Harbor Village Marina - Day 2, lots of rain and wind

Great place to be in a storm!

We really can't complain, the weather has been so good up to now - so a couple of days of rain will still put us ahead of the average number of rainy days going south. That's not to say the weather hasn't been awful the last couple of days. We have winds of 15 to 20 kts with occasionally higher gusts, especially along the coast but in the marina we are very well protected by the surrounding buildings and the fact that there's no fetch at all. Add in excellent TV reception, 5 Mbps free internet and 120 volt power, it's hard to beat. So we're snugged in with both ceramic heaters going which do a good job of fending off dampness as well as keeping the cabin cozy.

Bill Spencer, do you know this boat?

For entertainment, we rented a car today from Enterprise for the usual price of $30/day. They drove the car to the marina for our pickup and after I return it tomorrow morning, they'll give me a free ride back, not bad. So we took advantage of the rental opportunity and shopped at the The Town Center, a great shopping center in Wilmington styled in the new format of separate stores simulating a downtown area. Each store is separate with small streets between them for parking, like old downtowns used to be except this is all new. Nobody seems to be building Galeria type shopping centers anymore.

All cruisers wind up at a Walmart during provisioning and we were no different. We walked out with a ton of stuff we needed and then proceeded to call around for a place to refill our propane tank, not as easy as you might suppose. However, it eventually dawned on us that we ought to look for an RV park. Everybody has propane tanks there so they must have provisions for refilling them and sure enough, the local KOA Kampgrounds did just that. Then it was on to a Harris Teeter for the final topping off on supplies before returning to Fleetwing to be greeted enthusiastically by Hoolie who thought he'd been abandoned.

It is still still raining heavily outside, inches and inches of rain and lots of wind. We'll probably be here again on Wednesday with winds predicted in the 20 kt range and even more rain. The first day that appears good for going south is Thursday, we think. We're still way ahead of last year's schedule so we're not concerned, besides, we're on vacation - nice to be retired.