Arriving back in Morehead City from Maine there were just a few things we all wanted, well one of them didn’t quite make it into the header so you’ll have to forgive me while I digress to confess. One thing that I wanted, nay needed when I got back from our sojourn to Maine was a good, long, hot shower.

Sure I’d showered in Maine but two days later after driving 8 hours the first day and at least that the second day (Paul pitched in on the second day and that was a beautiful thing!) I was ready for a real shower and some sleep. Arriving in Beaufort (Morehead is technically the other side of the bridge) we unloaded what was left of the must haves from our 2600 square foot house into our 300 square foot boat and proceeded to try to find places to stow it all.

That failed I decided that drowning myself in a hot soapy shower would be a second best and would serve to make me feel better. By this time it was after 8pm and the kids and I had been going since around 6 am, I was getting a bit punchy. So I grabbed together my towel and other incidentals bade farewell to the family and took myself up the dock to the showers. Once there I found that the doors, previously always unlocked, weren’t. Back down to the boat find the key, obviously buried under all of the additional must haves just dumped in the salon and back up to the showers.

Do you think that dratted key worked? Oh it worked in the men’s shower room door lock, which I eventually tried in sheer desperation. It didn’t however; ever work in the women’s room door lock. Eventually I walked back down to the boat to ask Boyd to try to unlock to women’s bathroom door for me. He was also unsuccessful and eventually after more than 20 minutes of trying with no luck Boyd volunteered to stand outside the men’s shower while I dashed inside took a less than fulfilling shower that left me feeling anything but better. Finally I was able to go on to the sleep portion of the program, thank goodness they don’t have a video camera rolling above that door, in the frustration of the moment I don’t think I behaved very well when three trips to the shower door failed to result in the door opening.

The next morning, Monday, we took care of the Wild Ponies and Seashells. Ted, my brother in law, who had been visiting Boyd while the kids and I were in Maine had scoped out the area and had recommended a nearby island which boasted wild ponies and had a nice beach for seashell hunting. Thanks to Ted we had a lovely day kicking around tracking fuzzy ponies, sea otters and shells, the last of which were more my speed as they didn’t run away.

Thanks also to Ted for the road trip to bring down the car and all the work he did with Boyd while he was down here. It’s good to have talented family! Thanks to April and Leif for loaning him to us for such an extended stay (even though I didn’t see it I’m sure he came with a bow on his head).

We also explored an adorable Maritime Museum and all the little shops by the coast. Yesterday we stayed again because we were still tired and there was a low moving in. I borrowed the “complimentary car” and the kids and I did holiday shopping and reprovisioned the boat for the next leg of the journey. Today we fueled up, found homes for the last of the load from Maine (thank goodness for that) did laundry and ordered a few parts that we’ll pick up tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll leave for Southport. We plan to go outside as friends have told of us shoaling in the next section of the ICW and now that we’ve been here (well not all of us) for nearly two weeks we’ve fallen behind the other cruisers again. Time to go!

Since it’s probably highly inappropriate of me to post photos of the shower, even though I have been known to post pictures of other bathroom fixtures in the past I’ll leave you with ponies instead.