Sunday arrival in Brunswick

Somehow the toothache didn't keep me awake too much, but it came back with a vengeance during the day. However I must be a lucky boy as when Vince explained my plight to the lady dishing out the diesel she said, 'you're in luck that's the dentist surgery right there' 50 yards away was the local dentist surgery , I will be waiting on his steps first thing Monday morning.

Saturday

Our last day before arriving in Brunswick and I woke up with a raging toothache, pain killers and alcohol have kept at bay. Hopefully I will get some sleep tonight and I can sort something out in Brunswick we when arrive.

An exciting day.

Morning passed by uneventfully , we are once again into isolated country, marshlands, tall reads and few signs of life apart from the occasional boat. Water had very shallow water through one short cut between two rivers. The cut is called hells gate, when the depth got to 2.8 feet I reversed out pronto. We should be aground when it says 3.8 ish, however with a very muddy bottom it's difficult to say what constitutes aground. Next try wasn't much different but we gently pushed through on idle and thankfully we made it. Alongside us was a mud bank, in the middle was a little powerboat firmly ground , in the back was a young girl with a large bright red umbrellas acting as a sunshade , in the front was who I assumed was Dad, probably explaining how it was normal to go aground and wait for the next tide. 

 Big bright orange butterflies were everywhere , here is a photo.

With there wings open they are much more colourful, I'm thinking they could be monach butterflies on there way to Mexico , can't check right now as have no internet.

  

I noticed  that we had a bit of steam coming through with exhaust. Are we getting hot? The engine note had also changed, things didn't sound right.  A quick check on temperate revealed we were definitely over heating and no cooling water was being shot out the back . Quickly dropped anchor and cut engine. A quick bit of investigation revealed that the water strainer was not blocked but no water was getting through the sea cock. A bent coat hanger came to the rescue and this popped out.

A couple of reeds were jamed in the sea cock blocking it.  We set off again to our anchorage but it was obvious the situation had not been completely resolved, once safely anchored  we cleaned every thing again, blew out all the pipe work and even replaced the water pump impeller . This time the engine sounded good. A sweet note.

Beaufort to Savanah

After much deliberation we decide to do this legion in the sea. Opportunities to do this don't offer themselves as much as you might think. There are lots of inlets from the sea to ICW but not that many that can take a sailboat with 5 foot draft . Motor boats zoom in and out but we can't.

 Not a great deal of wind but my god it's good to be out in the sea , what sweet relief. Dolphins everywhere and big orange turtles too. I am certain I saw a spout of water than in my opinion could have only come from a whale. 

 Back inland up the Savanha river and the knotty problem of which marina to chose comes up, indecsion abounds but finally we find ourselves , more through luck than judgement, at the municipal dock. An exerlent place as it is right in the centre of town and cost us nothing. Officially we should have gone and found a nearby car park attendant to give our money too. Well we arrived late and did a runner in the morning, helped ourselves to some of the electric power overnight, I told Vince not to as it would be dishonest!

 Savanah is a fine town, built its fortune on exporting cotten all over the world, the center is attractive with beautifully squares , the water front gentrified docklands.

Dolphins and the River Ouse

It's difficult trace our journey with a yellow line through a yellow land but maybe you can get an idea of the country side we travel through. Upstream then through a small cut to another river system and down stream, then up a different river. Most of the countryside today was pretty remote. A frequent site were dolphins, with the motor on, as it was all day, they tended to keep their  distance but they were there all day.

One of the cuts went by the name of the Ashepoo Coosaw cutoff and it reminded me vividly of Norfolk , it could have easily been The Ouse on its way from the Wash to Kings Lynn, or maybe the north Norfolk Coast near Brancaster.  It was very shallow and it took quite a while to pick our way through the muddy water , at one point the depth registered 3.3 feet which meant the keel was well in the mud, but thank goodness it was quite easy to push through it.

  Now in Beaufort, and worth a visit.

North Myrtle Beach - 10/10 - 346 miles
The weather forecast still said 15-20 knots but it would decrease so we finally left Swan Point and headed South. Still gray clouds everywhere. We looked like we were sailing in the UK. Here's Phil, I looked worse with my old foul weather gear and a wooly hat.

