Here We Go

April 17, 2016
Morehead City, NC

Mile Marker 205

April 18, 2016
Beaufort Marine Center
Mile Marker 198

Homeward Bound

We haven't moved a gosh darn inch.  The winds have been too high to move the boat around the corner to Beaufort.  We have friends that have stayed in Dowry Creek Marina for about a week waiting to cross the Alligator River.  Most boats are staying put because of high seas. Some of the waves have been reported to be over five feet in the Neuse River. 

Oh yes, we are coming home with our new-to-us truck. It makes so much sense to leave the boat in North Carolina. It takes about a month to get to Norfolk in the fall, depending on the weather and neither of us want to leave Maine in September to avoid the cold we had when we left Maine October 15, 2015.  Enough about leaving the boat in Beaufort NC, I think that you understand the logic in our choice, the downside is not having a boat in Rockland Harbor.

I am not sure when we will be back in Maine.  We have family and friends that we want to visit  along the way. We do know that it will be late April or early May. I hope to see you then.

I am sad to leave the boat, it is small and easy to organize, therefore lots of time for fun. We had time for people, wildlife, and enjoying the villages and the cities.  I am not looking forward to traffic and the rush, rush of the highway.  I am reading the book  River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon.  A friend gave it to me and I am glad that she did. I highly recommend it to those that travel by boat along the shores.

"In his most ambitious journey ever, Heat-Moon sets off aboard a small boat he named Nikawa, ("river horse" in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon.  He and his companion, Pilots, struggle to cover some five thousand watery miles-more than any other cross-country river traveler has ever managed-often following in the wakes of our most famous explorers, from Henry Hudson to Lewis and Clark.

 Here is paragraph from his book.

Between Utica and Rome, only fourteen miles, industries came down to canalside, although a screen of scrub trees camouflaged most of them, effectively creating an appearance of ruralness so that we slipped past downtown Utica before realizing sixty thousand people were moving just beyond the woody scrim of narrow bottomland.  In river travel today perhaps nothing is finer than arrival in the center of a town without having to undergo those purgatorial miles of vile sprawl, hideous bill boards, and reiterated franchises where we become fugitives of the ganged chains in an endless surround of noplacesness, where the shabbier of architectural detritus washes up against the center of a town.  To come in by canal or river is to see a genuine demarcation between country and city and to fetch upon the historic heart of things the way travelers once did when towns had discernible limits, actual edges and voyagers knew when they had entered or departed a place.  To approach Boston or San francisco by the bay or New Orleans or St.  Paul by river is to arrive suddenly and merrily like Dorothy before Oz-out of the woods and into the light.

Pictures of our fun since we have been at the city dock in Morehead City dock, nearly two week.  People and wild life are two of my favorite parts of the ICW trip, and  the beauty of the landscape.

...and yes a cat on a boat

I have a hard time deciding what picture to post, so I post most of them

Dinner with friends

I pirated this picture from a friends blog. I just love these three.

Cocktail Hour

Here is Linda Jean traveling to her summer home.

 Even though we will be traveling by car I will continue my blog through the summer and you will know in the fall when we start the journey south again.

Tricia

Get to the Bottom of Things

April 11 2016



April 3, April 4, April 5, 2016
Oriental, NC
Mile Marker 180

April 6-11, 2016
Morehead City, NC (Again)
Mile Marker 205

April 4, 2016
New Bern, NC (for the day)
No Mile Marker, not on the ICW

April 11, 2016

We were in Oriental for 3 days and most of that with my nephew, Ken and his son Will.  I believe that we all had lots of fun.

Here is a town that is more than it appears to be on first docking.  Rob's cousin says she loves this nice little town. MMM.  I was not sure what she was talking about, but the longer we were there the “nicer” it looked.  Because we were on the dock, we met the town cast of characters and supporting actors.

This was a “free” dock that would not allow a boater to run their geneator.  No problem, I could live with that, until it was 47 degrees in the cabin and the only way to get heat was to run the generator.  Sometimes you just have to break the rules.

While Ken and Will were with us we played and some of us worked.  Ken fixed our Ubiquiti so we can have better access to the internet.  Ya Ken!!!! We took Ken and Will on a 4.5 hour trip up the Neuse River to New Bern and back the same day. Will was a pro at using Yelp to find the four of us a place to have lunch. The seas were great on the way up and a little rocky on the way back.  Docking was fairly difficult once back at the free dock, because the wind was so fierce. There was lots of drama on the dock. Boaters were arriving, dinghies were heading out to rescue someone’s boat and the town was there to help or watch. I asked someone if they had a boat and the answer was, “every one in Oriental has a boat”. 

The town was named for a boat that went down off the coast of North Carolina.  We walked to the museum in town to check out more of the history and there was Rob’s cousin Susan’s high school guidance counselor.  We find out the darnedest things because of our Maine accents, more mine than Rob’s.  As soon as the 90+ year old volunteer heard me talk he asked where we were from.  Our hailing port is Spruce Head, Maine and thus the connections were made with another person from Maine.

People in Oriental have to drive 12 miles for groceries. There is a great marine supply place that sells grocery basics as well as Gill clothing, Teva footwear and screws.  The Bean coffee shop, is across from the free dock and the gathering place for locals and visitors.  At night, off the bow of another free dock, is the Oriental Inn and night spot.

We walked through nice neighborhoods and saw people out walking their dogs.  Will and I stopped to talk to a woman with a golden retriever only to learn an exhausting list of activities this 92 year old woman is involved in, so much so that she was walking her dog from her golf cart!

We keep in touch through email, text and phone with some very nice people we have met along the way.  Two of the couples are headed north to Norfolk, VA for a rendezvous of Loopers. Great Loop Cruisers is one of the names for the people who travel from Florida up the East Coast to a point where they leave the coast and travel a route to the interior lakes and back down to Florida.  You can see on this map one of the routes Loopers can take but not the only route, there are variations on this.

