We finished up our land travels out of Baltimore, having reunited with friends and family in Boston, Cape Cod, and the Cayman Islands, and headed to Annapolis for the boat show. We had free dockage provided by a broker who was supposed to be showing our boat (didn’t happen, but we did get the dockage!), so thought, “why not?” I really like Annapolis, and we had fun walking around, visiting the show, and eating some great seafood over the course of the weekend.
Come Monday morning, October 15th, it was definitely time to start heading south. We saddled up Mer Sea and headed for Solomon’s Island, to visit with a couple we’d met on the Erie Canal this past summer who have a house on Solomon’s. The weather was clear and calm, and we had a fantastic ride on the Bay. She can certainly be nasty, but when she’s nice, she’s really great!
Dick and Carol are way up a creek off the Patuxent River, and it is a wonderfully protected spot. They were able to offer us free dockage at their development’s little marina, and they treated us to a relaxing evening of visiting and delicious food. We had a great time with them! It’s such fun to reconnect with people you’ve met, and to play leapfrog along the waterways.
We left the next day, another perfect cruising day on the Bay, and headed for a new anchorage near Deltaville, VA. We worked our way back into Jackson Creek, found our spot, and dropped the hook. It had been so long since we’d anchored, I was almost surprised that we remembered how! Our last anchorage was with Audrey and Randy in the Thousand Islands, when we had the problem with weeds! Well, the Chesapeake is much easier and kinder. Good holding, and no weeds!
We dropped the dinghy and Roy took it to do some exploring, and to try to find the “town dinghy dock” alluded to in the cruising guide. There was none that was obvious. However, he did, in the process of querying a local about it, get an invitation to tie up at his dock and hitch a ride in town. Now that’s the kind of hospitality we like!
The weather was predicted to start blowing in the next couple of days, so we pushed on to Portsmouth the next day to get off the Bay before she began to kick up. We had perfect weather once again, and managed to dodge the multiple tugs and warships we encountered as we entered the Elizabeth River, and wound up docked in Portsmouth unscathed. Whew!
We planned to stay for a couple of days, enjoying both Norfolk and Portsmouth while there. They have a ferry that takes you across the river for a buck (or .50 if you’re a senior citizen!), so it’s easy to enjoy both towns no matter where you’re staying. In the couple of days we were there, we ate out a couple of times, caught a couple of movies, did some shopping, partook of some pampering (massage, etc.), and made some new friends. A worthwhile visit!
We’d planned to leave Portsmouth on a Saturday so as not to have to deal with the restricted weekday schedules of some of the many bridges one encounters on the first part of the trip south from there. It was a beautiful day, although breezy (not a problem in the “ditch,” but we were glad we were off the Bay!), and we had a great ride to Coinjock, NC. Imagine, North Carolina already! That was quick!
Roy became somewhat upset when the dockmaster at the marina wanted to stack the boats so close together (lined up bow to stern on a long face dock) that our dinghy was overhung by a larger boat’s anchor. If some idiot were to blow through there (although it’s a No Wake zone, that doesn’t stop the idiots!) we feared for the health of our dinghy. One good bounce might just cause a hole to be ripped in her! Not to mention the difficulty of getting out in the morning, if we wanted to leave before the boats on either end of us. But we didn’t make much headway with the dockmaster, and finally just gave it up and prayed hard!
We did have to wait the next morning for the boat in front of us, and ended up leaving about an hour later than we wanted. However, we did get out OK, and when we did, found it to be a perfect day on the water. Instead of just crossing Albermarle Sound and staying on the Intracoastal Waterway, we’d decided to take some detours and do some exploring. Our first was Edenton, North Carolina, the original capital of the state. We headed west on the sound, and might have been the only people on the water that day. The weather was perfect and warm, and we had the place to ourselves. It was gorgeous.
