Good bye Bald Head Island.

Hello wacky ICW.

Linda and Chewy sitting up front by the captain.

Another balmy day in North Carolina.  We have had a couple of cool nights which is a welcome relief.  But still hard to believe that it is almost Oct. and it is this hot.
Well, we made it back from Bald Head Island.  The last stop I had with the group was Topsail.  Nice little marina.  We were able to leave Bald Head even though it wasn't the best of conditions.  The waves and the wind were high on the Cape Fear river but Ralph's American Tug got thru it like nothing.  Very nice ride.
My friend Mary Sharp joined us at Topsail.  We all went out for dinner and drinks and got loud and roudy.  It was great fun.  Live music and crazy dancing with our group.....you know who you are.  I ended up driving back to New Bern with Mary.   It's funny that what takes 2 days by boat takes 2 hours by car.  It felt good to be home and sleeping in my own bed again.
Now I am in shock because I am back to work as a nurse.  After not working for over a year it feels good to be busy but it is killing me to be on my feet for 8 hours straight.  But the pay check makes it all worth it.  I think.  I guess I can do almost anything for a year.  The long range plan for right now is to work for a year then head back to Florida and the Bahamas.  Maybe complete the loop after that and head back to Michigan.  Then we would keep going and come back here again.  But plans change so we shall see.  It's good to be here right now.

Still at Bald Head Island.

A little turtle on the beach on the Atlantic.

Chewy running on the beach in his rain coat.

Ralph and Chewy on the beach.  It was raining off and on all day.

This is Ralph and Linda's dog Chewy being really cute.

Coming thru the channel at the entrance to Bald Head Is.

Coming into the harbor.

The lighthouse at Bald Head Is.

We are at Bald Head Island.  We are actually kind of stuck here.  Weather is not good.  We are sitting tight in paradise.  Got here 2 days ago and have been having fun but now that we want to leave we are watching tropical storm Julia, now down graded  to tropical depression Julia.  She is hanging around and dumping rain on us.  Some wind also but just enough to interfere.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.  Sun is kinda shining right now.
We rented a golf cart yesterday and cruised around the island which was so much fun.  Also walked out to the beach yesterday and let this little dog run wild.  He was in heaven.
We haven't got any plans yet for today.  We shall see.

We got an early start this morning, 7am.  The sun was just rising as we started our move out of the harbor and into the river that is the icw. 

The clouds are phenomenal  so I took some pictures.  We have only the catamaran behind us right now.

Maybe you can see some houses in the distance.  We are on a river but these houses face the Atlantic ocean.  We are near Topsail ( pronounced Tops'll).  The story goes that in the 1600's and 1700's the big sailing vessels would anchor in this area to come ashore.  The very top sail of the ship could be seen from the ocean.  The ship was slightly hidden in between the grasses and marshes and the pirate ship could see that top sail.  Also the pirates could be seen approaching.  More later.

Leaving Spooner Creek this morning.

These are a few of the boats from our group following behind us in the rain.

Captain Ralph ready for the rain.