Looking to Thanksgiving

Pictures: View from Up the Creek, as we have lunch in Hilton Head; Jessie, Roy and Bertha bringing groceries back to their boat in Charleston (Ken arrived with groceries the same way about 45 min later); CALIBOGUE waiting to leave for Daufuskie Island with commuters; horses on Cumberland Island

It seems to be time for counting up, our blessings and other mathematical accountings. We are very fortunate to have good health so far, the time to travel and see the East Coast up-close-and-personal, and to have good support back “home”. Justin is doing a good job watching our house, raking leaves, and providing tech support over the phone. Tammy has sent us some great music on CDs that entertain us and is planning on connecting with us in Florida next month. Pete calls a lot and fills us in on the Patriots’ exploits and other news.

Our numbers so far, in miles traveled, are about 1150. We have been gone for 6 weeks. We have put 180 hours, approximately, on the engine. If we cover about the same distance as our trip three years ago, which was 4400 miles, then we are one-quarter of the way, not counting stops for R & R.

Our time in Charleston was fun, staying at a marina there for a night, and connecting up with friends Roy and Bertha who arrived there a day before us on their boat. They had a visitor from Vermont, a niece who flew in for a week to sail with them and we all hung out together. Just before leaving, the sports field next to the marina was the staging area for a jazz procession, New Orleans style, honoring a local man who was important in the music scene and who had died recently. A large number of people turned out and the jazz that the musicians played while processing to a church for the funeral was wonderful.

We also stayed at a marina in Hilton Head Island; up to now we had anchored every night except in Charleston and HHI (and the free dock in Elizabeth City). The dockmaster loaned us an extra bike and we rode in a circle from the west side of the island, to the beach on the east, then down to the south and over a bridge and back, about 15 miles counting a few side trips. The marina property has a pub,” Up the Creek” and we were regular patrons for two days. And we got to talk with the crew of a 1919 wooden 60 ft. ferry that travels regularly to Daufuskie Island (home to some of the South Carolina Gullah people).

We’ve been in Georgia for the past 4 days, today on the border with Florida. In the area we traveled through, Georgia has lots of marshland, sea islands, and wildlife. We continue to see eagles almost every day, porpoises, osprey, blue herons, pelicans, egrets and today we are near Cumberland Island where there are wild horses grazing on grasses growing along the high tide line. We stopped at the National Park Service Monument Fort Frederica two nights ago and we were told that if the battle that took place there in the early 1700s had not gone well for the British we might all be speaking Spanish right now!

We will be having Thanksgiving in St. Mary’s, Georgia, two miles from Cumberland Island and three miles from Fernandina Beach, Florida (by boat). Some of the townspeople prepare turkey for any boaters in the area, and the boaters bring dishes they have prepared, all coordinated by a volunteer committee. There may be 150 people there. We hope our family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we’ll be back in touch in December.

Easy Traveling in the Carolinas

Pictures: the local doctor picks a name out of the hat for a raffle gift at a small pharmacy grand opening in Oriental, NC; surfer in the distance at Wrightsville Beach and a sanderling in the foreground; the beach at Capers Island, about 15 miles north of Charleston, SC; a view across the marsh grass at our last anchorage before Charleston

Finally I can write about something other than the weather. Because we are having a spell of less wind, though it is slightly colder than normal, it is easy to be outside without the windchill. The traveling is pretty straightforward. The Intracoastal Waterway is almost always straight, and the channel has been dredged in the difficult places; it doesn’t hurt that we have less draft with our Mainship than we had with our sailboat (just need 3’ or more of water) and we can go under some bridges without waiting for them to open. During this week while we were meeting no obstacles, we know of two boats that did go aground. Evidently the full moon was causing some unusually low water at low tide. Ken created a big wake for one of the boats, after the owner suggested it, and it worked in freeing the sailboat from the mud.

One of our best days was the stretch of ICW going through the Marine’s Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. There are maneuvers and training sessions in boats and helicopters to watch while you travel through. We anchored in a basin near the chopper takeoff/landing area and had time to slowly cook some ribs which we had for dinner with a great salad and caught a beautiful sunset. Then the Marine’s started night practice on takeoffs and landings in the helicopters. It was interesting to watch and nice to know they are not slacking in their training. They were done by 9:30 pm so it didn’t interrupt our sleep. There were 35 transient boats in the basin that night.

