Five days and counting

Morehead City, NC, a mixed message...

For a resort town, it's not very exotic looking.  The view down the road from our marina.....

Route 70/Arendell St. (find the palm tree)

But.  It's got lots of stores and really good restaurants.  Took the courtesy car to West Marine and Best Buy, which amused us for a couple of hours.  Then, to make us feel really at home, we ordered a vacuum cleaner and a printer from Amazon Prime to be delivered tomorrow.  Our vacuum cleaner died from dog hair and our printer died from falling on the floor during a fishing boat wake. 

Question of the day: Why would any waterfront town allow itself to be called Morehead City?  Is it named after some indigenous peoples named the Moreheads? 

No, it was pretty much invented by Gov. John Motley Morehead, North Carolina governor, 1841 - 1845.  He saw economic potential in this central ICW location, so he and some friends bought a lot of property and developed it.  Thus, it does not have much of a fishing village feel like Oriental or Beaufort.

And, it's got Floyd's 1921...

Floyd's has incredible food and is a short walk over a field next to our marina.  Being a curious person, I looked up how it got its name.  Turns out, Floyd's 1921 was invented in 2005.  I give up.

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Speaking of fishing boats...

This guy next to us went out yesterday and came back with this...

Wahoo up the gazoo.  Some of which ended up with us...

Two pounds of ready-to-eat Wahoo (I know, we don't deserve it).

In the interest of more useless information, the name Wahoo is derived from the name Oahu due to the abundance of these fish near to the Hawaiian island.

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Back to more boatie looking stuff...

Our dock

And nasty boatie-looking stuff...

Over our heads as of 10:30 am.  Good old tropical something-or-other Philippe.  We're the little, whimpy-looking, defenseless blue dot.

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Well, that's all folks.

From River Dunes in Oriental to Morehead City, NC

Wing and wing...

This is a shrimp boat on the Neuse River, NC.  Many on the river, all looking like giant white wasps. 

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The Marines have landed with "Operation Bold Alligator"...

Snowbirds coming down the ICW  have run into the unexpected closing of Camp Lejeune in NC.  The Camp occupies a 6 mile stretch along the waterway and regularly does military exercises, but boaters can usually go through at certain hours. 

However, this is a big one involving NATO, which has closed traffic for most of the week.  The lack of publicity about the extent of the closure caught boaters off guard, forcing them to find last-minute anchorages or slips to wait it out.   Barry and I will have been at Morehead City Yacht Basin, NC, for five days if weather lets us leave on Monday.

(It may surprise non-boaters to know that military exercises using live ammunition happen right on the ICW.  However, it's not like the Marines can move their camp somewhere else.)

"Operation Bold Alligator" (is there a non-bold alligator?) is a an amphibious operation that simulates a real wartime scenario.

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The weather and Halloween anyway...
 

Looking west this morning from Morehead City.  Tonight, more big blow.

Despite the weather, no tricks, just treats.

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The Bros report...

Latest official portrait of hairiest boat dogs in the marina

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Pain in the neck...

Skipper demonstrates (sorta) how an iPad Tablift Stand
can reduce strain on neck while reading.  (Bought originally for Vicki's pain in the neck.)

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Cruising Compass' photo of the week...

Look familiar?  This pix of Anchorage made it as Cruising Compass' pix of the week.  No prize money, just bragging rights.  :)

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That's all folks...

Here we are....

ALLIGATOR APOCALYPSE...

But, I exaggerate.  This picture is a little unfair, although it's a real sunset two nights ago when we anchored in the Alligator River. 

I hate the Alligator River and this picture represents my inner-most feelings. Three years ago, we anchored in the Alligator on the way down the Intracoastal Waterway.   Around 2 am, we hear a thump, a very quiet thump.  Shining a flashlight, we see a tree stump up against the side of Balboita, like she's a lollipop on a stick.  We have dragged anchor into what the locals call the Log Camp, a graveyard of dead trees at the side of the river.  We are stuck.

We call the Coast Guard.  No answer for a long time. We feel very alone and afraid.  I visualize the stick working its way through the lollipop.  

The answer comes from Axom Smith, tow boat owner 20 miles away in Belhaven, NC.  Axom was asleep when he took the call to come rescue us.  He says we have to wait until dawn.  In boating, dawn can be a long time coming.  And when it did, our anchorage looked like this.

