Hello to friends and family.
We are anchored in Slade Creek in North Carolina which is mile 140 of the ICW (Intercostal Waterway) in a very quiet place. We were the only boat anchored here till just a few minutes ago; now there are 2 boats! But it's still the quietest place we've ever seen. Every day has been a new adventure since we left Annapolis.
Oct 14th - We sailed to Solomon's Island (which is still in Virginia) and anchored. There were many boats at this anchorage, but we found a spot next to a Tanaya 37 which is a traditional ocean boat, with pointy bow and stern and lots of beautiful woodwork. As we pulled up, I noticed the guy had a t-shirt on with MEMPHIS written on the front. We chatted and he told me he had gone to high school and college in Memphis and he knew all about the barbecue there (The Rondevue and Gridley's), small world. That night the wind died down while we were sleeping and our boat and his boat bumped. Lynn heard a knocking on our hatch where we were sleeping and he crawled out the hatch to see what had happened. The guy said let's just raft up for the night so Lynn put out our fenders and lines and that is what we did. He even apologized to Lynn for waking him up, Southern hospitality! "No problem, because I'm not awake," Lynn told him. The next morning we pulled up anchor and left. They were sailing North to New York and of course we are going South!
Oct 15th - sailed to Pittman's Cove. I actually put us aground but Captain Lynn was able to get us off, thank goodness. If we had to call Boat US I would have never lived this down. That night, we anchored in a small cove in front of some beautiful houses.
Oct 16th - The next day we sailed to Norfolk, Va. We saw many huge Navy ships and huge dock cranes that looked like yellow robots. We anchored next to the Highway Bridge at Mill Creek. Lynn rowed the dingy to shore to try and get some fresh fish for dinner and some toilet paper but what he brought back was shrimp with the heads on and scallops wrapped in bacon! The fellow on the dock negotiated a price and then drove home to get them out of his freezer. A nice guy, very interesting stories and a thick southern accent.
Oct 17th - Was truly a day of adventures! We stopped at a dock again in search of toilet paper. The store had maybe 5 items but we were able to get 8 rolls of toilet paper for only $14.30 !! The most expensive toilet paper I've ever heard of. But we needed it. We then started our passage through the Dismal Swamp Canal but because of stopping for the toilet paper we were behind most of the other boats. As we were nearing the lock the lock master radioed, "Southern Belle we will wait for you to get here before closing the lock. You got 20 seconds..." New boat speed record. We wondered how he knew our name but as we pulled up to the lock we saw some boats tied up we had done our overnight sail with down the New Jersey Coast. It was nice to see familiar faces. We didn't have time to get out our lines and fenders before entering the lock but it turned out that didn't matter as the electrical functioning on the locks broke and they had to call a mechanic!! Many of us thought we might be there overnight!
The locks were finally fixed after about 2 hours and we proceeded to the bridge. However, we had not heard the announcement to turn off your motor and close your raw water intake valve as there was so much green algae in the water. So as we were going to the bridge our raw water intake plugged up which meant we had to turn off our motor and Lynn had to go down below to fix it. I was left on deck to try and steer without the motor, so we didn't bump into any greenery. The current completely turned us around and we were headed back towards the lock. Needless to say I had a moment of sheer PANIC! However Lynn unplugged the raw water intake quickly and we were able to turn on the motor and turn around to head back to the bridge, but now all the other boats had gone through the bridge and it was not opening for another hour and a half - UGH! We tied up to a wall right near the bridge and, while we were waiting, I cranked Lynn up the mast so he could fix our steaming light, and when he came down he still had time to go get some much needed Southern beer at the gas station. At the gas station, Lynn had some fun conversation with some good old boys sitting on a bench watching the world go by. When we finally did get through the bridge, my stomach was in knots again as it was just a few hours before dark and no one wants to be going through the Dismal Swamp canal in the DARK!!! We also now had passed from Virginia to North Carolina. While we were motoring along the Dismal Swamp Canal our keel hit submerged logs 6 times making a thud, but who is counting!!!! We also saw our mast hit the top of trees knocking branches on the deck of the boat! We had to steer watching the trees above us as well as the water around us. Just before I was going to have another panic attack as it was nearing darkness, we spotted another sail boat tied to small dock so we asked them if we could raft up. They were Canadians and very nice and said "tie up and come have cocktails with us" which we did. As we were having our drinks and hor d'oeuvres, a Cataraman passed with just 2 women (a mother and daughter) on board . They said "you stopped; we are going to keep on going"!
Oct 18/19th - These 2 days were a lot less "nerve wracking"! We motored down the Pasquotank River and went to Elizabeth City where we were able to stay on the FREE town dock. The people there were very friendly but it was homecoming weekend and, after the high school marching band paraded by, the old town around the docks was very quiet. Most stores seemed to be closed.
Oct 20th - We sailed through Albermarle Sound to the Alligator River. We stayed at the Alligator River Marina which is one of my favorite Marina's as it is very relaxed and "down Home". This is also the place where we found (in 2010) the little rubber alligator that rides with us on Southern Belle (a favorite of our granddaughter Olivia). We had a great meal in the restaurant, cheeseburgers, fried corn fritters, fried onion rings and green beans (had to put something healthy in the mix). So now we are on our way to New Bern, North Carolina where we will meet our friends Paul and Susie for dinner. We met them the first time we tried to do this voyage in 2010. They were aground and we helped pull them off (this is how former therapists make friends) and then we sailed with them till we got to Georgia where they kept their boat. On Friday, Oct 25th we are going to leave our boat in New Bern and drive home for a family and friend visit.
Love Sally and Lynn
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