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.