Sunday Summary #66

Impact

Hi ,

Welcome to Scho & Jo’s 66th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written aboard PIVOT as we cruise from Oriental to Ocracoke, North Carolina.

Last Week.

This past week began our journey visiting both old and new places. We left Wrightsville Beach with our end destination of Swansboro in mind, however, as we continued our cruise we realized we wouldn’t arrive until an hour after dark. We changed our plans and headed to a familiar anchorage, Mile Hammock Bay. We were sad to miss out on Swansboro because two of our viewers gave us great recommendations, but we were glad to have anchored in a spot safely before it got dark.

The following day we pulled up our anchor at first light and cruised to Beaufort, North Carolina where we enjoyed one of our favorite anchorages on the ICW. The next day we ventured to another new destination of New Bern, North Carolina. New Bern was 22 miles out of our way from the most direct Great Loop route, but was totally worth the stop. We met two of our viewers, Ted and Beth, for dinner and the explored downtown New Bern the following morning. 

The downtown area was one of the cutest spots we’ve seen on the Great Loop. We enjoyed homemade ice cream at a unique little shop, saw the Nicolas Sparks Foundation during our walk, and met two more of our viewers as we were filming, Jay and Lori. New Bern was full of cute little shops and restaurants from small business owners without a chain store in sight.

That afternoon we pulled up our anchor and made our way back those 22 miles and docked in Oriental, North Carolina. Oriental is one of our favorite stops along America's Great Loop. The town doesn't have any stoplights, it has approximately 5 restaurants, and there's nothing that would have brought us here if it wasn't for the Great Loop. It's the quaintness of the town that you can see its character shine through. The people are kind, there are two free docks, and it's all walkable. It's the simplicity of the town that you can see it's beauty. 

As we backed into our slip (very proud of Elliot for how well he did) we were met with two loopers, Brent and Chance, who were staying at the same marina. Originally we had not planned to visit a marina in North Carolina, making it about 2 weeks on our water supply. Thanks to one of our viewers, Richard, for hooking us up with a vacant slip in a marina. We were thrilled to have this opportunity to stop at a marina for free as it meant extra showers and we filled up our water tanks!

That night we headed to New Village Brewery for a date night! We left Ollie on the boat and had a lovely evening out. As we enjoyed our beers, we received a super sweet email from two of our viewers who spotted PIVOT anchored in New Bern on an exciting day for their family. We had the pleasure of meeting Doug and Toni the following day as we perused the Saturday farmers market. We shared feelings of nervousness and worry as boat owners and the journey you go through learning new skills, practicing various docking techniques, and everything else that goes with boating.

Our time in Oriental was spent doing a mix of boat work (touching up non-skid deck paint, cleaning, and groceries) with some fun. We had the pleasure of meeting the crew of Currently, Maggie and Bruce, for dinner and then a casual evening walk around Oriental.

“Sometimes people come into your life for a moment, a day, or a lifetime. It matters not the time they spent with you but how they impacted your life in that time.”-Unknown

This Week.

We are excited to say that we’ll be headed to new destinations this week! We’re looking forward to visiting Ocracoke in a few short hours. The remainder of our week includes visiting Manteo and traversing the Virginia Cut, which is the alternative route to the Dismal Swamp Canal which we’ve cruised through twice before. We’ll be visiting Coinjock which is know for their 32 ounce prime rib, but as two vegetarians, we won’t be partaking. Later in the week, we’ll be cruising through the Great Bridge Lock and making our way to Norfolk for the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA) Spring Rendezvous!

 Videos. 

Incase you missed it, here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

Exploring a new town off the beaten path in Georgia, Darien! (Great Loop Day 31)

Exploring Darien's Blessing of the Fleet Festival (Fried Food, Live Country Music, and Fireworks)

 Blogs. 

We’re big proponents on experimenting. Experimenting means trying new things, testing what works and what doesn’t, and bring us closer to better versions of ourselves, our business, and our choices in life. This week we wrote a travel guide to one of the destinations on the Great Loop: Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The guide includes a ton of information for transient boaters including free docks, wifi, restaurants, and museums. If you know of anyone who is doing the Great Loop and are headed to Elizabeth City, send them our guide!

 Great Loop Recommendations. 

We are looking for recommendations for destinations and spots along our Great Loop to go see, visit, and enjoy. It's been a real challenge for us to keep track and stay organized with the many wonderful recommendations we've received thus far. So we've created a Google Form to help us stay organized. Thank you to everyone sending us recommendations so far! We really appreciate it.

 Gratitudes. 

Our gratitude goes out to each one of you who read our blogs, watch our videos, read our weekly emails, comment, subscribe, became Patreons, tossed Ollie a PayPal treats, and have made this dream of ours possible. We've heard stories about how we've impacted the lives of others, but please know that you're impacting our lives. We are so happy to be out here cruising on this beautiful Sunday afternoon on America’s Great Loop, recording it all, and making YouTube videos about our experience. Stepping back and looking at the path we’ve chosen, meeting everyone along our journey, and doing what we’re doing is pretty special. We’re so grateful to have each and every one of you in our life. Thank you!

Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot