Days 6 and 7 - Manteo to Ocracoke by way of Engelhard

Back to the world of the living! We have wifi. We are actually just picking up an unlocked network, but it's working for the moment. We have a wifi extender on board, which was useful at Manteo's Marina because the signal didn't quite reach us out on the T-head, and it's useful today because someone in the area hasn't locked their network. I've also figured out how to share the signal from my laptop wirelessly, so Ben's up at the table on his iPad.

I typed up a blog last night, and I'm just going to go ahead and include that and today's post in one entry. It would be nice if there was a blogger application for iPad which let me save entries and then post them once I was connected to the internet. Google, you need to get on that.

Day Six - Manteo to Engelhard
We got to sail today! Well, actually we motor sailed so we could beat the weather, but it was nice to not have to run the engines so loud and still make over 6 knots. The motors ended up being worth it because the rain started about an hour after we docked at Big Trout Marina, Cafe and Campground which gave us enough time to check in, find the bathhouse and enjoy a fried fish sandwich and Sunkist at the cafe. 

Big Trout Marina doesn't have any of the extras like wifi, floating docks or a pump out station, but it's perfectly adequate with 30 A power, water and unleaded gasoline. 

Now that the rain has started, we have buttoned up all the windows, converted Whisper's cockpit back into our "great room," and poured ourself some rum. We are joined on the dock by several huge pelicans and are getting a few things done, including editing together footage of the trip.

Day 7 - Engelhard to Ocracoke
We set the alarm for 6 am this morning to make ourselves feel better about going to sleep at 9:30. Our plan was to head to Oriental but that took us directly into 20 knot winds and 1 - 2 foot waves. Our only obligation is to be in Treasure Cay by December 23, and we could sail to Ocracoke, so we decided to take a side trip.

We arrived about 1:30 and went straight to the fuel dock. We had some trouble finding the dock master, but once we got situated we decided to explore. We ended up renting a golf cart and went to the lighthouse (on Lighthouse Rd) and the British Cemetery (on British Cemetery Rd). We searched the map for "Raw Bar Rd" but settled for Howard's Pub & Raw Bar on Route 12. We also stopped by the Bait and Tackle store, the grocery store, and Ocracoke Seafood Company where we picked up fresh flounder for dinner.