Outer Banks Day 2

Tuesday, April 26
Manteo, Roanoke Island, NC

Today we rented a car and decided to be tourists.  We rented from a local Ford dealer and were picked up at 830am.  By 9am all the papers were signed and we were on out way to explore the Outer Banks.  First we drove to Kitty Hawk and saw the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  Phil found this to be most interesting as there is a full-scale reproduction of the Wright Flyer, we listened to a talk by the volunteer Ranger and was able to visit the field where the actual flight took place.  Then we stopped at a knitting store and I bought a couple skeins of yarn to make 2 pair of socks.  We had lunch at Pigman's BBQ - which had excellent BBQ pulled pork sandwiches.  We drove down to Cape Hatteras Island and visited Bodie (pronounced Body) Island Lighthouse, which is not open for climbing and currently undergoing renovation.  Then we went back to the boat as the skies were looking like it was going to rain soon.  The boat tied down with a couple more lines, I went to a yarn shop (again!) and Phil went to the Roanoke Island maritime Museum.  He met me at the yarn shop and then we walked around town and we both visited the Museum. 

the town here is very quaint.  Time to use the car one last time and go to the local Piggly Wiggly Grocery store.  Once back at the boat we fussed online.  Then as we had use of a propane gas grill on the hard, we thawed the Bahamian crawfish tails we bought in Marsh Harbor and I cooked them on the grill while Phil fixed a pasta rice dish and can corn.  The tail were great and we have enough for another meal with it mixed with something else.

We have looked at the weather and have decided that if the winds are low enough tomorrow morning (<10kts) that we are going to leave and get to the ICW before the winds increase.  There is a cold front that is coming, but as we only have 3-4 hours before we get out of Albarmarle Sound, we think that we'll be ok and have 2 places in mind that we can anchor and be protected.  One is much closer than the other, but we will be running (going downwind) with the stronger winds which is much better than going upwind.

We have been going slowly this past week or so and now will have to be picking up the pace while staying safe.  As always, I'll send out the Ok message when we are anchored.  If the winds are <10kts, we'll be staying here to leave Friday.

Glad to see some warmer weather back home.  Sure hope that it warms up by the time that we get up there.