January 8, 2025

1000 Crew moves Pisces from the Oriental Free Dock one slip over to the fuel dock of the marina to take on 25 gallons of fuel (in both tanks and in our diesel heater). Captain OhNo had some trouble maneuvering Pisces, not realizing the rudders were hard over. Important lesson learned.

1030 Pisces departs Oriental. Sun is shining and the Nuese River is calm.

1045 Capt OhNo raises the sails and large chunks of ice come crashing onto the decks! Popcorn is at the helm. Pisces does a combination of sailing and motoring across the Nuese River and into Adam’s Creek, bound for Beaufort!

1330 Dolphins!

1400 Pisces arrives at Beaufort (with more dolphin sightings!) and anchors in Taylors Creek, just along the Beaufort waterfront. The new anchor bridle is easier to manage.

1420 The crew launches the dinghy for the very first time! The small outboard dinghy engine did not want to run properly but Capt OhNo fiddled with it and eventually got it to run decently. From on board the boat, Popcorn held onto a rope that was also attached to the dinghy so that Capt OhNo could tentatively test the dinghy with the safety of still being tethered to the boat. With sufficient confidence in the dinghy, Capt OhNo and Popcorn venture away from Pisces and across the creek to the town dinghy dock where they land the dinghy for free and go ashore. They were having so much fun looking at the stores and walking around that they called Swabs in hopes that she would join them, having initially stayed behind because they dinghy seemed kind of scary. She agreed to come out and Capt OhNo went back out to Pisces to get her. The whole crew enjoyed an wonderful afternoon ashore!