| Subject:
weather
improves as Lee Hughes reaches North Carolina ----- Original Message ----- From: Adrienne Faherty To: Sue Hughes ; ...; Frank Dye ; Brian A McCleery ; Jean Burns Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 3:33 PM Subject: Hughes Nughes 16 Hughes Nughes 16 Hi folks, Well, at long
last (and
it's been over a month, I think) I've got proper fine weather. Since I
left Florida, I haven't had two sunny days in a row, it seems.
 Georgetown was rainy, too, but quite pleasant for all that, since I could tie up to a dinghy dock by day and anchor out a few yards away by night. Three days was OK, but I was glad I could leave there last Friday. By the afternoon, it had cleared and the wind was behind me, so I sailed merrily away.  .. ..   The next day was gorgeous, too, but I finished early that day and tied up at the free dock at Barefoot Landing, S.C. It's an unusual but nice combination of outlet shops, restaurants and attractions that feed the crowds who flock to Myrtle Beach, S.C. which is on the coast a mile or two away.  .. oh why would such a shop thrive in S.C. which is hardly the mid-west? But there wuz more. Yep, a Bible Factory shop. No kidding - a 'factory' shop selling bibles. Nuts. It's sounds
horrid,
but actually, it's fairly new, clean and friendly and all outdoors
(i.e.
it's not a mall). They have rocking chairs for old folks to rest in
outside
all the shops, while the wife or hubby loads up with a year's supply of
frogs, tractors and bibles and so the whole thing actually works.
Somehow,
it They've laid
it all
out alongside the ICW and have a couple of big ponds (say an acre each)
stocked with alligators and turtles (kids pay a quarter to get turtle
food
from the vending machines). Plus they have tigers. Four of them lounge
around in a sort of giant (and very robust) shop window for a few hours
a day before going back to their safari park home. Two shifts of tigers
per day it seems. They look very happy with this arrangement and are so
mellow (or maybe tranquilized?) that people can pet them and have their
picture taken with them. Well, I stayed overnight and had a proper meal
in a pub - very yummy and not very expensive either. (Free docks, you
see.)  The following day - Sunday - was gray but dry and I motored again into a headwind until it fined up and I anchored in a lovely spot on the Pipeline Canal two miles below Southport. Pipeline Canal doesn't sound too picturesque, but it was. Again it was dry, bug free, warm and calm with no current or wind or tide or wake to deal with. I crossed into North Carolina that morning. Three states down and ten to go plus DC. ..  On Monday I set off in clear skies into a strong headwind all the way up the Cape Fear River towards Wilmington but turned out of the river after 8 miles into Snows Cut. From here, I was able to sail into a lesser headwind for the next 8 miles up to Wrightsville Beach, where I am now. (On big maps look for a spot 20 miles north of Cape Fear.) ..  As soon as I left the rivers and made it back into the sea coast (there's barrier islands to the east with popular surf beaches) the water colour changed from dark brown floodwater to clear blue ocean. It's like being back at Key West. It's spring here, too, and some buds are out, and there are pale legs poking out of short pants. So, after that wettish month in Georgia and S.C., this is like starting a new holiday. Woo hoo! Better yet, the forecast for this p.m. is more mild southerlies followed by three or four days of southerlies with a slim chance of a shower or two on Wednesday. That's the best forecast I've had in three months, so I'll be casting off from here in a few hours and putting the pedal to the metal to make some miles northwards. I might not be in touch again till next week. Hurroo Lee
----- Original
Message
----- Hughes Hughes 17 Hi folks, All's well here in Beaufort. Yesterday the weather was OK, and again today, but tomorrow it's supposed to get windy and cold (low of 35F) and maybe wet, too, so I'll stay here till Tuesday.  ..  ..  .. bilge. I pulled up the floorboards and scrubbed away all the sandy, oily goop that had accumulated. It seems that even the tiniest bit of oily fuel that leaks from any of my three fuel cans will spread over the whole bilge and glue every grubby particle of sea water to it. Since I have
now decided
to keep a six pack of beer in the bilge (where it is water cooled), I
wanted
the cans to come up clean and not oily so I had to get out the green
scouring
pad and sponge and And the
outside looks
lovely, too. It had gained a brown colour from weeks of being in dirty,
brown river floodwater. I plan to take a week in the Chesapeake (in say
two or three weeks' time) and pull Wanderer up on the hard,
empty
her out, and turn her over. Then I'll re-antifoul her, in red this
time,
to go with the other red trim on her, and I'll apply the red strip I
bought
for her weeks ago. I'll put another coat on the floorboards and a few
more
coats of varnish on the seats. The blue antifoul was new in December
when
I painted her, but some of it got sanded off when I beached her in
Georgia
one day to avoid having to sail miles back and find better shelter. All
that work ought to hold me till I OK, it's Saturday night in a new port town and I'm a sailor. So guess where I'll be tonite? Yep that's right, snugged up in my sleeping bag with a cup of cocoa thinking of my gal in NZ. Toodle oo Pinocchio |
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