Pisces the Catamaran - Day 27

January 19, 2025

Crew spends day anchored at Carolina Beach, riding out a wind storm. OhNo and Popcorn venture ashore to attend a recovery meeting and then walk forever trying to find all of the Little Free Libraries. Popcorn stocks up on Little Free Library books, including one on lighthouses for Swabs! Swabs makes great progress on her Art Club. Popcorn learns how to operate LBP!

We boarded Pisces The Catamaran on December 24, 2024 and pointed her south in a part shakedown, part healing and grieving trip.    Notes are pulled from our handwritten, on board log book.  Crew are:

Captain Clay (captain and owner of Sail & Surf Adventures, married to Ally); call sign Captain OhNo

First Mate Ally (head chef & lead investigator of all maritime mysteries, married to Clay); call sign Popcorn

Second Mate Carly (Ally’s mom, Clay’s mother-in-law, one-woman cleaning crew of Pisces); call sign Lieutenant Swabs

Dahlia (the cutest ship cat); call sign DD

*there is a very important and traumatic and magical process of getting Pisces that we are working on sharing here.  We figured if we waited to start updating until we figured out those words though, we might never start updating at all.  Know that there was a before and an after and this trip is part of our grieving process for our brother/son/friend Jacob.*

Pisces the Catamaran - Day 26

January 18, 2025

0930 a regatta of 420 sailing dinghies appears nearby and a race course is set up. OhNo reflects happily on his high school days of racing the same kind of boats! Popcorn and OhNo chat with one of the young skippers as they sail past. The Pisces crew picks their favorite boats and cheers them on.

1200 Heavy rainfall starts

1230 The Pisces crew takes a nap, including DD!

1400 Crew wakes up refreshed and prepares to depart for a short trip down to Carolina Beach

1430 Pisces departs Wrightsville Beach for Carolina Beach

1500 With Popcorn at the helm, the autopilot suddenly goes haywire and veers the boat sharply off course. Popcorn immediately switches autopilot to standby and OhNo assists in getting the vessel back on course. Nerves are frazzled.

1615 Pisces anchors in yacht basin at Carolina Beach, NC with plenty of room and settled weather.

1630 Capt OhNo and Popcorn launch LBP to explore shore. They land at the free town dinghy dock. Town, at first glance, is a farty dirt patch but does have an excellent hardware store that Popcorn and OhNo spend nearly an hour exploring.

1800 OhNo and Popcorn return to Pisces where they discover Swabs has made exceptional progress on her Art Club project!

1830 Crew declares it Taco Tueday (despite it being Saturday)

We boarded Pisces The Catamaran on December 24, 2024 and pointed her south in a part shakedown, part healing and grieving trip.    Notes are pulled from our handwritten, on board log book.  Crew are:

Captain Clay (captain and owner of Sail & Surf Adventures, married to Ally); call sign Captain OhNo

First Mate Ally (head chef & lead investigator of all maritime mysteries, married to Clay); call sign Popcorn

Second Mate Carly (Ally’s mom, Clay’s mother-in-law, one-woman cleaning crew of Pisces); call sign Lieutenant Swabs

Dahlia (the cutest ship cat); call sign DD

*there is a very important and traumatic and magical process of getting Pisces that we are working on sharing here.  We figured if we waited to start updating until we figured out those words though, we might never start updating at all.  Know that there was a before and an after and this trip is part of our grieving process for our brother/son/friend Jacob.*

Pisces the Catamaran - Day 25

January 17, 2025

0830 Depart Mile Hammock Bay after a night full of military ruckus following behind the Nordic style tug that they shared the anchorage with.

