless Summer. We met them in Mobile and last saw them in Marathon. It was nice to catch up, although Steve was home in Michigan attending to business. Tomorrow we only have about 25 miles to go and then we'll rest for 2 or 3 days.

Hours traveled today - 7

Miles traveled - 75

How did we get into this sailboat fleet? After we all came through the first bridge together, we settled into our positions based on cruising speed. Take note of our teeny tiny wake-we were thanked several times today for our courteous passing habits.

We crossed Camp Lejeune but did not get fired at.

Apparently, when the Marines are done with their tanks they just junk them on the beach. We saw a number of these.

The Beaufort Docks are right in the middle of this quaint and charming town.

We had kind of a long day today, although we didn't leave our slip at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club until 9AM. The Sunset Beach Pontoon Bridge-the last of it's kind-only opens on the hour so we planned to make the 10AM opening. After that, we pretty much just cruised up the ICW for about 58 miles. We were amazed at how developed the area is-almost every bit is built up, so it's slow going. When we got to the Cape Fear River, we zipped along for about 20 minutes. It was REALLY windy today-sometimes as much as 30 knots - and the river was rough. It didn't bother us much except for the salt that got all over the boat. We finally got to Wrightsville Beach a little before 4PM, took on some fuel and got tied up. The current really rips through here and the wind was still bad but we didn't have any problem. Had a really nice dinner at the Blue Water and now we're ready for bed, as we have an early morning tomorow. We're planning to make the 7 AM opening of the bridge, as we have about 70 miles to go to Beaufort. We're thinking about a 9 hour day!

Here are all the boats waiting for the Sunset Beach Bridge to open. We waited about 20 minutes.

These wild goats enjoyed watching us all jockey around in the wind and current

John and his Mom came down to take pictures of us going through the bridge. Kathleen lives just down the street from the bridge and we were thrilled that they came to watch us! That's them up by the white car.

A backward view of the bridge. That whole little shack moves when the bridge opens.

The ICW here is really built up but is very pretty

For our Wyeth friends, here is the St. James Marina. Gary Grim, Greg McClure and Terry Miller all live here. We had planned to stop but ran out of time.

This is the Cape Fear River. The picture doesn't show how rough it was, except you can see that the water was splashing up on us. Oliver was still not feeling too well so I washed the boat when we got to Wrightsville.

That bridge in front of us is the one we need to go through at 7AM-at least we don't have far to go!

Hours traveled today - 7

Miles traveled - 58

The past few days have flown by. On Saturday, Debbie, John, Oliver and I went to Myrtle Beach to Broadway on the Beach. It's a big outdoor shopping center and because it was Biker Week, there were tons of vendors, bars and bikes to look at. We had dinner at Dick's Last Resort. Yesterday Debbie had to go home and I was under the sick quilt with yet another cold. John and Oliver went grocery shopping and John made stuffed jalapenos for appetizers and then we grilled steaks for dinner and watched a movie. Today was Oliver's turn under the sick quilt but he even had a fever-show off!! Tonight we ate at the Italian restaurant next door. Tomorrow it's time for us to move on to Wrightsville Beach. We're hoping to see John either in the morning or in Wrightsville in the afternoon. It takes 6 hours by boat - or an hour by car!!

John's Mom sewed patches on his leather vest. He didn't really want this on the blog but I think it's cool. Maybe he won't see this!!

After a week here, I finally took some pictures of the marina. We enjoyed eating at the yacht club and at Umberto's - the yellow building.

John is finally home! He arrived yesterday afternoon, after a long flight from Iraq to Kuwait to Ireland to Atlanta to Wilmington! He looks great and will be on leave for 2 weeks. He and Debbie came and picked us up at the boat, we stopped to pick up dinner and ate at their Mom's house. The neighbors had decorated the street with flags and signs-it was great.

After dinner we spent time with John's new baby!

Here are a couple of tough guys!

A good old Milwaukee company is truly global!

Not sure what today holds-John was still on a "high" last night but hopefully is catching up on well-earned sleep this morning. We've got bad weather coming tomorrow so hope to get to the beach for a walk today. Looks like we'll be here until Tuesday, at least.

We have had a VERY hectic couple of days! Since we are waiting for John to get here-he left a message today that he is in Kuwait and should be here by Friday at the latest-we decided to rent a car and go looking for possible property in North Carolina. We are interested in the area near the Outer Banks-south enough for nice weather pretty much year round but north enough that we could bring the boat down in the fall if we wanted to. Yesterday we loaded our stuff and Marina in the car and headed out. We looked at condos, slips, condos + slips, and just slips. Last night we stayed at the world's worst Days Inn hotel in Havelock, NC. This was the first night that Oliver and Marina have spent off the boat since September 3. Probably will be the last, too!! We had one teeny tiny double bed for the 3 of us, and doors kept slamming all night so I posted myself by the peephole in our door so that no one could come in and kill us!! Something over our head kept bumping-I think it might have been a dead body! I finally slept from about 4 AM to 6 AM.  We were going to stay 2 nights but this morning we packed up, put Marina in the car and checked out!! We drove to Vandemere, NC-just around the corner from Oriental-and met the developer (Marina in tow) and set off to look at the property that will become Port Vendemere in a short time. We are considering a lot that overlooks the river and that comes with a 50' boat slip in the marina. We would likely not build anything for 2-3 years but could bring the boat down in fall 2009. We're waiting to hear back from the developer but will probably make somekind of decision this week. We think we'll need a project when we finish this trip!! We're back at th boat now and looking forward to a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we'll grocery shop and wait for John to get here! We'll probably stay here until Monday.

Here's a view of the river from what would eventually be our lot. Trees will go and the bank will be filled in and a bulkhead built.

Here's the front of the lot. I think it's a little over 1.5 acres.

We had the nicest time today when Oliver's first manager from Wyeth drove over to visit and go out to lunch. Olin actually hired Oliver twice and we are certainly grateful for the good life that has resulted. We had not seen Olin (his wife Faye was unable to make the trip with him today) for about 16 years and he has not changed a bit. Wish I could say the same. We had a lovely lunch in Myrtle Beach and looked around a bit. Olin, we appreciate the effort you made to see us and thanks for the candy!

Olin and Oliver catching up on old times

Lunch at the Sea Captains Table

We've had a busy couple of days but no pictures. Tomorrow for sure! Daughter Debbie and her friend Keith arrived Friday and we enjoyed cocktails on the boat followed by dinner. They delivered us back to the boat and then returned yesterday afternoon. After another nice dinner out, they drove us to Wal-Mart-always a huge treat for boaters!! This morning we played 18 holes at a nearby par 3 course. Oliver and I have not played for the past 2 seasons so we really enjoyed the opportunity, even though neither of us played very well. Keih is an excellent golfer but was very patient with us. This evening we had dinner at the Yacht Club and it was excellent. To our most pleasant surprise, Rolf and Kathy from Norske were sitting right behind us so we had the opportunity to catch up with our Sheboygan neighbors. We had not seen them since Green Turtle Bay, last fall, but have visited many of the same ports. Always nice to have a touch of home. Tomorrow Oliver's first boss from Wyeth will join us for lunch-we're really looking forward to seeing him. John will not be here until next week-end, so we will remain at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club until probably next Monday.

Thanks for visiting with us.