Oops the flag's missing.

We pulled into the the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club and Marina at around 5:30pm in part because we would have had to wait on the opening of another bridge. The marina staff was really helpful. I normally resist upsell but he was good so we included electricity at the berth and a rental car for an hour ($9). It was coming up to 6 pm when the office would close and I asked about what if I don't get back in an hour and he said "I won't be here so I won't know when, just put the keys through the door". We then asked about visiting Myrtle Beach. Well I felt I couldn't go past such a famous resort without taking a look. Turns out despite the name of the marina we were in North Myrtle Beach and it was 22 miles to Myrtle Beach. So we drove there and walked along the boardwalk before the sun set (the beach faces East so sunsets aren't a factor).We talked about vacation when we were kids back in the Age of Steam. No kidding, for me vacations were either a day trip on a Bank Holiday to Weston Super Mare or a week long vacation to Weymouth. We traveled by steam train, not dissimilar to Hogwarts Express without the wizarding. It had compartments, and windows that you opened by pulling on a leather strap with half a dozen holes in it, you set the height of the window by which hole went over the pin. When you got the window open you waited for a curve in the track so that you could see the engine pulling the train. It always ended with some soot getting in your eye, which of course your mother had warned you about.
We returned the car after an hour (cough, cough) and were so hungry we ate on the boat. We thought that would be fastest.

Arachnid Surprise (Phil tells me I have put subjects to all my posts)

Parts of my life are just needlessly silly, here's one. OK, maybe I obsess over recycling.
I take the garbage up to dump it but being a conscientious citizen (wet liberal, pick your designation) I first extract the plastic and the bottles and put them in the recycling bins. Then I dump the bag with the rest into the big skip. Now the fact that the skip was green, had the traditional recycle symbol and had a strange long thin slot should have made me think, and it did. The only problem was that the thought occurs about a split second after I'd released the bag into the skip. This is not uncommon with me and I presume that it happens to everyone but I could be wrong. Anyway, I feel guilty and decide to open the side panel to see I can retrieve the bag. It doesn't budge. At this point I could have given up with a reasonably clear conscience, but I don't. I move to the rear to try to shift that. There's a spider's web covering it, and I think "sorry little spider but I have to open this". It also doesn't budge. I give the first panel one more try and then see the "little spider".  OMG. So I went back to the boat and got a tape measure because frankly you're not going to believe me are you? I put the measure carefully up against the web. It turns out I don't have to be careful,as big ass spiders like this stand there ground, presumably saying things like "You wanna piece of me? Bring it on". OK, I tried, guilt expunged, garbage goes to the cardboard recycling.

Spider below and remember the tape is in front. It's actually bigger than the tape measure says.
This ain't Itsy Bitsy.

What day is it?

What day is it?

Cant remember what day it is, they say it's one of the delights of being retired. It really doesn't matter. Still it's a bit disconcerning when you have a heated discussion on what the day is. I wouldn't say the discussion that Vince and I had was heated, but we did discuss the matter.... at length. Decided it was Tuesday. 

 We are in a fine anchorage about 1/3 of the way to Savannah. 

Sunset

Charleston Monday

Monday

Sunday night we were late finding a marina, at the beginning of the day finding somewhere to stay looked easy, lots of anchorages and marinas. However all the anchorages were very exposed and didn't look suitable as the forcaste was not good. Marinas were full! At the last moment before the sun faded we found a marina with space. Not the best we have stayed in but welcome.

  So Monday morning we depart for Charleston Habour Marina, just an hour away.

 This marina is also a resort with hotels etc, we borrow a couple of bikes from the hotel to do our shopping . It's tricky crossing six lanes of traffic on a bike but we make it back safely. Off to Charleston on free bus, charleston has lots of old rather grand houses, quite European , in places you would guess you were in London , Paris or Madrid not USA. Had a great meal , ate shrimp and grits. Was surprised to find out that grits was not some sort of offal but is actually like polenta.

