We host a dinner party!

As we were coming down the ICW today, we kept meeting up with Sound Wave, a Gemini from up north. As we wound down our day and approached our anchorage for the night, Terry suggested that we invite Sound Wave's owners over for dinner. So, Rich and Jane came over to check out LUX and to enjoy tonight's experimental dish - stovetop Shepherd's pie. The dish, a riff on a recipe using Hamburger Helper, was a success. Our guests said they enjoyed it. Of course, the meal was enhanced by Jane's offerings - a lovely fruit salad and really great cole slaw. We had a great time eating and talking here at Topsail Sound. We are 30 miles north of Cape Fear right behind Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Tomorrow, we hope to get even further south. We are looking at several places that would be good shelter in a storm. Speaking of shelter, it would have not been such a fun evening without Carol's big mosquito net. She pieced together two of the nets used for outdoor umbrellas to make an easy to use cover for the back of LUX. We put it up tonight, and we had a lovely bug-free meal!

Soundwave

Afternoon

Well, once again you can tell we are near a military base. First we saw some unusual military land craft. And, just now, we were buzzed by a helicopter several times. You can just barely see the helicopter in this picture. What's better is that you can see what a beautiful day it is. Terry is now in shorts. Even better is that we saw some dolphins this morning. No pictures. Linda was not here to take them.

Sandy???

So, we keep getting questions from friends and family about Hurricane Sandy. Never fear, kind readers. We are on it. We have been watching weather reports about Sandy's progress. We've been looking at all the models. So far, we're looking at winds that would make for some great sailing. We might also get some rain. At this point, we believe that our path will be a good one. We will, however, keep a close watch as the days go on.

It's Foggy Out Here!

We are traveling down the Adams Creek Canal, and the fog just keeps getting foggier. For a while there, it seemed that the sun might win in burning off the fog. But, it's back! It is now slowing down today's progress because we need to creep along.

Crack of Dawn

It is 6:11 am. Most of us are up and having coffee and Danish. That would be because Carol did not get the message that we would be getting up at 6:15. She only heard the part where we would be getting up for an early start! Today, we will be headed south somewhere. We are still trying to get a lot of distance south, so we will probably anchor out somewhere. It is supposed to be another beautiful day.

In Oriental

We made it down the coast to Oriental. We'll be here for the night, tomorrow, we are going to try to make really good time. Hurricane Sandy is out there churning around, and we do NOT want to make her acquaintance!

Heading out to Oriental

To all our faithful readers - by now you probably have been wondering if this is really our trip. Just to reassure you, these pictures were taken just this morning. Nothing serious. Just some general maintenance!