11/6/2015 – 11/10/2015, Beaufort, NC

Friday, 11/6/15, was a very warm, sunny day, although we heard a storm was coming. We motored across the Neuse River and all the way to Beaufort. We really wanted to use the newly fixed jib, but the wind was light, and on the nose, so we couldn’t.

Sign along the waterway, "Lee, will you marry me?"
We saw the same sign last year. I hope the signmaker is not still waiting for an answer.

By 4:25 PM, we landed in the Town Creek Anchorage East, at Beaufort NC, among the sunken and derelict boats, and the live-aboard boats with barking dogs. We were within sight and sound of bridge construction, and had constant takeoff noise from the very close-by airport. Some anchorages are serene, others are outstandingly beautiful, this one, not so much! At least the dinghy dock was very close.

Derelict, sunken and liveaboard boats in the anchorage.

Other cruisers in the anchorage, bridge construction.

The next morning, Saturday, 11/7/15, we took our bikes to that dinghy dock and rode to town. The ride was long, because we had to detour around a missing bridge, but it was flat and easy. We found our way to Front Street, which runs along Taylor Creek. Taylor Creek is another anchorage, which is narrow and has a high current and very little space for additional boats, but it’s much closer to the downtown area. It also has views of Carrot Island, and the Rachel Carson Reserve, with wild horses grazing on it. Chuck said about the reserve, “What was her name, Kate Spade?” For those as confused as Chuck, Kate Spade is a current clothing and accessories designer; Rachel Carson (1907-1964), on the other hand, was a scientist (Marine Biologist) and an early environmentalist and nature writer.  We saw some wild horses from Front Street, but they were too far away to photograph.

Rachel Carson (not Kate Spade)

We visited the Visitor’s Center, picked up an enormous éclair pastry and pecan cookies at the bakery at the Spouter In, had coffee at a coffee house, and biked around the streets, viewing historic houses.  Went back to the Spouter Inn for a beautiful lunch, visited a second Visitor’s Center, and then biked south most of the length of Front Street, past lovely beach houses. 

Outsized eclairs

Historic houses of Beaufort

Early for lunch at the Spouter Inn (soon after the room was filled)

One of the beach houses had an elderly gentleman sitting outside.  He yelled, “Are you on a sailboat?” We said, “Yes”, he said, “Stop by on your way back, I want to hear about your trip.” I said “OK, we will.” We tried to, on our return trip north on Front Street. We looked, but didn’t see him again. It would have been fun to stop and visit, and to hear his story. Maybe on our return trip north, in the spring!

We then biked the long way back to the boat before dark. We can easily see why so many people love to visit Beaufort. Our first stop there was very enjoyable, and considerably less costly for us as cruisers than it is for the visitors who come by car and stay in a historic B&B or small hotel. We’ll stop again, there are things to see that we didn’t get to.

Saturday night the promised storm arrived. It was very windy and the boat switched direction in our small space, so we needed to pull up the anchor and reset it, so that we would still be far enough away from the other occupants and nearby private docks. These anchor problems seem to only happen very late at night! This one was at 12:30 AM. The wind was blowing 15 kts and gusting to 25 kts. I stayed up for hours, checking the anchor to make sure we didn’t drag. Luckily I was reading an engaging book, Slipknot, by Linda Greenlaw (writer of many marine related books, and a sea captain). Note to self: download an anchor watch app next time we have access to free wifi!

Sunday, 11/8/15, lay day at the Beaufort Town Creek Anchorage, in the rain. Stayed on the boat all day, cooking, reading and writing. Wanted to visit with Bob Osborn who was nearby on (new) s/v Pandora, but we were afraid to leave our boat in the wind and rain.

Monday, 11/9/15, still raining. Cooler, but not very cold. Another lay day at the Beaufort Town Creek Anchorage. Moved the anchor again. Baked bread, wrote to friends in Sweden, did other cooking, reading and writing. Chuck shelled pecans. Planning to move tomorrow. We need to fill up on water and fuel.

Early morning mist in the anchorage

Homemade Swedish Limpa bread

Tuesday, 11/10/15, up early, anxious to get going. Engine on 7:45 AM. While hoisting the anchor, a rain shower! Hoping to make the 8 AM opening of the Beaufort Channel Bridge. Called the bridge tender. There is no 8 AM opening! The first opening is 8:30 AM. Circled around near the bridge, waiting for 8:30, in the grey and drizzle. Spotted our friends on s/v Smitty, s/v Callista and s/v Hullaballoo in the outer Town Creek anchorage, near the bridge.