Krill are cleaning the hull of our boat. Krill are small crustaceans and they nibble away at all the crud on the hull. Inside the boat you can hear them, it sounds like high frequency light tapping , almost as if the hull is creaking. Very strange when all is quite in the night.

View of our Marina taken from town of Charleston.

Alligator

Most notable thing today was a sighting of the first alligator, it was swimming across the ICW just in front of us could only see eyes and nose poking above the water. No more swimming!

Very poor photo of it, can you spot it?

Thursday/Friday/Saturday

Thursday

Weather looks a little better and improvement is promised. It is still blowing a bit and raining but we are off , most of the  ICW travellers are off too everybody heads south. 

Only did 23 miles it was cold and wet, full waterproofs were needed just like sailing in the UK ! Got a berth at a restaurant / bar , watched American football whilst eating a hamburger. I might just be getting into the culture.

Friday 

46 miles is the plan today, ocean isle marina. Places to drop anchor are few and far between on this section.

Turned out that ocean isle marina is for motor boats and people fishing, so we pushed on to one of the few anchorages. As we arrived the sun came out and it looked a beautiful place to stop, unfortunately we went the wrong side of a red marker. In our defence half of it had dropped of and there was no red visible but we should of known that shape being triangular meant it was red. We didn't come to a sudden stop , bottom must have been muddy, luckily the engine is pretty powerful and we reversed our way out of it. Would have been nasty to get stuck there as the tide still had 2 or 3 feet to fall. Another attempt the correct side of the red marker gave pretty shallow water so decided to continue up river to a marina.

 The Myrtle Yacht Club sounds like an expensive place to stop, I thought we were going to face some hefty charges however for 51 dollars we got a bargain as it include electric and a car for an hour! The car was supposed to be to pick up supplies , as it was close to the time when the marina office closes the guy said drop the keys through the letter box. So we had a car for the night! Off to myrtle beach, worth seeing , fine beach and board walk, otherwise is was an American Blackpool. We are just inside South Carolina  , the state laws must change as there are lots of firework supermarkets, and casinos I guess firework sales and casinos are illegal in north Caroline.

 Saturday

Latest start yet , must have been 8.30 before we pulled away from the mooring. 

The tidal currents along the ICW are a mystery to me. Around myrtle beach where the ICW is fed from inlet from the sea and across marshland the tidal current turns this way and that, one moment you can be zooming along at 8 knots then you pass an inlet and you are going 4. Totally unpredictable. Having said that today we have had adverse tides most of the way , we entered the Waccamaw river and had 1.5 knots against us all the way.

Do you fancy a new house with ICW frontage ? Not me.

 For our anchorage tonight we picked a beautiful spot, sand beach up an inlet very quiet and remote. So we thought! It's Saturday night and one after the other boats appeared and parked themselves on the sand. Boats with delightful names like 'Hey Baby' and ' Pink Panty Pull Down'.  I have to say 'Pink Panty Pull Down' had a super stereo system, it would put most club stereos to shame, very loud no distortion , I could feel the bass on my chest. Couldn't hear what Vince was saying though , as we ate our steak for supper. I swear I could see standing waves on the water. Unfortunately their taste in music wasn't great , american rock that hadn't gone anywhere since The Eagles. Mercifully they left as the light faded, another lesson in American culture.

Our anchorage, just after sunset.and after disco left!

October 9th Groundhog Day 2
We appear to be in the marine equivalent of Groundhog Day. The wind is blowing 20 knots, gusting more, and the gray clouds are scudding across the sky bringing showers or heavy rain.
Each day we think that tomorrow it will be better and each day our optimism is unfounded.
It's the remnants of tropical storm Karen and instead of marching it's way up the East coast it's parked itself off Cape Hatteras.
Reminded me of being stuck in Jail in Monopoly, each time the die comes around we have to pass. Still tomorrow is our third morning maybe we can get out then.

To make matters worse, I thought I had got rid of all the leaks in the boat. Turns out I was wrong.

