North Carolina-Some New Places, Some Revisited

Blue Heaven Rendezvous #35

From mosquitoes to no-see-ums to flies that is what we dealt with in Thoroughfare Creek, NC. The creek was lovely, although not as lovely as in the fall, when the weekend boaters were not there and neither were the flies. It was so bad that these black flies drove us below at 4 o’clock just so we could read instead of swatting them. A local saw us swatting them and said they would be gone in two weeks. Well, we were not staying around to find out!

Basically we have been motoring or motor-sailing when possible as we head home. We stayed in Calabash Creek, Bald Head Island Marina (which is where the sunset picture was taken) and Wrightsville Beach. All places we had stopped on the way south. We actually stayed in Wrightsville Beach for three days. There was to be some unsettled weather the one day, so we stayed put. We were glad we did because a storm cane through in the morning as predicted with some heavy rain and we heard that where we were going to go, a tornado was sighted. You can see the interesting sky after one of these showers. Later in the afternoon we took our dinghy over to Bridge Tender Marina (just south of the bridge) and got some fuel for it. They allowed us to leave the dinghy there while we walked to a Harris Teeter grocery store for some needed items. There was also a West Marine there, but luckily we did not need anything from them. We talked to our long time friends the Mershons, on Sequence who were behind us by a day or two and so we stayed put the third day so they might catch up which they did. I also got to enjoy the beach in the afternoons while there, which is not Al’s thing, so he stayed back and tinkered on the boat.

We had a rather nice sail up to Mile Hammock anchorage which is where the military base, Camp Lejeune, is located. We were glad we got in early because about eight more boats came in to anchor there as well. Two of which were friends of Sequence from the Bahamas. So Sequence hosted cocktail hour on their boat. We got to meet them all, Bill and Sue on Nice ‘n Easy and Chesley and Bob on Cygnet. They all talked about the “Georgetown Experience” and made us excited about going there on our next trip south probably in 2010-2011.

The next day we went into Morehead City Marina because I needed to get a prescription filled. Morehead City is located near Beaufort. We had not been here by boat so it was something new. The marina was very nice as written up in the guidebook. Nice floating docks, nice bathroom facilities, beautiful cruiser’s lounge, cable TV hook-up, pump-out, fuel and a courtesy car. They charged $10 for 2 hrs. of use of the car, but you do not have to fill it up. The cost was reasonable at $1.80ft. with the discount from Boat U.S. membership.

Since it was Mother’s Day Al took me out to dinner. The dockhand recommended Floyd’s 1821 which could be seen from our dock. It was a very nice place with linen table cloths, delicious food, and excellent service and not overly priced. With phone calls from our two sons my Mother’s Day was complete.

The next day rain and high winds were predicted. We motored twenty miles to Cedar Creek off of Adams Creek and got in just as the rain came down hard and the winds picked up. It felt like the temperature dropped a good fifteen degrees as we donned long pants and socks for the first time since January! It was a lazy day reading, scrapbooking and a little TV. You have to expect these kinds of days every once in a while. I am sure they will be more frequent the further north we get. We are still in North Carolina but plan to be in Virgina by the end of the week if all goes as planned.