Beaufort Channel Bridge

Early morning meeting of the construction crew

Lots of activity around the construction

At last, our opening

At 8:30 AM we passed through the bridge and continued, with rain on and off, and light wind. We were accompanied by dolphins along the bottom of Radio Island. In Bogue Sound, with wind on the beam, we were finally able to take out the newly repaired jib, which looks beautiful. Laura is so meticulous and so caring in the way that she does sail repair!

The wind picked up and we reefed the sail. Soon after, it picked up too much (gusting to 30 kts) and we furled the sail. Rain continued on and off until noon, when it finally stopped. Then the sun came out, drying everything up again.

We stopped for fuel and met the occupants of m/v Amalia, one of the powerboats who had passed us earlier, at the fuel dock. By 5 PM we were anchored at Mile Hammock Bay, at Camp LeJeune, NC, just before dark.

Mile Hammock Bay anchorage, full of boats, seen from the ICW

In the morning, 11/11/15, almost all of the boats left before we did. One that was getting ready to leave as we passed was a catamaran from Canada that we’ve seen several times since, but still have not met. And we don’t know the vessel name. And when we don’t know a vessel’s name, we name it ourselves. So we call this one “Telephone booth catamaran” or “Telephone booth Canadian” for the unique little covered steering station, which was quite likely crafted by this clever Canadian.

"Telephone Booth Catamaran" in the Mile Hammock Bay Anchorage

This anchorage is inside the military base of Camp Lejeune. We thought it was quit fitting that we were there on Veteran's Day.


P.S. Reminder - Double click on any image to see a larger view.

11/3/2015 – 11/6/2015, Oriental, NC

On Tuesday, 11/3/15, on a very grey and damp morning, we left Belhaven, NC and motor-sailed down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico River, and then down the Neuse River to Oriental, NC.

We had never been to Oriental by water, and were very lucky to just nose right in and score a spot on the new town courtesy (free) dock, just before 4 PM.

We immediately called Hodges St. Sailmaker, and Gil and Laura came right over with their truck to pick up our jib sail to be repaired. It was an off and on rainy day, so even though their loft is just a few blocks away, it was nice that we didn’t have to carry that heavy, awkward bundle in the rain. I was glad that we had called them weeks ago, and as a result they were willing and able to fit us into their schedule so that we’d be fixed and on our way within a few days.

So now we had a few days to spend in Oriental, and we had already been to The Bean and the Marine Consignment Store last spring (when we came to Oriental by car, to get our main sail fixed by Gil and Laura) – now what to do? We walked 1 mile in the rain to the Walmart Pharmacy for medicine refills, and since they didn’t have all of what we needed, this would be the first of 3 consecutive days of trips to the Walmart.  By the time we left to walk back to the boat it was dark, and still drizzling, so we were grateful that a retired cruiser couple offered us a ride back.

The local market that closed – and what the locals think of the Wal-Mart. 

We heard they drive 30 minutes out of town to avoid shopping there.

On Wednesday, 11/4/15, all of the other boats on the two town docks were replaced by new ones, since there is a 48 hour limit. In came Stacey and Jesse on s/v Smitty (from MA, who we first met at Elizabeth City), and Ron and Jackie on s/v Hullaballoo, from MI. Both are young couples. And then came Tyler from ME and Doug from TX, two young single-handers on different sailboats, continuing the theme that this is the year for young people to escape in their boats!

View of the busy inner harbor, from the main street in town.

The town dock, with Summer Wind, is on the left.

We rode our bikes around, saw the pretty coastal houses, and rode past the Marine Consignment Store, where we ran into our friends Tom and June, on s/v Lady Ella, with whom we sort-of crossed over to the Bahamas last spring.  We left for our crossing on the same early morning, but didn’t see each other again until 5 weeks later, in the Abacos! This was the first time on this trip that we saw cruisers that we met last year. 

We stopped by a health club with a pool, which looked so inviting that we made plans to get a day pass for the next day. We’d be able to swim, work out, shower and relax for $10 each. We really looked forward to a "spa" day.

We then rode the bikes to the Walmart for trip #2, in which we picked up a pile of groceries, among them a whole chicken, which we “roasted” in the pressure cooker. (Not golden brown “pretty”, but delicious!)

On Thursday, 11/5/15, we had to move off the dock, but not before discovering that there were pecans under two nearby trees that were not in yards with houses. There was a lot of rain overnight and now it was hot and humid, but we picked up a pile of pecans to bring back to the boat. Then we moved Summer Wind out to the anchorage, and rinsed the pecans (of dirt from the rain) and left them to dry. 