  Log Camp, Alligator River, NC

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Fast forward: this year our anchorage looked like this.

Monet's version of the Alligator.

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Photo ops along the first 173 miles of the ICW.

Das barge from cockpit.

Strange-looking houses on ICW

Find the pelicans on the channel marker.

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Finally, ta da.

We arrive at the best place along the ICW.  River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC.

River Dunes club house

River Dunes drops my blood pressure by 10 points.  We are staying  here for two days, maybe three.  A nasty front is coming through tonight.  It has a class A restaurant.  I like being a fair weather sailor.

Club house view

Balboita, no longer alone 

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And this is the sailor I am:  one part complaint and one part shear happiness.  

Vicki and the bros on the ICW.

So, where is everybody?

Our view today between Portsmouth and Coinjock, NC (50 miles of nothing).

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PORTSMOUTH YESTERDAY

Speaking of where is everybody, here are a few street scenes...

And where we ate...

Still is my favorite restaurant in Portsmouth.  Advertises as vegan and glutin-free,  but I love it anyway.  "Still" does not stand for "Still the One."  It stands for former whisky still.

One person seen at the bar (left). 

Barry give a little zombe life to the entry way. (right)

Our bunk...

Balboita hung out over night in one of the two usually crowded basins at the end of main street.  Again, alone and unafraid, but where the ef are all the people?  This is "transit time," folks.  Millions of snowbirds are hiding in the bushes somewhere.

Coinjock last night...

Here we are at our dock at Coinjock, the only marina hereabouts.  If you don't have a reservation, you get to wander alone and unafraid into the dark searching for anchorage.  There is no plan B.  So we made a reservation and mentioned up front that we needed fuel, a fact that is bound to get you a room at the inn.

(I should mention that Coinjock has some creeping competition across the way in the form of the Midway Marina which, according to its Facebook page, is "the best marina in Coinjock, NC" (dig, dig)

In front of us is a 112-foot Westport named Castlefinn. 

I do not believe humans live on board.  

Behind us is a Fleming. Balboita, the little boat that could, proudly floated among the one percenters.

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Speaking of transit time, for thems who are about to follow in our path:  the Great Lock at Portsmouth opened yesterday for us at 9:30 am.  For thems that have a clue what I'm talking about, this is a pretty big deal.  All my sources says the only morning times are: 8:30 or 11 am.  Maybe temporary accommodation for snow birds who are flying the coop.

Well, that's all folks...

 Vicki and the Bros

SO, HERE WE ARE...

This is Balboita, tied up to the Eastport Yacht Club  dock where we stayed last night.

Such a lonely-looking thing...makes me think....

What am I doing here?

Where did I go wrong?

Why on earth would anyone choose to do this?

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Today, we launched.  Down the Chesapeake from Annapolis to the Great Wicomoco River, just south of the Potomac.  Talk about lonely, I think I saw 10 boats during the 10-hour trip.  Where is everybody?










As of 7:17 pm this evening, we are anchored in one of 
the one hundred Mill creeks in the Bay.  Did go aground in the process, which is pretty hard to do since this creek seems bigger than Anne Arundel County.

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Tomorrow, Portsmouth.  And my favorite restaurant if I can just remember its name.

That's all folks.

Notes from Anchorage Marina, Baltimore

We've been staying in Anchorage Marina, Baltimore Inner Harbor, waiting for the hurricanes to go away so we can start our trek down the ICW to Florida for the winter.

Big thanks to Margo Caldy and Dennis Krakow for letting us use their slip.  It's a real experience to stay in an urban marina.

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This is what we see out our back door

in Slip C-45....

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At the end of the dock, the great schooner race last week....

  Anchorage Marina slip owners watch in the rain.

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Without a segue, here's a photo of sunken boats in BVI after Irma

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Also, without a segue, here is a follow up to them turkeys we herded in May while farm-sitting.   The meat birds done got meatier.

May 2017

October 2017

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Finally, here's a 3-D video by a friend of ours, Aram Nersesian.  Aram is trying to go over the edge with his drones and cameras down in Solomons Island.  This is a recent blustery day sailing. https://vimeo.com/237314610       You may need to copy and paste this url into your browser since the link may not work.  It's worth it, because you can click around in Aram's video for different views.  (Besides, what else do you have to do?)

Well, that's all folks.  The big plan in the sky is to head to Annapolis Harbor today and tie up at Eastport Yacht Club.