Halloween Road Trip: its November already?!?!

Road trip to Charlotte NC

October FLEW by.  Seems like we were sweltering in the August and September heat and then all of a sudden, it was November.  We decided to take a Halloween Road Trip.

Halloween Trip

Shannon and I took a quick trip inland last to visit a few close friends for Halloween.  Neither of us planned to dress up this year because, as much as we LOVE Halloween, almost everything we had in the way of costumes was packed away in storage.  Bummer, but we were at least thankful to get to spend some time with some of our best friends and take a few hours to relax.  With such a busy work schedule the past 3 weeks, we weren’t even really sure we were going to be able to go, but fortunately we were able to work everything out to get to make the voyage.

Such a wonderful group and we love them dearly!  Although we only stayed a couple nights, and Shawn didn’t feel well for most of the trip, we had a wonderful time and already miss yall!  Hated we couldn’t stay longer and we can’t wait to make our way back soon.  Overall, we were thankful and thrilled to get to spend a little time with our wonderful family.  There were others we didn’t get a chance to see that we also miss terribly and we are looking forward to seeing them on the next trip.

Road trip to Charlotte NC Venus sleeping on the trip to Charlotte, NC
Road trip to Charlotte NC Road trip to Charlotte NC
The Road Trip Home

We left to head home around 14:00 hours Sunday and battled our way through Raleigh traffic once again finally arriving back to Banjo Sunday night around 20:00 hours and it was already blowing 20+ knots on the docks.  Passing another captain, he asked if we were ready for “the winds” that were forecast for overnight Sunday.  According to him, the weather service was calling for 30+ knot gusts, but only a little expected in the way of rain and only a scattering of clouds.  The moon was bright although only half full.

Safely back to Banjo

We finished out Halloween Road Trip.  Next came unloading the car.  Shannon took the girls and I grabbed a dock cart to carry everything down the docks.  Reaching Banjo just in the nick of time, I was able to get the cart unloaded and stowed.  Meanwhile, Shannon arrived from taking the girls for a quick bio-break.  The wind was blowing Banjo away from the finger pier, so Sagira and Venus had a slightly longer jump onto decks than usual.

Blowing 30 knots

With them safely below decks, Shannon and I scrambled around trying to get a couple things secured on deck.  Then it was on to tying a couple extra lines ashore, just in case.  There were actually some fairly large, relatively speaking, waves in the river at about 8-12 inches.  We kept an eye on our instruments until we went to sleep to get an idea of how Banjo “feels” at various wind speeds.  It is fun to have weather instruments right at our fingertips.  And we absolutely love having the Garmin Radar to be able to track storms.  On this night we didn’t need the radar, but we did keep an eye on our lines and our wind speed gauges until around 03:00 hours.

19.8 knot winds 25.2 knot winds

Most of the night saw Banjo rocking with waves beating the back of the boat,  and we saw a few gusts in excess of 30+ knots.  But, overall, we slept soundly and comfortably all night… well, Shannon slept soundly and comfortably all night.  Shawn, as usual, only slept a few hours till right before sunrise.  We both awoke to clam seas, blue sky and the warm glow of the morning sun streaming into our cabin.

Morning sunlight on the helm of Banjo

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