The annual two week Buddy Fred family retreat has come and gone. In addition to Fred and Fran, we were also visited by Betsy and Lloyd (Fran's sister and brother in law) and Babe and Sandy (Fred's brother and sister in law) and a two day cameo appearance by our friends Frank and Debbie on Fat Chance.

It was a whirl wind of activity and now that everyone is gone again, I think I need a vacation from our vacation. Highlights of the two week stay included numerous boat trips in the Buddy Fred speed boat, a whole day sailing adventure with everyone on board Dream Catcher and lots of time spent cooking for 10 or 12 or 14 guests. 

I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all.

On the boating front, we are just about finished our 5 page list of projects. In fact, I just placed our last internet order for spare parts, a replacement rope stripper ring for our port side winch (Lewmar st44). That should be here by the weekend and all indications are that it will be an easy half hour job to swap in.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of fishing off the front of the boat here at the dock. I've been having good luck with both flounder and drum, and for those interested, I'm using an artificial grub like worm called "Gulp!" on a simple jet head with a hook. I just sort of cast it out and then do a slow bounce retrieve. For what it's worth, I'm getting action on about every third cast.

It seems the weather is finally breaking here and it's actually getting below 75 now at night. We're eying the coming weekend as a potential launch window to head out and test some of the gear we've been working on. Anyone in the greater Cape Lookout area keep an eye out and drop b to say hi if you see us.

Later. More to follow, end of line.

PS - The attached picture is of the legendary Buddy Fred working as the barman during our end of vacation, shrimp skewer dinner blow out.