Sounds of the South - Coming to Oriental and River Dunes

Only in the south

The beginning of the day with an awesome sunrise and sliver of a silver moon:

Entering NC

How do you know you've entered the south?

You know you’re in the south when the weather warms up, you can go swimming, palm trees start appearing in the landscape, everyone is a bit friendlier and chatty, and there are names like the Pungo River, Pamlico River, Beau and Bubba, and then a few other experiences.

[We are in Oriental, NC almost at the SC border, taking off from Moorehead City.]

Here’s a tree frog I’ve never seen up north; note the pool I swam in today in the background:

It was dosing on the ladder pole and then:

On the VHF radio there are three channels boaters monitor while moving in the water: 16 - emergency and calling, 13 - bridge to bridge, and 9 - calling.  Any announcement from the US Coast Guard comes on channel 16, like searching for a lost kayaker that happens fairly often, or staying away from a US Warship.  The other channels boaters use to talk to one another.

Here are 3 audio messages from fellow boaters. We could not understand one southern word from this guy. Can you?

Now you can order Shrimp and grits (these in Bel Haven, NC -- I’ve mostly finished it.)

We were near Camp Lejeune and some US War jets were flying around high and low and loud.  Darn, I can't get the download, but it was loud and lasted an hour or so at end of day!

Here are a few pictures on our way from an anchorage in Alligator River (never seen alligators though people say they are definitely there) to River Dunes, Oriental, NC.

Glassy waters to start the day out of the anchorage.

 colorful tug with secret cargo closed up.

Halloween is coming in Bel Haven

 Mansion in Bel Haven restored

Jib aloft  Yea  sailing again.

 Mazu momentarily up from the aft cabin for a view.  Are we near land yet?

River Dunes is a community developed to look like it's built with turn of the century standards, solid and colonial, but new.   There are homes of every size all with the restored architecture of one excellent builder.  It is slowly growing and selling its 800 building lots to make a whole beautiful neighborhood.
Around River Dunes:

 Office and Restaurant

 Mazu up on the lookout

 View from the lookout.

Off to the outside and next stop - Florida where I guess we'll arrive in time to watch the election results.  Yikes.

Hampton to Centerville, VA Oct 24

Sunday we left the mess in the Salon

 Left patient Mazu to guard

And visited the VA Air and Space Museum which was totally redone from the last time we were there -- lots of new exhibits.

 rocket history

 planets

 The museum all lit up:

 Then we went out to dinner to our favorite restaurant, Venture, and had lettuce pork and shrimp wraps, and on Drew's plate of black coconut and pineapple rice. Share plate in the middle.

Monday we returned the key to the marina office, and  I picked some fresh lettuce and basil from the marina garden:

Fun tic tac toe display:

The US Navy had a busy day with lots of War Ships and submarines coming in and out of slips with announcements on the VHF to stay clear 500 yards and asking, "Why are you coming close?", conversations with boats that weren't listening and saying, "Yes, you must move immediately!" close...clueless.

 Navy War ship 6

Way in the background is a huge plume of spray

We Passed all of Norfolk and Portsmouth's cute docking places and went to the locks with a huge barge.  Since our little group of boats now included a barge with a As I came into the lock Drew had put down boards with fenders to keep us away from the wall, however the board caught in the side and ripped off, breaking the rope and cutting through the white plastic of the life line down to the braided metal underneath. Oh well...
The barge is about 30 feet wide and needs to be avoided.  You can just see the lock doors way down at the end.  They close them and the water came up 3' to become even with the other side.

 After the lock we immediately have a draw bridge - here's the barge going through the Great Bridge Bridge - yes, that's its name.

Here's the mileage to places as we head south from Great Bridge, VA.   We are going to Fort Pierce, FL, south of Jacksonville, 734 more miles and a couple of weeks.

We continued the rest of the day to Centerville Marina just before the Centerville Swing Bridge.  The noise from the cars on the grates of the bridge was very loud.  We were able to walk a half mile to a sushi placed and found it closed and a Fresh Market to restock a little - salad, salmon.  Drew added an African Violet to the mint and basil plants on board.

The bridge at night.  See the reflected upside down bridge in the glassy water.