We got ashore at Wrightsville Beach, NC and walked to the ocean beach to see dozens of surfers catching some good sized waves. The young people there are evidently very outdoorsy as we saw one guy pedaling to the beach with his board under his arm and one girl with her board and her friends walking back over a bridge after surfing. The grocery clerk told us the locals enjoy doing without cars when they can. There is a very popular “Loop” that is 2.5 miles long and circles around near the beach for jogging.

Another walk we took was on Capers Island, South Carolina, where the state has set up a pier and dock for dinghies and you can walk to the ocean side of the island. There were lots of mosquitos but we moved fast and at the beach the light breeze kept them from landing. This area of South Carolina is pretty much wilderness with saltmarsh grass and only a few real land areas (“Low Country”), so a dock and a path were appreciated.

We are approaching Charleston, SC. We hope to sightsee a little, do some laundry and grocery shopping, and maybe get to see more of the boaters that we only chat with in passing. Most boaters stop here for a day or two and stay at one of the two city marinas.

In Rural North Carolina with No Phone

Pictures: North Carolina Welcome Center (on Dismal Swamp Canal) staff on Halloween; Alligator River Bridge, taken from the bridge of our boat; Ken catching up on the news at a wine bar in Elizabeth City; bald eagle on top of middle (dead) tree -- we saw about 6 eagles this day in the Dismal Swamp Canal

It’s no surprise that there is no phone coverage in this area, as there are very few homes, roads, electric lines, or any other sign of civilization. We are beset with bad weather, again, mostly high NE winds, but also some heavy rain. We are tucked into Slade Creek, maybe 30 miles inside the Outer Banks. The closest of the Banks seems to be Ocracoke, although we will never see that because when the weather gets better we will take a zig-zag route south and west toward Cape Fear and the NC/SC state line.

To entertain ourselves in this area (did I say no phones….no internet…) we have a lot of reading material, and we are listening to Channel 16 on the VHF, where there have been a few interesting dramas unfolding with tow boats who can’t find their targets, marina staff directing a boat into an invisible dock in the dark, etc. We also have AM and FM radio so can catch a college ball game or a NPR radio show now and then along with lots of country music! We did have radio coverage of the Patriots-Steelers game last weekend.

Since our last blog we have passed through Norfolk with all its huge Navy vessels and have transited the Dismal Swamp Canal, one of our favorite parts of this journey. We spent two nights of free dockage in Elizabeth City, NC. At this stop we met quite a few other boaters, including sailors from North of Montreal, two boats from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a sailboat single-hander, from Connecticut but who has Marblehead ties (he worked at Hood Sailmakers back in his younger days). We got invited on a tour of a trawler one night on an evening walk. The boat was only 3 feet longer than our boat, but had much more room due to its layout and not having side decks to get to the bow. When you’re sitting across the main salon from the owner and he is about 15’ away it is very unusual.

We are using up all of our cold-weather clothes, which we were well supplied with knowing how cold it was in November on our first trip. Warm slippers and hoodies are prized possessions on these cold mornings when we are not going anywhere. The main cabin heats up well when the sun is out; I’ve taken to calling it the Solarium. But when it’s cloudy and rainy it is more of a challenge to enjoy our space. We drink lots of tea and cocoa mid-day and have warm lunches.

Yesterday in our isolated creek anchorage I got Ken to launch the dinghy from where we store it in the cockpit and I took a long row into the side creeks. They were almost without wind even though the reports from the main river were of 20-25 knot winds and gusting higher. In almost an hour of rowing – in an inflatable dinghy this would be only about 2 miles covered – I saw one building, a fishing camp with dock, and a few birds and some jellyfish (freshwater ones?). I also drifted for a while. It was very relaxing.

As I post this we have just reached Oriental, NC, on the Neuse River after a 30 mile trip. There were a lot of boats out today since the weather was relatively better, but it was still a fairly rough and windy trip. The distinctive motor yacht Black Knight, an Eldridge-McGuiness design which we are familiar with, passed us en route.