I guess we should count our blessings, we are somewhere safe (and relatively cheap) and the people here are incredibly helpful. This place is definitely not your typical marina. It even has an artistic display of marine artifacts.

Phil wearing his signature All Weather shorts (Note - read sign)

We had some entertainment yesterday when a big motor boat came in to the other side of the dock from us but the wind decided it wasn't going to be that easy. We had everybody on the dock trying to help. It even including the old comedy routines like "Throw us a line!" and "You should have tied it on first" as the line falls short and sinks down into the mud. Phil saved the situation by throwing our new 130' halyard to them and pulling them in (he did tie it on first).
Today we borrowed the "courtesy car" and went grocery shopping more for something to do than out of necessity. We carried on to North Topsail Beach to see the Atlantic.

Phil on the beach talking to... (oh,you already know that part)

Here's the entrance to the marina. The Pelicans seemed resolute about sitting on their piles (poles that is :) despite the 20 knot wind but they admitted defeat yesterday.

More of the same

Wednesday more rain more wind, I've done all my laundry , stocked boat with food, and worried about weather. There are diverse opinions on whether it's going to be better tomorrow but that big old depression in the Atlantic keeps growing and funnelling nasty weather our way. However I'm optimistic.

This is how Vince spent his day, wind howling outside, nice and comfy behind the laptop.

(He came shopping too)

 I promised catherine I would take at least one photo a day, this is today's.

This is me the other side of the table.

Bad weather

When we left Beaufort the wind was on the beam at about 15 knots, perfect for a good sail, unless you are constrained by a narrow channel and need some ability to negotiate other crafts. So we hoisted a small jib to help the engine and were aided by a healthy tide flow which altogether pushed us along at 8+ knots.

 We were sailing down the coast in a lagoon, the ICW is cut through a lagoon at this stage, normal depth is max 6 feet min close to 2 , the ICW is 12 feet plus. However there are bits which are unpredictable low and we found one, it didn't delay us long maybe only a few seconds as we painfully scraped along the bottom.

Just in case like me you were not sure http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Whatsa_lagoon.htm

 Tuesday

We have hit a bit of bad weather, 2 inches of rain was forecast today and they were probably right, high winds to match. However we are in a lovely little marina pinned up by the high winds to our berth. It's small cheap and very friendly, just the place in bad weather , they put on a free lunch of chilli today .  Several other boats are her too waiting for good weather , this should arrive on Thursday when our journey will resume, we have had great weather so far so we deserve a couple of days of bad.

Have a look at  http://radblast.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/radar/WUNIDS_map?station=MHX&brand=wui&num=6&delay=15&type=N0R&frame=0&scale=0.750&noclutter=0&lat=34.70833206&lon=-77.44277954&label=New+River+Marine+Corps+Air+Station%252C+NC&showstorms=0&map.x=400&map.y=240&centerx=448&centery=196&transx=48&transy=-44&showlabels=1&severe=0&rainsnow=0&lightning=0&smooth=0 

We are at Swanpoint Marina

October 7th
Well the incredible weather that we've enjoyed seems to be coming to an end, with winds 15-20 knots forecast, with showers and thunderstorms likely too.
The winds certainly picked up but we didn't get the showers. The current on the Beaufort Inlet was running at a about 3 knots as we punched into it but then as we rounded Radio Island the current was with us and rode along at 9-10 knots.
We reached the first marina that we had planned to stop at when we expected the conditions to be worse but with only 20 miles done we decided to push on.  Then we came unstuck. Well actually we became stuck first and then unstuck. There a couple of buoys that had been added narrowing the channel I motored past just inside the new green and hit the bottom, I turned to the center of the channel and the depth went down. then after a few heart stopping moments we were back in the deep. Close call.
We stopped at Swan Point marina. Not the smartest looking marina, let's just say it has a lot of character. It is run by Tina Turner and her mother Evelyn. They took over the marina a year ago and they get A++ for service. I've never been in a marina that tries harder to make your stay the best it can be. Phil asked about shops and they said "What do you need?". Evelyn was going to the shops so she offered to get what we wanted and to deliver it to the boat! When they shut up the office at night they came around to tuck us in. Well actually they came around to see if there was anything we needed before they left and to assure us that the marina phone number would still reach them and not to worry they were only 10 minutes away.
We used the laundry facilities. Impressed eh? One week out and clean sheets!