TUESDAY: Up at 7:30 to walk Mazu, got wonderful text from AJ and pix of Violet and CC for school picture day.  

The bridge opened at 8:30 for its first swing of the day opening for 10 waiting boats  to go through.  The barge went through last night.  Two huge power boats got through first since they go at about 15 to 20 k.  Drew is driving today since I did yesterday.  Our little flotilla is following us that soon changed as they all passed us.  Everyone continues to jockey for position throughout the day.  We all travel together but stop at different places for the night.  Tonight's popular spot is Coinjock, NC famously known for its 32 oz. prime rib.  We are staying across the canal at Midway.

Now crossing into North Carolina, mile marker 34 on the ICW - no welcome sign - but then we all know NC has a bit of a problem lately welcoming all types.

Until next time.  

Reading The Year of Voting Dangerously by Maureen Dowd, funny witty quips and insight to some of the legislation passed in the administration before its impact, like H.W. Bush's (Bush Senior 41) tax increase that helped erase a huge deficit and create a surplus during Clinton's presidency.  Yet Bush 43 didn't pay for the Iraq or Afghanistan wars and reduced taxes to create the largest deficit ever.  All in all the book is a bust.

Made it 150 miles, Cape May to Hampton, VA

We zig zagged down the coast of NJ off Ocean City headed to Cape May for fuel. See the yellow zig zag track.

 Here's the Nav Station in the Salon bathed in red LED lights at night so we don't lose night vision at the helm.  Also nice view of new blue GPS that Drew installed.  Upper right yellow is the VHS radio to listen to other boats or coast guard announcements, lower yellow is the music radio.

This is the Ipad Navionics at the helm that we rely on for where we are.  Shows a route, speed, distance to destination.  Also the little VHS radio in the cockpit.

We have to time it so we come into the harbor during daylight hours.
Sunset in the west with Adam.

 Moonrise in the east.

Motoring again the whole way with the sails up for stability we spent 5 hours at 6k Thursday, Oct 20 to get here. 
We arrived at the Cape May Inlet and selected Utsch's Marina, a sharp turn at 6' depth to get in for fuel and a slip.  We walked around the area searching for the cute gingerbread houses Cape May is known for, but it appears many are gone now.
We saw other sights and ate at the Lobster House. 

Adam, Drew and me with Shawnee in the background at Utsch's.

 We did not need the service, but good to know it's available. LOL

 Shark swimming out of the building.

Cape May lighthouse

 Sunset at the beach.

 The Senior Citizen pavilion with Mazu watching the sunset.

After a nice breakfast in the cockpit,

We took off from Cape May Inlet for Hampton Pier, a day motoring into the wind again/still.  Can't seem to get the wind to come from the north.


On our way out we passed our good friends Cape May US Coast Guard Station:

We motored down the coast of the DelMarVa peninsula and entered the Chesapeake Bay just in time to see a new US Navy ship, the Zumwalt, according to my son, Dillon, it was just launched a few days ago.  Pretty distinctive looking.

 We had to stay 500 yards off.  Another sub was also coming out to protect this boat.  Gunner boats surrounded them both.

 machine gun on the front.   Your tax dollars at work.

  As you can see the seas are flat - no wind. It's been like that or winds from the south head on.  We motored up the Hampton River to the Hampton Public Pier to go into a slip.
AND of course a couple of fixes, day one leaky toilet seal - my fix.
Take off the toilet, make a new seal with rubber we have, cutting out the screw holes.
Replace the toilet.

Day two here Drew fixed the engine door seal that came off, repaired the screen doors to the companionway (I oiled them), and he replaced the leaky blue water pump.  He also replaced the water filter to the watermaker in the bin.

 The fun part was going with boat neighbors to a new craft beer opening right at the pier, Bull Island.  We had drinks together before those two boats headed south on the ICW. 
We'll go tomorrow, Monday, just ahead of the Salty Dog rendezvous group also going to Florida.  Weather forecast looks favorable. Of course on the ICW we can only go during the day and must have our motor on.  Since this is our 4th trip we feel pretty experienced and after looking on ActiveCaptain.com for any storm problems we only see Nav Aids that are missing from the route.  It's 5 days south to Moorehead City, VA and back out on the ocean.