0845 Dolphin sighting!

0850 With Popcorn at the helm, Pisces arrives at the New River Inlet which is a little intense with shoaling, lots of navigational markers for multiple channels and strong current. Popcorn knows to follow the markers and not other boats which is great because at the inlet, the motor vessel ahead takes a sharp left into the channel for the inlet out to the ocean! Capt OhNo takes over when the crew sees super shallow depths on the reader. As Pisces passes the inlet entrance, they see the tug making a sharp turn around and suspect they did not actually want to go into the ocean. Pisces traverses her own path through uncharted shoals, a very narrow channel and is being pushed along by the current. Pisces sees 9.1 knots!

1430 Pisces arrives at Wrightsville Beach and anchors with new tugboat friends New World from the Mile Hammock Bay anchorage. Capt OhNo and Popcorn launch LBP to go say hello to Angelfish who beat Pisces to Wrightsville by going offshore from Beaufort to Wrightsville. Capt OhNo and Popcorn invite Angelfish over for dinner aboard Pisces. OhNo and Popcorn carry on to explore the town. Pop and OhNo are disappointed with the town vibes; OhNo notes, “This town has really gone downhill over the years”. The vibes have changed from a quaint beachfront to a hipster college scene. Vibes confirmed by young local kids in a skiff zipping circles around boats anchored.

1730 Steve and Karen from Angelfish arrive in their dinghy for dinner party! Popcorn whips up a delicious pesto pasta and Angelfish brings a tasty salad, a family recipe from Steve’s mom! After dinner, OhNo plays guitar and sings songs with Popcorn. A great time is had by all.

2030 The crews bid each other other farewell not sure when their paths will pass again.

We boarded Pisces The Catamaran on December 24, 2024 and pointed her south in a part shakedown, part healing and grieving trip.    Notes are pulled from our handwritten, on board log book.  Crew are:

Captain Clay (captain and owner of Sail & Surf Adventures, married to Ally); call sign Captain OhNo

First Mate Ally (head chef & lead investigator of all maritime mysteries, married to Clay); call sign Popcorn

Second Mate Carly (Ally’s mom, Clay’s mother-in-law, one-woman cleaning crew of Pisces); call sign Lieutenant Swabs

Dahlia (the cutest ship cat); call sign DD

*there is a very important and traumatic and magical process of getting Pisces that we are working on sharing here.  We figured if we waited to start updating until we figured out those words though, we might never start updating at all.  Know that there was a before and an after and this trip is part of our grieving process for our brother/son/friend Jacob.*

Pisces the Catamaran - Day 24

January 16, 2025

0800 Capt OhNo and Swabs dinghy over to land for showers and NY style bagels.

0830 LBP returns to Pisces for Bagelfest 2025 and Banana Blueberry Bread made by Chef Popcorn.

0939 Pisces departs Swansboro, NC heading south for Mile Hammock Bay

0958 Dolphin sighting!

1030 Pisces pass through Camp Lejeune and hearing explosions and firing and all kind of chaos.

1200 Pisces passes through Onslow Swing bridge (the new construction and the old one).

1300 Pisces anchors at Mile Hammock Bay beside a sailboat and motor vessel (New World). Popcorn watches military diving exercises with binoculars. Swabs cleans the windows.

1750 Popcorn takes first steaming hot shower on Pisces!!!

We boarded Pisces The Catamaran on December 24, 2024 and pointed her south in a part shakedown, part healing and grieving trip.    Notes are pulled from our handwritten, on board log book.  Crew are:

Captain Clay (captain and owner of Sail & Surf Adventures, married to Ally); call sign Captain OhNo

First Mate Ally (head chef & lead investigator of all maritime mysteries, married to Clay); call sign Popcorn

Second Mate Carly (Ally’s mom, Clay’s mother-in-law, one-woman cleaning crew of Pisces); call sign Lieutenant Swabs

Dahlia (the cutest ship cat); call sign DD

*there is a very important and traumatic and magical process of getting Pisces that we are working on sharing here.  We figured if we waited to start updating until we figured out those words though, we might never start updating at all.  Know that there was a before and an after and this trip is part of our grieving process for our brother/son/friend Jacob.*