Another Day on the Plantation!

Albemarle Plantation – Hertford, NC – Tuesday, 5/11

This morning was very calm and there was almost no wind, which was refreshing. Throughout most of the night it rained intermittently, getting everything outside was wet, including our golf cart. And with the dampness came another attack of midges on the cockpit of our boat.

As predicted, the temperature dropped into the low 50’s making it a perfect morning for Denise to get in a run. With all the residential streets, it was easy to find a safe place to run without going on any of the golf paths as they are off limits to runners and walkers after 7:30 am.

She did see more of the beautiful homes and landscaping in this area, including one house that looked exactly like her sister’s old Killearn house in Tallahassee.

After Denise’s run, our showers and breakfast, we went up to the Dockside café and threw in another load of laundry. Mark also wanted to check out the Yacht Club building to see if it would again be available today. But there was a Yacht Club Board meeting scheduled, so that would not be an option for at least this morning. Off we went back to the boat to take care of a few work emails and other business-related affairs.

Denise went back to pick up the clothes from the dryer and met one of the yacht club members who informed her that on Tuesdays they have sailboat races in the early afternoon and if interested he could find someone who would take us on their boat if we wanted. Once back on the boat she told Mark about the races, but he said he was not interested and he had work to do. It also didn’t help that it was very cloudy, overcast and looked like it was going to rain.

Still frustrated with the slow internet in the marina, we decided to go exploring and see if the library they have at the pool might have better access. The pool is about a half a mile from the marina and overlooks the Albemarle Sound, so we took the golf cart over there to see what we could find. Once there we were surprised to see a very well stocked library; not the typical book exchange found in many marinas. Unfortunately, we also discovered there was no internet service (and poor cell service) at the pool area as well.

Across the hall from the library is a game room, and it was there that we met “Mimi”. She and several other women usually have a prayer group there every Tuesday, but for some reason today she was the only one who showed up. We ended up talking to her for quite a while and discovered she and her prayer group all attend St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Edenton. We mentioned about the two women we had met at the Dockside Café on Sunday night, and wondered if they were her prayer group members, but we could not remember their names. We went on to talk with her and learn about her life, coming to AP from New York, and how her husband would be on the race committee boat for today’s races. She was very gracious offering a ride to the store, and invited us to stop by her house if we needed anything.

We returned from our outing resigned that it would be a day of working on the boat, and we were ok with that. Around lunch time we noticed a lot of people heading down to the marina (in golf carts of course) and getting on their boats. For the most part they were all sailors, but the owner (Charlie) of the power boat next to ours was getting ready to go out as well. Come to find out he was the race committee boat and soon filled with a handful of people to assist in the race duties. Just before noon they left, trailing the other boats that had left much earlier.

We sat down and ate our lunch, then decided to go on an outing in the golf cart. We headed to the golf pro shop as we would like to buy something with the AP logo on it. The shirts for sale in the Dockside Café were just basic generic t-shirts and we were looking for something a little nicer. We did find some at the pro shop, but they all either had the golf logo on them or no logo at all. Slightly disappointed, we left the pro shop and cruised around the Clubhouse property; here there is a beautiful view that overlooks the AS.

We headed back to the boat and Denise started working on the blog for the day. Eventually the sailors and race committee boat came back. We inquired which of the occupants was Mimi’s husband and it was exactly who we guessed it might be. Funny! We exchanged pleasantries and small talk and then they all left to go participate in the usual post-race celebrations at the Yacht Club/Dockside Café.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the boat. Denise made chicken enchiladas for dinner and Mark did a few minor repairs, hopefully fixing the small leak in the front windshield wiper. The skies cleared in the evening for the first time in days and we were able to capture this wonderful sunset.