Man, What a Party

Hancock Creek, NC
34 56.21N 076 51.47 W

How lucky can we be. Jeff and Wendy on the W32 Calypso are the editors of the Westasail newsletter. They invited us to visit them here at Cherry Point Marine Air Station. Hancock Creek Marina is public yet on base property. They have a yacht club here and Jeff and Wendy are members. We arrived yesterday just in time for a shrimp/lobster boil/pot luck dinner in the afternoon.

What a feast! That had to be the best meal we've had in many years. The many people we met from the yacht club were also lots of fun. Boy oh boy did we have a good time. After the dinner I returned to the boat for a quick nap. I soon learned that the party wasn't over. It had moved out to the tiki bar beside the docks. We joined that after party too, but boy was it cold. That was a hearty bunch sitting outside by the water in such cold damp weather.

After that, Jeff, Wendy, Libby and I had a great time comparing and contrasting our Calypso and Tarwathie. Every time we see another Westsail, the reaction is the same. Everything is alike but very much is different. The basic layout and features are alike, but the details of how things are arranged and painted or varnished are unique to each W32. We all learn from each other by exchanging ideas. Lots of fun. Alas, we have never managed to connect with any of the Westsail rendezvous where we could compare and contrast many Westsails.

Thank you Jeff and Wendy for inviting us, and thank you

Speaking of cold damp weather, it's time to get our behinds out of here and make a bee line for Florida. We'll go out to sea from Beaufort today. Then we have two plans to choose from. We can stay outside and go through the marked buoys at Frying Pan shoals, or we can go back inside at Masonboro and out again at the Cape Fear River. Frying Pan shoals is the most treacherous spot on the whole East Coast so we treat it with utmost respect. Keep tuned to hear how we decide.

Anyhow, if weather persists, we'll be in Florida in about 4 days. We sincerely hope that they have warm Floridian weather to welcome us.

STOP PRESS! I wrote the above two hours ago while we were sitting in sheltered environment of Hancock Creek. Now we're out on the Neuse River. The temperature is 47F (8C), the wind is blowing 20-25 knots, it is damp, and Libby and I are struggling to find gloves warm enough to keep our fingers warm. We don't want to go out to sea in these conditions. We'll stay on the ICW today, probably tomorrow, and we'll see what happens then. We may miss our window. That's too bad; we aren't masochists.