October 4th
Friday night we stayed at an anchorage in Goose Creek, just before the canal to Hobucken. It was pretty desolate here.

Next day we went down the canal and into Gale Creek, then into the Neuse. We sailed for a while not really enough wind though. Part of the problem is we start at dawn and the wind doesn't get up until the afternoon. Tempted to go into Oriental but decided to crack on to Beaufort.
Put the main down fired up the motor and went into Adams Creek and everything changes we are now a line of boats, huge motor yachts are calling us up requested they pass on our port side.
By the time we get out of Adams Creek the wind is blowing 16 knots over the deck. We decide to stay at the Beaufort Docks marina. They tell us to head down the Russel slough (pronounced slew). I'm stressed about the prospect of going into a marina with 16 knot winds and strong currents. We get to the drawbridge and only have to wait a few minutes. Go through and into Taylor Creek. The wind isn't so bad and neither is the current. A guy is standing on the dock waving to us. We slip in no problem.
Beaufort is a real tourist (small) town, picturesque with an attractive Boardwalk with restaurants, bars and ice cream parlors. The place is really alive

Not only is it Saturday night but it turns out we arrived for the Sea Food festival in near by Morehead City. The restaurants on the boardwalk have live bands, and at 9pm there is an impressive firework display over Morehead City which we can see from the boat.

Sunday 6th

We decided to stay another night in Beaufort so that we could spend some time with John and Joy who drove down from Raleigh. 

We have a drink and catch up on family histories and they take us to a Piggly Wiggly for a grocery shop. The store must have had wifi as Joanne facetimed me (intending to get Catherine). It was great to talk to Jo and the kids but I couldn't help feeling future shock. Joanne's face appearing in front of me in a Piggly Wiggly.

We then drove to Fort Macon and walked around it. We hooked up with a very friendly tour guide named Rich, who walked us around the Fort telling us the history of it. At the end John said he was taking us to the beach because we wanted to see the Atlantic shoreline. Rich said if you like I'll take you up in my plane. It was an offer we couldn't refuse. We drove to the airport and Phil and I climbed into this beautiful Grummond Tiger.

Rich took us around Shackleford Island then a 360 around the Cape Lookout lighthouse and this time an aerial tour of Fort Macon then down the start of the ICW route that we would take next day.

After we landed Rich did the same trip for John and Joy. What an amazing guy.

We had tried to persuade Rich to join us for dinner but he was already committed so we gave him our profuse thanks and left for dinner at Finz, the restaurant Rich had recommended in Beaufort. Imagine our surprise when we sat at the table looking at the menus and in walks Rich with John's hat which he'd left in the plane. Unbelievable!

Wednesday, Oct 2nd
The Dismal Swamp canal puts you out into the Pasquotank which is a pretty river.

We put into Elizabeth City where they have free docks and someone to welcome you, and tell you his life story (I only asked what the tidal range was).
Phil and I were about to go find a grocery store but I went back to the first guy, (Jim I think it was) who was talking to someone sat on the bench overlooking the water. Jim lamented that there was no place close any more. The guy on the bench said he didn't have anything to do until 3pm, he'd drive us to the supermarket. So we climbed into his VW convertible and he drove us a couple of miles to Fresh Farms store, We did our shop while he waited in the car then drove us back. We thanked him and gave him a bottle of wine, then offered him lunch on board. He took us up on the offer as he and his wife were thinking of buying a boat. We shared the salad bar lunch and he opened the bottle of wine we had given him. Thanks again Mike.
Next morning we continued on down the Pasquotank river into Albemarle Sound. I've stayed in a cabin on Albemarle Sound and watched a storm come up in 15 minutes and whip the water up so that you could barely see. However this time the weather was gentle to us and we sailed across the sound and into the Alligator River. We anchored just before the canal that joins the Alligator River to the Pungo River. It seemed very desolate here too with many dead trees. The water has a brown color, no sediment just the tannin from the trees.

