June 07-08, 2000 -- Getting Ready to Leave

On June 7, when we checked the weather this morning, we thought we might have an opportunity to leave tomorrow. Unfortunately, that did not pan out. We spent most of the day, pretty much like we spent the rest of the week. We headed over to Yvonne's around 10:30 AM, and hung out for the day there. As we headed back to the boat, we saw Mutual Fun. Bob was on deck inflating their dinghy and waived us over. We pulled up along side and chatted for a few minutes. They had just arrived from Green Turtle Key this morning, and after catching 3 hours of sleep at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, they headed to Wrightsville Beach. He told us that it was a bit of a rough trip and Mona had just gone to sleep below. We invited them over for cocktails if we are still here tomorrow. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, our weather window had not materialized. On June 8, we headed over to Yvonne's again, around 10:30 AM or so. However, since we knew we would be leaving soon, we planned to leave around 2:00 PM so we could be back on the boat in time to check forecasts and listen to Herb. I checked the weather from the house (the Internet is one of those things I definitely miss!), and saw that we would almost definitely have a weather window tomorrow. We decided that if we got the weather window, we would take it, even though it meant leaving on a Friday which is supposed to be bad luck. On our way back to the boat, Yvonne dropped us off at Vito's for pizza since it was a short walk from there to the dinghy dock. We ate our late lunch around 3:00 PM or so, and then headed back toward the boat. On the way, we saw Mona, on Mutual Fun, sitting outside enjoying the weather and reading. We pulled up and chatted a bit with her, confirmed cocktails and then headed back to the boat. On the way, we stopped by Joye to invite them as well. Finally, as we neared the boat, we saw Tom and D.L. on La Pappion who were just anchoring. We headed over and invited them as well before getting to the boat. Once we got there, we knew we would have our weather window. We focused on getting the boat in sailing order which took about an hour or so. This was perfect timing; because about 15 minutes later, everyone showed up with food & drink. It was a fun evening catching up on what people had done and where they had been