10/04/2012 => ??? Alligator Alley
Yea, we were up
to catch the last bridge opening before rush hourL 0645.
The beauty of today is that we don’t have to decide where we are heading
until about 2 hours into the sail, so wooo!
for indecisive minds!!!
We went under
the bridge with Sweet Pea, as Galileo had already left. Once we passed the city
dock area, we were joined with many other boats heading south: seeing the mixture of the beautiful sunrise
with all the white sails thrown in was…indescribable. For me, this whole life style/experience
became a little more real (though how not
showering for 3 days in a row didn’t make it “real” to me, I don’t know). Seeing all these other people, most of them
older but some youngin’s too, following their dream into the sunrise…or maybe I
was still feeling the effects of that wine and cheese last night.
 |
| sunrise over the ICW, NC |
By 0745, we had
made our choice…or rather the weather did for us. Roanoke is more about wind direction that
tides. We knew going into that area is
tough with a 5’0 draft, however, if the wind is from the W/N for more than 2
days, the harbor can lower to 4’-0” or less at low tide…which as the wind has
been blowing, and will blow, from that direction for the next 2 days, we chose
to skip this area… (but promised
ourselves we MUST take a vacation to it at some point!!!) The alternative
was Alligator River, followed by Alligator Alley (or canal) south along the ICW route.
Here is the
major problem with us "changing" course: Salty. For the most part, we
have been at a marina/moored outside of marina/anchored outside of town or
beach since we got her back. There has been 1 instance where she went from 1700
to the next morning 1100 without a real bathroom break...and reluctantly she
went on the wee pad in the portside head. I don’t like making her stay on the
boat for long periods of "no Land", as I guess I trained her well
enough to know NOT to go anywhere but "outdoors". Unfortunately, this
course would mean a long day through to get to mouth of canal, anchoring out in
the middle of nowhere, then another’s of canal, followed by more anchoring
(technically). We dropped anchor with the rest of our group by 1530, just north
of the canal's entrance. I immediately being out the wee pad and start showing
her “where to go” on the bow…she looks at me like “whatever “and walks back to
the cockpit. Circles around and around, lays down in a ball with her head on
mike’s arm, and breathes a huge sigh: one that I could hear from the bow!
Whatever to you, you little brat!
One of the more
amusing aspects of our time at this anchorage: we left the CB radio on, in case
one of the other boats needed to hail us (hoping
for a boat party) however, something completely amusing came over instead:
Ch 16 is used for monitoring as you sail/motor/travel on the waterways, but it’s
also an emergency channel as well. If you wish to contact another boat within
range, you will "hail" them on channel 16. If they can/will respond,
normally both parties quickly agree to switch to a different channel..well for
about 10 minutes we listened to True Love hail Foreplay. We found this
endlessly amusing! Particularly when True Love came into the basin to anchor,
did so quickly, while 15 minutes later Foreplay arrived..and circled all us
anchored boats for another 10 minutes before deciding to raft off of True Love
(not to advise doing this at anchor, btw).
Mike and I furthered amused ourselves about random comments we
"should/could" have said to these two boats over the CB...sigh, if
only we thought everyone had our sense of humor...
10/05/2012 => Bellhaven, NC
All up at
sunrise! We headed to the canal as a
group unknowingly. As Salty would be on
the boat for over 24 hours at this point, we knew this would not see many of
our friends at the next stop: Bellhaven, as it is the first “town” after the
canal and most continue on up the coast a bit before stopping. As we went through the canal, the morning was
uneventful, minus faster boats asking permission to pass. We did hear over the CB a boat behind us stop
a bear in the water though. By 1430, we
were anchored outside of Bellhaven and rowing ashore. Its super tiny! Once we quickly walked through it, we headed
the 2-3 mi up the road to the grocery…just cause it was something to do! Both of us are looking forward to a marina
and a bigger town in the morning!
0615: Oriental was one of the “must” stops for cruisers/guides. The do have a free dock, but its rather small
and upon reading Skipper Bob we chose to seek other options, preferably one
with a shower. We found this little
marina at the other end of town, Whittaker Creek. The distance into the town center was only a
mile or so; not bad on the bike. (At a 1.00/ft, I would ride at least 4 mi and
be happy) When we made our
reservations, the dock owner told us exactly how to navigate the creeks
entrance (still mad Bohemia) and was
even waiting to hail us at the dock. He
was in his mid 40’s, very energetic and friendly. He helped to tie us off and noticed the
awesome patch we (I) did to the porthole on deck at the bow (I didn’t mention this before, as it’s a but embarrassing: the port hole has been leaking onto my berth
forever. It’s about 4” diam and lets
light into the v-berth. The plexi insert
had cracked as some point over the years and was resembled shattered tempered
glass. In Solomon’s, the wind picked up
one night, so we had to quickly pull the dinghy back onto the deck. As we were getting it settled on deck, I felt
my foot got through something…and looked down to see my heel inside the darn
porthole! We McGuyvered a fix consisting
of a large sponge wrapped in plastic bags shoved into the hole, covered with a
plastic plate and all taped with blue painted tape. This held better than the darn splintered glass,
but was embarrassing to look at…and I ran an extra 2 mi that next morning)
and offered the parts to fix it, as long as Mike worked the saws! As Mike went off to fix the hole, I ran to
take a shower. As I was hoping out of
said shower, a huge friendly bug (roach)
came into the bathroom! I screamed. I even tried to call mike, but no dice on his
phone! Mr Roach and I came to a quick
understanding: he stay by the toilet
while I dressed super fast and ran out, hair still soaking wet and clothes
sticking to me. This marina was clean,
promise! The bathrooms were individual stalls still caring the odor of
PineSol! However, the area was very
woodsy, very campground like, so I guess he was just from the outside (hopefully).
Just before the
main docks where we were staying was a large fire pit with wood: the owner said if we chopped the wood, we
were welcome to have a fire, so we did!
The couple docked across from us joined in on the festivities as
well! We shared s’mores and stories
until about 2100!
10/07/2012 Oriental, NC
After making
Mike his omelet, we got out our bikes to head for the main town of Oriental;
reportedly a very dog friendly place, so Salty came along too! We stopped at some of the fun (for Mike) marina stores located in the
downtown. I came alive when I smelled
that sweet aroma of brewed coffee; the local coffee house called The Bean. I waited outside with Salty while Mike went
in. Down the street comes a “pack” of
dogs: all very well cared for, healthy
dogs ranging in size and breed. They too stopped at the coffee house to sip
from the water bowls placed on its porch, sniff the tourist (salty) and moved
on up the street, just walking. We found
out from the shop’s owner that the dogs all belong to locals: there are no leashes or fences here really,
and most mornings the dogs will gather outside their homes and walk to
town. First stop is the Bean; the next
is this bakery up the street. The baker
will make dog treats most mornings to give to the local dogs. HA! Found this extremely amusing!
Salty riding with the top down
We stopped for
lunch at a cute seaside sandwich shop, enjoying having a meal prepared for me,
as well as sitting outside at an actual table J. On the way back to
the boat, we stopped and looked at all the shops/attractions of Oriental; it IS
a very charming town and we were both glad to have stopped. The couple across the dock invited us over
for cocktails on their boat, as they were hosting another couple as well. We had a great time with them all! This boat was huge, btw and redesigned
interior allowed for a large galley/living room area: I could have worked out w. Jillian Michaels right
there and still would have enough room for Mike to walk by! Sigh. Maybe
next boat!
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