From beaufort

Wednesday

Departed from our mooring at the dismal swamp visitor centre at 7am arrived at the bridge and lock at the exit of the canal  for the 8.30 opening. 

The Pasquotank river into which the canal flows is beautiful very isolated , swampy banks and tall trees. The water is clear but stained brown from tannin in the trees, a bit like sailing in beer or black tea. It gets bigger and bigger finally we ended up in Elizabeth City, A friendly small town. A guy we met took us to the local supermarket in his car so we stocked the boat with food . Mooring was free on the city wharf , included use of a portaloo! That was the only part of the Elizabeth city experience I would not recommend.

Thursday

Out down the river into the Albemarle Sound , a light breeze took us across under sail, very odd to be almost out of site of land yet be in only 18 foot of water.

Alligator river

The lower reaches of the alligator river are boring! 3miles wide and a dead straight course for about 10 miles, unfortunately the light breeze was right on the nose. I'm writing this whilst at the helm. It's that boring

Now the upper reachers are not boring , they are intimidating , you can see the banks clearly and it looks like no one has ever placed a foot on those banks since time began, I think 'Deliverance' may have been filmed here.  We anchored at the top of the alligator river just at the point were the Alligator Pungo river canal starts. 

Sunrise alligator river

The pilot paint a dim picture of this canal with stories of sunken trees and shallows but it passed by without incident. Auto-helms a are wonderful however if you are not too careful you could hit one of those red posts that mark the channel , the likely hood is very small and thank goodness I looked up just in time! 

Friday

So the Pungo river followed and after crossing the Pamlico sound and once again we are moored at the top of a very remote river.

6.30 start tomorrow. 

Here is Saturdays route.

The most notable thing was that as we got closer and closer to Moorhead City and Beaufort traffic on the rivers got larger faster and more frequent. Moorhead City is a big boating centre and we stop for two nights

Sunday

Dear friend John and Joy drove from Raleigh to see us , they arrived at midday and we started with coffee and updated each other on family, number of grandchildren etc. then we set off for a bit of site seeing to fort Macon . This is a fort much like fort Widley near Portsmouth it was built in the civil war. At the fort we met a volunteer guide called Rich he was very knowledgable and gave a fine tour. He was a sailor and had done the trip to Bahamas, he also flew and had a light aircraft at a local airport in which he offered us a flight! So off to the airport for a wonderful flight over the Outer Banks Harpers island and Bogue sound. First Vince and i then Joy and John A wonderful experience and he wouldn't accept a thing in payment. A wonderful guy, you don't meet people like that very often. 

Monday 

Weather forecast not so good, it's going to rain and blow a bit.

Tuesday Oct 1st. The first of many firsts.
The first day on the ICW throws most of the challenges at you that you are going to face, a kind of test to see if you are up to it. except crossing the Sounds and the tidal currents of Georgia. We motored through Hampton Roads making sure we didn't get in the way of big ships or too close to any Navy ships and incur the wroth of the patrol boats.

We filled up with diesel just across from Norfolk town center where you can walk out of the marina and into the shopping malls. Maybe we should have stayed there.
For the next five miles it is industrial, dock land. W e pass through a couple of bridges but they are open (they only close about twice a day). Then we come to Gilmerton Bridge our first test. We call on the radio and he asks what clearance we need. I say 62 feet but later call back and say "I think it's 62 feet but we haven't even been under a 65 foot bridge yet". He's says "Don't worry we were going to raise it to 75 feet do think that will do?" . we have to wait about half an hour for him to open it (they open on the half hour). It's a pretty cool sight though to see this roadway being lifted so that you can pass under it.

A couple of miles further on we come to our first 65 foot fixed bridge (this is the controlling height of the bridges on the ICW apart from the couple that someone screwed up on and are lower). It has a pronounced arch so we have to be in in the middle. I look around to see Phil on the helm talking on the phone to Lizzie. For once I say can you put that phone down and help me pannic like we're supposed to. We get through OK but immediately afterwards is the narrow entrance to the Dismal Swamp. We make the turn and don't go aground and we're on our way. Hey, maybe we can do this.
We'd been in a hurry to get to the lock by 1:30p so that we could then get to the Visitor's center before dusk.

