Florence stood us up, and we’re OK with that.  But she certainly changed our routine anyway.  So I never posted what we did before we started preparing for her visit.  So here is a flashback of sorts…

We knew heavy weather was on its way, but several days out.  So we might as well enjoy the beautiful weather when we can!  So we got out the kayak, and spent a nice afternoon pedaling around.  You might notice we propel it with our feet… it is a Hobie Mirage Drive kayak.  When you pump with your feet, cute little fins oscillate back and forth under the kayak and move you quite briskly through the water.  You can even select reverse and back out of the way of, say, an alligator or whatever.  We saw a few other kayaks, some with dogs on board, and a bunch of boys jumping off the railroad bridge.  That made me think of boys that Mark Twain might have written about.

We also explored the back side of the marina.  There are many sheds to shelter boats.  Some are only a roof, some are enclosed on three sides.  Many have 2 or 3 boats end to end inside.

Sunday we went back down to the Outer Banks.  Bodie lighthouse (pronounced “body”) is not quite as tall as Hatteras, and the stairs are apparently weaker because they make a big deal about only one person on a flight at a time.  Because the weather was already starting to move in, the rangers warned us that they might close the lighthouse to climbers at any time, and even if we’d not made it to the top, we’d have to immediately start down.  After repeating that, they got into their regular speech, and said to take our time, don’t rush, we had all the time we wanted, etc.  Kinda funny.

From there we went to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills.  It is amazing to picture in your imagination what it was like to fly their gliders here, and then the first powered flights.  I’ve read that the first powered flight would have fit INSIDE a 747.  Length and altitude.  The ranger told me that Orville died about 9 months after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier… So think of the change he saw in flight in his lifetime!

There is a metal sculpture of the Wright Flyer that you can climb on… so of course I had to help Orville in his momentous flight!

We also spent some time in Manteo.  I think it is named after an Indian, who pronounced his name Man-Knee-Oh, but liked the letter “T” so much he put a silent one in the middle of his name.  Whatever.  Manteo is a very picturesque town, but by the time we got there it was starting to rain, and Florence was scaring things into closing.  There was a beautiful Elizabethan Garden that we took one picture of, then ran back to the car as the rain started.

Monday it was back to work on the boat, and prepare for whatever Florence was going to give us.  I’ve already written some about that, so all I need to say now is that she pretty much ignored us.  Even though severe damage has occurred south of us, and is still going on, we had nothing but some wind and rain.  Grace felt restless, moving quite a bit in the wind, but we really had no issues.  We changed our minds a few times on whether or not to remove the bimini canvas (our sun-shade over the flybridge), but when the winds got to 15 knots it was rattling its framework enough that it was rattling me.  So when the wind died down again for a bit, we took it off.  I’d thought it might be difficult, but it was easy as pie.  And I like pie.  We’ll see how hard it is to put up again!

So the highest wind I saw was 19 knots (22 mph) and I can’t see that the water level changed more than a few inches.  I have never appreciated being snubbed more than this non-visit by Florence.  Thank you all for your prayers and concern!

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