A bowlful of pilfered pecans

Pecan stages – clockwise from left: 

with dark, damp outer shell, with the (typical) inner shells, 

almost whole pecan in the shell, broken pieces of pecan meats.

We went to shore, rode the bikes around, and picked up a few more pecans under trees that were not in someone’s yard. We rode again to the Walmart for trip #3, to finally get our medicine, and on our way back, we met an older retired man with a little dog. He was sitting on the bench near the dinghy dock. He moved to Oriental after retiring about 15 years ago, and he has a boat but his wife doesn’t sail. How sad! He told us that Oriental has a population of 900 people and 4500 boats. Retired people and weekend sailors.

View of the anchorage, with Summer Wind, from the dinghy dock

A very cool rowing dinghy, with rear view mirrors!

We never made it back to the pool, unfortunately, but we went to sleep dreaming about all of the things we could make with 3 lbs of pecans – roasted pecans, pecan pie, pralines, pecan sticky buns, pecans on cereal, sweet potatoes with pecans …. And dreaming of getting in trouble for taking them! Our thumbs and forefingers were black from removing those outer shells. We later found out that this dark stain lasts for days, or even weeks. (“Did you steal pecans from the tree with no house?” “Oh no, not us!” “Let me see your hands…GUILTY!!!”)

“Pecan Hand” speaks for itself!

On Friday morning, 11/6/15, we stopped by Hodges St. Sailmakers to pay for the sail repairs, and Gil and Laura delivered the sail to the dinghy dock. We put it back on the boat, and by noon we were ready to leave, heading across the Neuse River, for Beaufort, NC.

Laura and Gil, with Chuck on the dinghy dock, 

delivering the repaired sail.

10-31-2015 – 11-3-2015, Pungo River Anchorage North to Belhaven, NC Guest Dock West

Saturday, 10-31-2015, at the Pungo River Anchorage North, up at 8 AM, anchor up 8:20, back to the main channel by 8:40, after passing a new set of boats in the Pungo River Anchorage South, which is closer to the channel. Very sunny and cool, a beautiful day. We motored less than 10 miles down to Belhaven, where we stopped at River Forest Manor and Marina for fuel and water. The marina is under new management as of a year ago. They are very friendly, and they have nice new docks and the best fuel prices. The “Manor” is being renovated. The outside looks nice, but the inside is not yet fixed up, it’s still very much “under construction”. It will be a beautiful event venue someday.

Belhaven is a very cruiser friendly town. They have a (second) new set of guest docks, which, I think, were not yet built last year. We decided to check them out. We pulled up to the guest docks “West” and tied up on the T-head. There is no electricity or water, but the docks are new and well built, with room for several boats. We met our neighbors on s/v Gypsy Queen, a young couple traveling with their 4 ½ year old son. The dad is working from the boat, he works in software. It seems this year that several people are working from their boats, and they all work in software. It also seems this year we are meeting a lot of younger cruisers, younger than the typical “retirees”.

New Belhaven Guest Dock West

Chuck and I took our foldable bikes for a ride to the downtown area, where we went exploring. We had lunch at “Farm Boys”, a casual take out restaurant, which was delicious, but a little more deep fried than we are accustomed to. We visited a craft shop by the water and the Belhaven Museum, which contains what was once the contents of one woman’s house! Then we rode off in the other direction, to the Food Lion (where they gave us Trick or Treat candy at the checkout!), and visited the cotton field right next to the store.

At Farm Boys, "No Cussin!!"

Lunch at "Farm Boys"

An interesting chair in the craft store

At the Belhaven Museum

I had never been in a cotton field before. The cotton growing on the plants looks just like…cotton! Like the stuff that comes in medicine bottles, or in bags of puffs. It’s still a mystery to me how it turns into clothing and sheets and thread.

Cotton plants

Cotton Field

Sunday, 11-1-2015, still enjoying Belhaven. We rode our bikes to the various dollar stores to see if we could replace the plastic cutting board that I had used to patch the dodger, and to see if we could score some post-Halloween candy on sale. Either we got there too late in the day, or they are on to us, there was no candy. (Just as well!)

We rode through some neighborhoods as we discovered a short cut that would keep us off the busy road. In the cemetery we saw decorations I had never seen before: names, spelled out in large letters made of flowers. I wasn’t able to get an explanation.

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Yummy!

Chuck stopped at the auto parts store to get some oil to change our engine oil, which we realized was overdue, unless we did it during the summer in the middle of all of the other boat projects and forgot to write it down. It’s important to keep track of all of the maintenance. Both the engine and generator should be oil-changed every 200 hours, but they don’t get used at the same rate, so the changes are rarely done at the same time. This is unfortunate, because it’s a messy job that uses the same equipment for each engine, so it would be efficient to do it all and clean up once. But it doesn’t work that way.