Visiting with new friends on the waterway is priceless.  The weather was predicted to be high winds and rough seas so we took the opportunity to head back to Morehead City from Oriental to hunker down with our friends, Wally and Darcy. The four of us took a car ride to Seagate up Adams Creek to visit  with Larry and Shannon and, of course, Pearl.  I had such a good time with the three of them, Wally, Darcy and Rob.  We wished them luck on their adventure on the Great Loop with hopes they have a safe trip and we see them again soon.

We walked the streets of Morehead City, Beaufort and New Bern finding plenty of stores for poking around in, encouraging Wally to tease us about shopping.  Friendship, food, cocktails, fun and laughter doesn't say enough about our time with the Campbells.  They are a wealth of knowledge and vast experiences, they generously shared with us.

I will miss them.

Drama on the waterway

Don't use Sloop Creek anchorage!!

The day that we had the crab trap caught around the prop we continued on to Sloop Creek.  It was very late before we turned off the ICW.  We followed Active Captain and confusing markers, and ended up...well lets just say when I went out to drop the anchor I looked to starboard and saw a heron standing ankle deep in water.  I continued with my task and dropped several feet of chain only to look down and see the shank was still above water.  We left the Garmin chart plotter on and stayed up past our bedtime with our eyes glued to the screen watching for any movement of Linda Jean.  Finally, around midnight the tide was high enough to rock the boat into motion. The wind was strong and the marshes surrounded us. We only had to move the boat a short distance to drop the hook deep enough.  Adventure #1281

As usual I think the pictures are worth a thousands words and my readers have confirmed it.  I know that some of my followers scroll down to the picture first so here you are my dear friends. These first pictures are for you, Mary Ann.

Will makes bread for fried toast in the morning.

Will and Rob kibitz on the settee

Ken, Rob and Will Chow Down

 I don't think Rob and Ken got the memo about the photo shoot

Will takes control

Will and I did a good job picking out the place to eat.

The hunter's breakfast

Free dock in Oriental

Linda Jean

Chaz, this one is for you

Oriental has a webcam showing the free dock. We used the webcam to find out if there was a place at the dock. If you look closely in this picture you can see Rob playing with the webcam, once we arrived in Oriental

Just a pretty picture

Pelican carved from a post

Friends from the Waterway

Notice the smiles of fun on their faces

This is not Pearl but a smaller version of her, Maxwell is his name.

Sites in New Bern, Beaufort and Morehead City

Parting Shot

Tricia

Any errors in grammar or facts in this blog are unintended.

Robin Hood meets Piggly Wiggly

April 2, 2016

March 28, 2016
Calabash Creek, SC
Mile Marker 309

March 29, 2016
Southport, NC
Mile Marker 276

March 30, 2016
Sloop Creek, NC
Mile Marker 264

March 31, 2016 and April 1, 2016
Swansboro, NC
Mile Marker 229

April 2, 2016
Morehead City, NC
Mile Marker 205

Set your coffee down before you spill it.

Remember Robin Hood was a skilled archer? He carried his arrows in a sac positioned around his shoulder and slung to his back.  Perfect!

Robin Hood and Maid Marian

Now picture Rob carrying two three foot dowels stick straight out of his backpack and shopping at a Piggly Wiggly where streamers decorate the ends of each aisle.  There you have it.

We left Osprey for Southport, NC on March 28, 2016.  First stop was Calabash Creek, SC.  I didn't like this anchorage as much as some because it was shallow in spots, but it all worked out okay.

Southport was so much nicer this time we visited.  When we were there in November it was cold and the town had settled into winter mode. The folks were getting ready for the holidays and I was sad that this would be the first year I would not be doing my Christmas traditions.  It helped to be pre-occupied with trying to talk Rob out of buying one of those blowup decoration for the boat that people put in their front yard.

There were two bridges and Camp Lejeune to work around on our way north to Swansboro, NC for "cheap" fuel.  One of the bridges opens on the hour and the other one opens on the hour and half hour.  Timing is everything.  While waiting for the bridge in Wrightsville to open one of the engines stopped working, obvious to us by the LOUD buzzer. We were miffed because we were nearly at a standstill when it happened.  We limped along to a nearby, so-so anchorage.  I would love to make this a really long dramatic story, but I will post pictures and that will be best for you.  We had to call Seatow to tow us to a marina.  Here is the captain.

Bottom line, we had this wrapped around the prop.

We hired a diver to check out the props. We were so lucky to find this mangled crab trap hadn't caused any damage. The rebar was the hardest part of the trap to remove.  

Giddy up little crab, time to go home.

 Crab Eggs

Before we hired a diver Rob practiced the DIY of diving...

too dark and no weight belt made it very hard to be successful.

We wanted to make time that same day...ended up at Sloop Creek, NC.  A suggestion, no mariner test these waters. It was very shallow and a fussy route going in, fussy is a new nautical word meaning do not enter especially at dusk.  The charts are not accurate to boot!

It amazes me that I didn't remember stopping in Swansboro for any length of time on the way south other than to get "cheap" fuel, but we were there for two days. This is the town where we met a lot of sailing "characters" and Robin Hood met Piggly Wiggly.

Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC

The marines had this road that bridged the two sides of the ICW.  Miles of artillery were being discharged all day. The only time we were allowed to travel the ICW through this area was noon to one.  Still the artillery was loud and the shaking of the boat was unnerving.  How do the people in this area tolerate the sounds of the marines playing army.  No disrespect intended.

Signs of spring in Swansboro

Parting Shot

Ginny shows up at the marina in Swansboro

The marine store kitty