Doing time in Oriental, NC

Obviously not the ideal situation we have found ourselves in, but the keel situation had to be dealt with immediately and we couldn't have taken it to a better boat yard than Sailcraft in Oriental NC. We actually found a few boats here that we had seen along the way down the coast. It turns out the Katie and Jesse, the two young girls from Michigan that we met in the 1000 Islands also stopped here coincidently...not surprisingly, they remembered them well.

I'll try my best not to give you the day-to-day events while here on the hard. But we did get together with Andy & Judy and Dave & Corinne for dinner at The Silos on Wednesday. Julie found this place our first day here....they offered two for one pizza on Tuesday's - gluten free too!!

Amateur night at The Silos

Andy, Corinne & Dave

Oriental is a retirement town and small enough that some people drive golf carts around the town streets instead of cars. Wednesday's at Silos welcomes anyone up on stage to play and sing...it became apparent that this was a highlight of the week for many locals of this small town as you couldn't get a seat after 18:30 and everyone was having a good time...their Margarita's were a speciality!







Andy and Dave told us about a shrimp boat in the harbor close to where they anchored that was selling fresh shrimp. The next morning, Julie headed down and brought back several pounds of fresh shrimp of all sizes for $20...we packaged them and put them in the freezer....leaving out some for that nights' dinner.

Fresh shrimp with their heads still on

Back to the keel issue...the keel is really a massive heavy lead weight. Our keel is 8,200lbs of lead. The keel is the counter balance that keeps a saiboat from tipping over.

Working on removing the fuel tank to get to the keel bolts

It is connected to the fibreglass hull by several large bolts (keel bolts). BoomDeYada's design requires the removal of the floor so we can remove the fuel tank (the big grey square in the picture). The fuel tank sits in its own basin in case the aluminium tank corrodes and leaks...this keeps the fuel from running into the bilge and out into the surrounding water. Then we cut through the fuel basin to gain access to the keel bolts and the rest of the bilge. Notice the fire-extinguisher...we have about 7-8 on board.

We took up residence for a few nights at Neuse River Suites with a view of the river and a 2 minute bike ride into town...the ride to Sailcraft was 5 minutes.