We had some light rain in the afternoon and were expecting more the next day.

Daylight savings time – ugh. Now it gets dark an hour earlier at night. So we’ll need to be all anchored and set for the night no later than 5:30 PM now, instead of 6:30.

Monday, 11-2-2015, a very rainy day at the Belhaven Guest dock. 3 new boats came in, others have all left. We didn’t get to meet anyone, since it was pouring outside. Chuck changed the oil in the engine. I read, wrote and cooked. We watched a DVD.

I set up a fruit fly trap. Now that we have plenty of fruit from our productive trips to the Food Lion, we have fruit flies. I make a trap by putting some fruit peels in a cup and covering it loosely with plastic, held on with a rubber band. I poke a few tiny holes in the plastic with a toothpick, and they fly in and can’t find their way out (like a miniature lobster trap).  Sometimes, to make it even more enticing to them, I put a few drops of wine in the cup. They love the wine-fruit traps the best, the little lushes.

It rained all day and we didn’t leave the boat at all.

Unfortunately, on this trip, we didn’t get to see our local friends George and Shelby, who were tied up with work and family obligations. But as a result, we took the time to explore Belhaven on our own, and we really enjoyed it.

On Tuesday, 11/3/15, another grey, damp morning, we left the dock at 8 AM, and headed for Oriental, NC. Fortunately it was not cold, and we saw a few other boats moving. Everywhere I looked the scenery was grey. I felt like we were inside an old black and white photograph, a reminder of times past, and all that is permanent. The sky, the land masses and the river are probably not so different than the way they were on a grey, cloudy November morning 100 years ago.

10-26-2015 – 10-30-2015, Deep Creek Lock to Arbuckle’s Landing (VA), to Elizabeth City, NC

Monday, 10/26/15 – we got up early and went over for breakfast with Robert, the lock keeper. Too early! The gate was not open yet. So we explored the lovely little playground and park behind the lock. Chuck found what we thought were pecans, and we tried them. Delicious! Yup, pecans!

Locked gate!

Playground

Chuck got in a little fitness while waiting for breakfast

Pecans!

Breakfast is always a chance to chat with Robert about the locks and the canal, and to meet our fellow cruisers. All of us on the dock are invited and expected to come. And since we can’t leave until Robert opens the bridge, it’s the nicest way to spend our early morning.

Robert, making breakfast for the cruisers

After breakfast, we were off, through the bridge and heading down the Dismal Swamp canal.

Leaving Elizabeth's Dock at Deep Creek

Deep Creek Bridge

We love the Dismal Swamp and didn’t want to rush through it. We decided to stop mid-day at Arbuckle’s Landing, just as we did last year. This is a small dock, barely big enough for one boat. We spent the day doing minor boat projects. We fixed the lines attached to our fenders (where they had gotten stuck inside), cleaned the dodger isinglass, and did some “junk drawer”-type cleaning inside the boat, (while looking for a part). Adjacent to the dock is a stairway up to a park road, where we went for a long walk before dinner. A sign warned us that we might meet bears in the area. Along the road we spotted berries (not sure what they were so we didn’t try them), grapes, a few more pecans, and what we think were soybeans growing in a nearby field. We tasted the beans raw, and they were actually pretty good. Fortunately, no bears.

Field along the park road

Soybeans?

The next morning, Tuesday, 10/27/2015, we were up and on our way before light, 6:19 AM. There was light rain, and probably clouds (it was still dark!), so it didn’t get light until about 7:15, after we crossed from VA to NC, still in the Dismal Swamp canal. We hit a few (3) deadheads along the way, but nothing serious. A deadhead is a submerged log which bumps the bottom of the boat and startles the occupants.  Deadheads can cause serious damage, but fortunately these did not. Why were we up and out so early? Chuck was hoping to see wildlife, as the first boat to go through in the morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything, since it was a dark and drizzly day. (Drizzly is better than grizzly?)

Boats rafted up at the visitors center dock

We went through the (first) South Mills locking with some of the boats that had been rafted 3 deep at the visitors center, and reached Elizabeth City by noon. We tied up to the wall. The weather was rough and the wall was NOT comfortable, but it was easy to get on and off the boat. It was a rainy day, so there was no “Rose Buddies” presentation, but we did have snacks and get a rose at the visitor’s center. We roamed the city, went for coffee at Muddy Waters, and later went to the library for fast wifi. While we were at Muddy Waters, a kind young woman overheard Chuck talking about wanting to get something at the hardware store, and offered him a ride there, and back. People in this town really go out of their way to make cruisers feel welcome and comfortable here.

