Surviving the storm

Hello from the warmth of the coastal North Carolina! Hello from the land where the Gulf Stream passes very close to shore and makes winter a temperate delight.... generally. However, this impressive storm, Grayson, brought us ice coated trees,

inches of blowing powder snow, days of low temperatures in the single digits (Fahrenheit, not Celsius!), ice inside our boat, and the entire marina locked in ice. I've only seen ONE bikini being worn on this trip, outside a house next door..

After the first night, while warming up in the marina clubhouse and checking email, I noticed a Facebook friend request from someone named “Byph”. Odd name... how would one pronounce that? “Biff”? Could it be my neighbor/friend from Coral Bay? It turned out that it WAS, and that he had just posted something about being in Oriental, NC...right near us! Turns out he has washed ashore here and is renting a home only a half-hour from my boat's marina and he invited us to stay in his spare room for the duration of this unprecedented cold snap. What an unexpected delight and bit of good fortune to run into him... and at just the perfect time! Cynthia definitely likes having a house, kitchen, and warmth right now!

The other folks we've run into are also delightful: Asa, our local marina mechanic and electrical master, a fount of knowledge and wisdom, who has so generously lent me tools

and even allowed me to keep the boom I built in his shop while the glue cures in this frigid weather. Tom, the marina owner. Ken and Sharon, a couple who keep getting delayed on their trip to the Bahamas. Maureen, with her happy dog. And too many others to mention. I LIKE good neighborly folks.

Of course, there are “issues”. Mainly, this involves items on the boat that are a BIT more... involved... than one might have hoped, or things like a deep-draft boat in a shallow marina in a shallow bay (apparently we CAN NOT leave unless we get the right winds for a few days), or this ridiculous weather!

I had hoped to be out past the Gulf Stream by now, halfway to St John, catching fish, being bored, watching bright stars... but the boat issues, the water depth, and the storm would each individually have stopped us... and we have all three. And soon we must return to MI, tired and cold and frustrated rather than warmed and restored by topical sunshine, back to gray skies, no sunshine, and deeper cold. We are “camping out”, working on the boat... and we are NOT happy campers.

On the bright side, we enjoy the beauty of sunshine on the ice-covered trees,

we actually see sunshine every single day, we ran into Byph and are making new friends, and we DID find fallen pecans on the ground a couple days ago! Very cool! I LOVE foraging! Fun is always available!