A Layover Day in Belhaven NC

Day 10 Tuesday, April 25, 2017

You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live

We had a heck of a storm last night.  The weather forecasters were spot on

Where we rode out the storm

with their prediction.  At around 3 in the morning, it began to rain really hard and the wind was blowing harder than I have ever experienced on the boat.  I have no way of knowing how hard it blew, but the mast on the boat was actually vibrating.  It was comforting to have been tightly tied to huge posts at the dock.  The boat rocked a lot but stayed put.  Reports we heard from locals during the day ranged from 4 ½ to 6 inches of rain fell.  The several of the streets were under water and schools in the area had a 2 hour delay.

We walked to a little bakery restaurant that was reputed to serve the best sausage gravy and biscuits anywhere but found them closed, presumably due to the rain. While we were standing in front of the restaurant scratching our heads trying to decide what to do, a guy in a pickup truck drove up, got out and asked if we were looking for food.  We admitted that we were and he suggested going to the Farm Boy restaurant which is located just across the street from where the boat is moored.  He told us that they had great sandwiches and would could

The Farm Boy Restaurant

anything you want.  We thanked him and headed back in the direction of the boat, somewhat skeptical of this eating establishment as a good candidate for breakfast but finally decided, “What the heck!” 

We were greeted at Farm Boy by a small older black man and a large black woman who served up a most wonderful sausage, egg and cheese that one could ask for.  Janine had a bacon cheese and egg sandwich that was piled high with country bacon.  Jim had a huge country ham biscuit that was likewise farm fresh.  

I'm just saying, It Was Neat!

After this fine breakfast, Janine and I headed for the showers.  This little marina has absolutely me neatest most interesting bathroom/shower that we have seen.  The men’s shower was decorated by a WWII Navy guy who lined the walls with interesting pictures of his days in the service including some snapshots of local beauties.  He had an old uniform hanging on a cleat on the wall an old set of headphones and a microphone.  They had a stack of fresh towels and a variety of soaps, body washes and lotions, we did our laundry in their machines which were free of charge. I spent the remainder of the morning sitting on the marina porch getting caught up on my blogs.

For lunch, we couldn’t resist the pull of the Farm Boy restaurant’s fine home

The Marina Office.  Wonderful flowers and landscaping.

cooking so we returned this time for a cheeseburger for me, a chicken  salad for Janine and chicken salad with a side of fried okra for Jim.  Again, we were not disappointed. As Janine was carrying  our laundry  back to the boat, the little man from the restaurant stopped his ancient bike and offered to help her.

After lunch, I spent the remainder of the afternoon disassembling, cleaning and reassembling the windlass.  What I found was not good.  The water had gotten in, rusting all of the bearings to a point that they were all frozen.  The clutch was not functional so when I did the test run upon reassembly, the machine still did not work.  We need to buy a new one. 

Interesting piece of drift wood

The town advertises a free concert on the green where local folks come and play all types of music.  The concert area is directly across the street from the Fish Hook Restaurant.  We decided to dine out and take in the concert. The Fish Hook serves fresh seafood so I ordered a really nice hot crab dip with baguette chips appetizer to start our dining experience.  Janine and I both had crab cakes.  We were all three stuffed and ready to be entertained.  I asked the waitress about the concert and she told me that it had been cancelled because of high water.  The water completely covered the street in front of the restaurant requiring we patrons to use the back door to come and go.

We are still having some problems with the head so we may need to replace the Y-valve when we get to Oriental.  There is a West Marine there and hopefully they will have a windlass and the valve.

I went to bed at 8:30.  It was a tiring day.