In the lock, with s/v Smitty

and s/v Disco Sandcastle

Cruising down the Dismal Swamp in the fall

Elizabeth City

We again celebrated being in a new state by taking showers. It turned out other boaters were doing the same thing! New state, shower and put on clean clothes. I may have mentioned in previous posts, on the boats we usually don’t have ANY extra water, and when we do it’s probably not hot. At lot of our routines center around conserving water, so we don’t shower multiple times a day like our land based former selves. Now we don’t usually even shower daily, which really doesn’t matter while we are alone, moving the boats each day. We try to cook and wash dishes using as little water as possible. I check our water and fuel tanks each night before going to bed, and record the amounts left in each. Dishwashing and cooking, as well as drinking (filtered) are our main uses of water. We take sponge baths, and have only occasional showers.

We met some fascinating boaters on the wall. Among them were Heather and Kent, on M/Y Miss Adventure, who went through the first lock with us. They have a canal boat in France, and wrote an ebook about chartering canal boats in Europe, (“A Practical Guide for European Canal Boat Charters” by Heather Thomas). We bought it from Amazon, downloaded it and both read it immediately. We are fascinated with the idea of cruising the European canals and would love to do it. Chuck is already shopping for boats, but I insist we have to charter one first, and make sure we like it before taking on a big commitment like another boat.

Wednesday, 10/28/15 – Heather and Kent figured out how to fill their water tanks by linking a large number of long hoses together to reach the spigot in the park at Mariners Wharf in Elizabeth City. They invited the rest of us to add our own hose to the end and fill our tanks as well. We were happy to have full tanks again after our showering extravagance the night before.

We visited the coop art gallery “Arts of the Albemarle” and then had lunch at La Tiendita, another very genuine Mexican restaurant. It was a 30-40 minute walk, but well worth it!

Chilaquiles al Guanajuato

La Tiendita

My "Rose Buddy" rose from Elizabeth City

Thursday, 10/29/15 – We are only allowed to spend 48 hours on the Elizabeth City free docks, so we were up early and on our way by 7 AM.

Leaving Elizabeth City in the early morning

Early morning sky

It was a warm, damp morning and we were in shorts and tshirts, with light winds, with one boat ahead of us, and 5 behind us. Dark clouds in the sky had either lifted or were behind us. The full moon was still up. Dodging pots, we passed the blimp factory going down the Pasquotank River. As we got to the end of the Pasquotank, the wind picked up to 15 kts for our 15.8 mile crossing of the Albemarle Sound. There were a lot of crab pots and the water was fairly shallow. We sailed with our main, since the jib was still inside, in the dining room rehab, waiting to be fixed in Oriental. We approached the Alligator River with 1 power boat and 2 sailboats (from the VA cut, where the hard core sailors go, instead of the Dismal Swamp) ahead of us, and 7 sailboats behind. It was a beautiful day, sunny, with the dark clouds all gone now.

Alligator River Swing Bridge

After we went through the Alligator River Swing Bridge, we saw a familiar sailboat far behind, with something large and dark up on the mast. Turned out it was the captain, who is NOT a small person, going up the mast to remove anything he could, so they would fit under the 65 ft bridges with the water still a little higher than usual from the recent flooding with Hurricane Joachin. We watched them go through the first and then the second of the 65 ft bridges with no apparent room to spare. Each time they made it! We cheered them on, over the radio.

At 6:06 PM we anchored at the Pungo River anchorage north, a quiet and very scenic spot, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Our friend John Miller, on s/v Dulcinea told us last year this was one of his favorite anchorages. Now we see why.

Sunset at the Pungo River anchorage

Sunset at the Pungo River anchorage, about 20 minutes later

Friday, 10/30/15 – a lay day at the Pungo River anchorage north, we were waiting for our boat insurance company to confirm that we’d be able to proceed south (past “Cape Hatteras”, which is about the same latitude as Belhaven) before November 15.

We called our friends George and Shelby in Belhaven to let them know we’d be there the next day. Unfortunately, they were occupied with weekend guests, so we wouldn’t get a chance to see them. Maybe in the spring.

We spent the day doing paperwork, baking bread, cleaning, killing flies and watching a DVD. Lucky for us, it was beautiful weather, with another beautiful sunset.

One more sunset at Pungo River Anchorage

I love that this cloud looks like a bird in flight

Just before the end of the work day/work week, we received insurance permission to proceed. Yay!!

P.S. Did you know that you can double click on any picture to see a larger view of it?