Florence. It's all we are thinking about.

Ok. As Moss just said, "you didn't think it was going to be all cupcakes and rainbows and we would adopt a unicorn along the way, did you?"

There's no unicorn aboard, no cupcakes either. Ellen claims she is withering away from all the anchoring and all the not cooking in the heat. It is still so hot. So so hot. But in reality we are doing just fine. 

If you are reading this post between Sunday, September 9, 2018 at 4pm and around 8am Monday the 10th, check us out at the town dock in Oriental, NC. https://towndock.net/harborcam

That's Cupcake docked on the left side there.

Tomorrow morning we will be moving 15 miles up the Neuse River to Northwest Creek Marina (http://northwestcreekmarina.com/contact-northwest-creek-marina.html) because it came highly recommended by several people we met down here, as well as another sailing couple we met in 2012 who used to keep their boat at the marina in New Bern.

We should have from Monday to Wednesday to prep Cupcake for the storm. Storm prep means removing everything on deck that could catch the wind. So the sails come off, the sun canvas comes off, the cans of fuel come off, the dinghy comes off, and on and on. 

All that gear will be stored aboard, we will remove our valuables and ourselves to a hotel for the duration of the storm and hope Cupcake is well cared for by the marina staff and Poseidon.

In the meantime, we had a delightful stay in Belhaven. Dockmaster Gregg (who is also Harbormaster) was extremely helpful and informative. He gave us a ride to a lumberyard so I could pick up a pair of 2x6 boards to use as fender boards. Now I feel like a tough guy cruiser.

Belhaven is a pretty dinky town, but when we got ashore we saw a couple of Porsches, an Alfa Romeo, some Corvettes, a Miata, and some other sports cars. They were all in town to eat at the Spoon River restaurant, part of a car club outing from New Bern.

We chatted up the Miata owners, found out they are cruising sailors as well, and got hurricane recommendations from them. They did not like our chances at Belhaven at all, but strongly recommended Northwest Creek Marina and its staff. When we double-checked the recommendation with our friends Chris and Gretchen, the marina was confirmed as a great option. In fact, several people say it is the best choice in the area.

So that is where we are headed. (Interestingly, the couple who recommended the marina mentioned that if we met with resistance, we should drop their names in order to help move things along. Gretchen also implied it may be a "who you know" kind of place.

Sure enough, when Ellen called to ask if the marina could take us, she got a lot of push back. They thought we were dissatisfied with our marina's storm prep and wanted to ride out the weather at their place. When they found out we were transients (doesn't have bad connotations in the sailing world) and heard who referred us, (thanks Ann!) they said we could stay. So that's that.

And Ellen just made hotel reservations for us for Wednesday through the weekend so we can be safely off the boat. (Moss is excited about the pool. I am pleased there will be a refrigerator where we can keep Cupcake's provisions. Ellen is pleased we will all be safe and sound.)

We don't want to admit it, but the notion of AC, WiFi, non-triangular sleeping surfaces, and video screens larger than a sheet of paper is fairly appealing.

There is a lot of work and stress coming our way in the days ahead. But we have as good a plan as we can put together, we will be safe, and we will do what we can to keep our girl Cupcake safe so we can resume our travels when this weather has passed through.

Cupcake sporting her new fenderboards at the dock in Oriental.

The fishing fleet in Oriental seems to be planning on weathering the storm in place.

Ellen decided she would have liked to see about ten feet more rock on that breakwater. We aren’t staying here for the storm anyway.