We got to Edenton and pulled in to the protected little harbor there, where they provide free dockage for 48 hours to encourage boaters to visit. What a lovely little town it is! Many beautifully preserved and maintained houses, some lovely gardens, and lots of little shops to snoop! The town even provides a van for the dockmaster to use to take boaters to the grocery store or wherever they feel they’d like or need to go further afield. We had a great two days there, and I managed to spend a little money to pay the town back for their investment. We had a wonderful lunch there at an old Coke and Nehi bottling building that is now an eclectic restaurant. The one consistent thing about it, however, is the quality of the homemade food they serve. Fabulous!! Wish we could have stayed longer to try more of their wares!
When we left Edenton, the wind was blowing, but, fortunately, it wasn’t blowing in such a direction as to make Albermarle Sound rough. That sound is infamous for giving boaters a rough ride, so we felt lucky about the wind direction. We were headed to what was promised to be a very protected anchorage that night. Well, it was OK, but I would not have characterized it as being particularly protected. The wind did blow all night, but our excellent anchor didn’t budge, and we woke up just where we’d fallen asleep. Always a good thing!
Belhaven, NC, was our next destination, a town we hadn’t visited since two years ago, when we’d been given free tickets to an oyster roast. This time we decided to stay in a marina, where we’d been told and had read about the incredible friendly service, not to mention the unbelievable bathrooms.
Now, you have to understand about cruising boaters and bathrooms. Yes, we have a full, very nice “head” on Mer Sea. Much nicer than most, I’d say. But, when you use the head, it goes in the holding tank, and the more you use it, the more often you have to pump out. Plus, just like anything else, the more you use it the more the wear, and the closer to “wearing out” of parts you get. It’s just common sense. SO…when at a marina, we try to leave all big packages in the marina’s “heads”, and maybe some smaller ones as well. Boaters prize nice bathrooms, and we’d heard that the ones at Belhaven Marina were legendary.
Well, they lived up to their reputation! They are beautifully decorated, like you might decorate your bathroom at home, they are “single passenger” (no stalls!), and have towels, washcloths, and bathmats laid out for you to use if you take a shower (I’ve NEVER heard of that before!). The ladies’ room even had a bathroom scale. YIKES!!! The men’s room (I’m told) was decorated with photos of WWII sailors and girlfriends and letters back and forth, and discharge papers, etc. Fascinating and entertaining reading.
The marina also featured a hot tub (we never did use it, darn it!), and very easy access to downtown. Additionally, the marina owners would gladly drive you to the grocery store, a bit out of town, if you so desired. All in all, a great stop! There are places to get ice cream cones, buy unusual bottles of wine, books, CDs, and gourmet goodies, and even a good seafood restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed the stop!
We had planned to take another detour on the Pamlico River for the next portion of our trip, but the weather reports were for some pretty ferocious winds in the next couple of days, and we didn’t want to get “stuck” way up the river, having to wait for who knows how long for the wind to subside so that we could traverse that fairly unprotected water. So, we changed our plans again, (part of the fun, as I see it!) and decided to stay on the ICW, which tends to be more protected, and we’d get across the unprotected parts before the wind moved in. I hated to give up the little towns we’d been looking forward to exploring, but they’ll still be there the next time we come through…
We headed to Oriental, NC, a town we’d never really stayed in before. We’d stayed at a marina nearby, but had only been able to visit the actual town by bike before. This time, we were docked right downtown, across from where the shrimp boats dock!
Here’s a photo of one right across from us. Of course, we had to go to a restaurant to taste some of their wares, and had some of the best “shrimp and grits” ever! There’s nothing like really fresh seafood!!!
It rained most of the time we were in Oriental, and was raining off and on during our trip to Beaufort, NC the next day, but we had a pretty easy ride (gotta love that pilothouse!) and got to Beaufort and settled in before lunch! That’s where we are now, in Beaufort, patiently waiting for the 30 knot winds to subside, enjoying, in the meantime, the wonderful shops, restaurants, and charm that Beaufort has to offer. One could be “stuck” in worse places…