Sail to the Sun ICW Rally Moving South, Having Fun!

When I left you last, the Sail to the Sun ICW Rally was in Belhaven, North Carolina, heading for Beaufort. On our way there, we stopped at River Dunes Marina, a lovely facility outside of Oriental NC.
While there, the marina put on a great party for us, complete with entertainment from Bob Laverty. A few of the group couldn't resist getting onstage with Bob, and the result was a rousing chorus of Mustang Sally - as you can see in this video. Honestly, looking at the smile on Bob's face and the fun he was having, he should have been paying us!
This night was the genesis of the latest cruiser band sensation, the Island Junkies, featuring Soulman Stan...they've since played again at Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach, and their first formal gig will be in Cocoa, FL in December. I'll have more details for you later on this exciting development, once I get the t-shirts made and the media all primed up. We're hoping that they'll expand their repertoire to more than just Mustang Sally however...

Good times at River Dunes

Chuck from Trinity at River Dunes

Seriously, we do hope the guys will play at Cocoa FL, where that city is in the midst of preparing a great reception for us. Details later, don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.
Moving on from River Dunes, we stopped in Beaufort NC to explore that city. The Boathouse on Front Street Village really rolled out the red carpet for us, providing us with golf carts to get around, and their trolley for our group's excursion to the Beaufort Maritime Museum. And to say farewell, they hosted us to an excellent buffet breakfast in their lovely facility. Even the owner was on hand to say a few words to the group. I want again to say thanks to Claudia, who was the most gracious of hosts to our group.
Most cruisers heading south stop at Mile Hammock, the anchorage inside Camp Lejeune, as I often have. For the Rally however, we had other plans.
I had met Mike Dunleavy a few weeks previous to the rally leaving Deltaville VA, and he suggested that he could 'rally' the town to do a reception for us - and so they did!

The reception at Swansboro

Five restaurants provided munchies as we partied in the Bake Bottle Brew Restaurant, again with entertainment, and a welcome from the town. Swansboro has these lovely new town docks you see, and they wanted other cruisers to know about them, so they made Sail to the Sun ICW Rally their first 'guests', hoping we'll tell the world what a great place Swansboro is to stop.
And we shall, especially when one of the locals says this on the restaurant's Facebook page: Tricia Stone Was so cool to see 13 sailboats in my town...5 anchored off my house, at least 8 at the docks. Lets bring the sailing community to Swansboro!
From Swansboro, we had a long day to Wrightsville Beach, where we anchored out, moving on to the lovely town of Southport the following day. There, we headed for Mr. P's Bistro for a great supper and still more laughter.

Onboard Pegasus

Naturally, there has been a continual round of sundowners and potlucks aboard the various boats....and some spectacular sunsets to go with those parties, such as this one...
If you want to keep up to date with the Sail to the Sun ICW Rally activities, like and follow us on Facebook, at Sail to the Sun ICW Rally, and if you want to find the location of the fleet, you can check that out at the Where's Wally page right here on LiveBloggin' the ICW.