We make it and lock in with a Trawler style motor boat. Robert, the bridge/lock tender is very welcoming and helpful, and even entertains us by blowing on his conch shell. People bring them to him when they return from the Bahamas.

The Dismal Swamp seemed a bit of a disappointment to me. It is incredible to be motoring down a canal as straight as an arrow with overhanging trees but the remoteness of it gets undermined when the traffic on the road that parallels the canal goes rushing by. I think you have to hike into the woods on the right hand side to get that feeling. A couple (Brain and Stephanie) who lived on their sailboat, Rode Trip, had taken their canoes up the feeder canal to Lake Drummond and they said that was good.
The rest stop is for the road traffic as much (or more so) for the boats.
The three boats took up most of the dock so when a fourth small sailboat (about 24 ft) followed us in he tried a strange maneuver, he was going to tie up the bow to the shore with the stern jutting out into the canal. That is until his mast hit the trees and showered him with leaves and twigs. We told him he could come alongside us and we helped him do it.
He was about sixty and had a round face and an irrepressible smile. It turned out that he had bought the boat a few weeks before and had never sailed before. It was a nice little boat but had obviously been neglected. He had sailed down the Chesapeake in the winds that gave us a great sail but for him it was a bit much especially when the rudder came off in his hand. Fortunately he held on to it and pulled it aboard, so them he had to steer with the little second hand, outboard motor that he had bought. Apparently a 4 ft wave swamped it and the engine died. Luckily a Trawler towed him into the nearest marina.
The main couldn't be raised because of some problem with the halyard and he'd never used the "sail at the front".
He rushed off to make a phone call, which apparently was to his mother, 81, who turned up half an hour later. For 81 she was incredibly nimble but she had her son's "I think I can do it attitude". We explained to do it in two stages, first step over the safety lines on our boat and then step down onto the other boat. Mid way through she "I think I can reach it" and with one leg over the safety lines steps down with the other onto the little boat which promptly dropped about a foot. so we had to hold on to her and lift the other leg over.
The two of them slept on the boat that night although I never saw either of them with any thing other than a big bag of potato chips.
We were the first ones to leave the next morning. I thought I'd never see the little boat again but as we waited for the lock to open and were joined by the trawler motor boat towing the little sailboat. I changed my mind maybe like Popeye he would keep turning up no matter what was thrown at him.

The Dismal Swamp Canal at first light.

This is coming to you from my computer chair in Severna Park.  The guys had little to no service while going through the Great Dismal Swamp which is a shame for us because the blogging stopped.  In one crackly phone call, this is what Vince told me.  We are leaving Alligator River tomorrow for the Pongo.  I asked him if they had gotten to Africa.  It sounded foreign, but they were in the nether reaches of North Carolina.  A real estate man in the Swamp at Elizabeth City gave them a lift to the grocery store.  Another chap told stories about being around during Martin Luther King and receiving a letter from him.  They have stories to tell and yet no service to tell it with.  So I thought I would keep the blog alive and send you the two photos that I have received.

Yesterday, they arrived at Beaufort, North Carolina and pulled into their first marina stop - wow - 7 days  at anchor!  We had a brief facetime with Vince and we also saw Phil - they have the sailor stubble and lots of sun on their faces.  They looked great!

Here's where they are.

They are meeting a friend today (John Ayres) - Vince hasn't seen him for 15 years.  It will be a great day for old friends.

Tuesday

 The Back River on the face of it was delightful but the airforce base with screaming jets took the edge off it.  Wonderful sunrise as we left, plus dolphins on the way out.

Norfolk virginia is Southampton and Portsmouth rolled into one X2, and then as you go up the Elizabeth River it's all very industrial. Finally we entered the dismal swamp canal , it's not dismal it's beautiful here is a little video.

Bugger! Can't add videos! Bloody technology