NC: Dowry Creek Marina - Belhaven

Day 341
NM Today: 43
NM To Date: 5445

We left River Dunes in Oriental, North Carolina at 9:20. Before leaving the dock, however, Clark grabbed some pictures to remember our time here.

Houses located near River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC

Main Building (Club House) at River Dunes Marina

We traveled five and one-half hours today. The scenery has become somewhat repetitious. I decided that to pass some time this morning I would modify a dress that I bought when I was home in New Jersey. The top of the dress has smocking which I discovered irritates my back as it rubs against my skin. I sewed a lining into the dress which thankfully fixed the problem. That project took about an hour.

After that I did my normal things - read, did crossword puzzles, made lunch, etc. We arrived at Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, North Carolina just around 3:00 and were greeted by no less than three people who diligently assisted us with tying up at the dock.

The list of this marina's amenities included a pool, and unlike yesterday when we were threatened by lightening storms, today the radar showed no signs of inclement weather. As soon as we could get ready, we ran up and jumped in the pool to cool off.

Pool and Lounge at Dowry Marina

When we docked, we were told that happy hour is held in the captain's lounge every day around 5:30. We later heard that today happy hour would start at 6:00. We wrapped up our time in the pool early enough that we could grab showers before joining the group at the lounge. The marina offers free laundry facilities, so I took advantage of this to dry my pool towels before joining Clark at the lounge.

Meeting fellow boaters during happy hour in the lounge
at Dowry Creek Marina
(I'm wearing the dress I modified earlier in the day)

The folks at the end of the table convinced Clark to go get his guitar and serenade them for a while. He came back with his music and his guitar and a slight problem. Somehow the combination lock on the guitar case got locked accidentally, and Clark could not remember the combination to break into his guitar case.

This bizarre situation was met with much heckling and hilarity as he struggled to get to his guitar. One kind person suggested that he had a "saws all" that could quickly take care of the problem. Clark managed to get into his case finally by trying all number combinations until he got to the one that worked. I thought it would take all night but he got lucky.

Clark playing guitar in the Captain's Lounge

 Clark quickly made a new friend due to his guitar playing expertise. Nancy has a great voice and joined Clark to sing along as he played. Besides having a great singing voice, Nancy is quick witted and continuously came out with remarks that made us all laugh. One of the lines in the Bob Dylan song "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" says " ... Buy me a flute And a gun that shoots ,,,: , so Nancy says, "He must be shopping at Walmart cause that's where he can get both of those things together!"

Somehow Nancy figured out that Clark was an engineer. I can't imagine how she managed to peg him as such. Several times through the night she referred to him as a "gear head", which I found hysterical. When they sang a duet, she said they were "the Gear Head and the Queer Head". She later told Clark he was "an awesome musical tool" after he had been playing one song after another non-stop for several hours.

Nancy and Clark sharing music
(She has a wonderful voice and way of singing. It was great fun
listening to their concert.)

 Eventually Nancy decided to go get her guitar, so we had two performers going strong tonight. I don't know how long happy hour normally lasts at this marina, but Clark and Nancy played and sang until 10:30 when I finally told Clark we needed to go get supper. The chips and pretzels I ate were insufficient to make a meal!

Nancy performs the blues

Below is a video clip showing a portion of one of the many, many songs these two performed throughout the night.

I had something planned for dinner, but given we did not get back to the boat until almost 11:00, I quickly changed my mind and just pulled out a hodgepodge of leftovers. After dinner I had a choice of going to bed, doing the dishes, or working on the blog. The blog won and bed came in at second place. The dishes will have to wait until we are underway tomorrow.