Very busy day today. Jay and Laurie took us to West Marine and another marine surplus store, and to the grocery store, Harris Teeter, a very nice store. We also went to a farm where they sell fresh vegetables and fruit. We had planned to buy strawberries, but they had none picked, so we grabbed baskets and picked our own. They are absolutely delicious. Apparently strawberry season started about 2 weeks ago here. We also noted that corn fields are planted and the corn is up 6-8". Jay told us that cotton is now being planted.
When we got back, the boat building competition here right beside our dock was in full swing. They had set up a huge tent, and marked off areas inside the tent. Teams of 2 were given a certain amount of wood, a set number of screws, etc and a set of boat plans. They could bring and use any tools that would fit inside their area. They had 4 hours to build the boat. At 4 pm, the finished boats were launched, and the builders had to row the boat out to a set line and back, then switch with the other builder and row the boat out and back again. The boats were judged on time to finish building, quality of the boat, and time to run the relay in the water. As it happened, the boats were launched right behind the back of our boat; we had front row seats. It was a lot of fun, some were obviously experts at rowing boats, others had a little more difficulty. Some boats took on water, others were perfectly dry. some of the teams were from the local high school, others from the community college, many others people who are simply interested in building boats. Jay and Laurie, with granddaughter Emerson came back this afternoon, watched the rowboat races with us, and gave us some advice on our trip up the Chesapeake. We said good-bye to them after the races, we have very much enjoyed seeing them, and we are very grateful for all of the help they have given us. We certainly wish them well as they continue their loop in August.
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| Boat is coming along |
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| Launching one of the boats |
Got together with Jim and Gloria for dinner. We will go up to Oriental tomorrow.
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The boat building competition was actually a national challenge.
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| Jay, Laurie and Emerson |
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| Marine surplus store has a lot of stuff in it, interesting place to visit |
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