At 5 pm when Karen from the Marina got finished with work, she took us into town. She'd made us a 5:30 reservation for dinner at a great restaurant called Brutti's. Super meal. After we ate, the hostess from Brutti's gave us a ride back to the boat. People are so nice here.
With the cabin door closed, and the heater on, we slept pretty well after about 11 pm. It took a while to warm up, but we slept in fleece pants, warm socks and a couple layers of long sleeved shirts, so we were ok. LOVE that heater. :-)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007.
Today we left the marina at about 8:15 am. It is cold, but not as bad as yesterday. The high today was probably 45, but it was breezy and damp. Leaving Portsmouth and Norfolk (on the other side of the water), we passed some large military ships and a huge ship from Monrovia. We also passed a snow-covered barge with a snowman on it.
Our first LOCK of the trip, Great Bridge Lock, was interesting and kind of fun. We are really on the ICW! This afternoon we reached MILE 1000 of the trip. Throughout the day, we spotted 4 Bald Eagles.
Just before dark, we arrived at Midway Marina and Motel in Coinjock North Carolina, settled in on a dock with power and turned on the heat. There is a nice little store with good hot coffee, and a restaurant next door named Crabbies. The store has all kinds of supplies and even some food, but no milk for our coffee. And we must have our coffee! The gentleman running the store kindly called his wife and asked her to pick up some milk for us at a local store, which was really nice. Some of the same boats that were travelling in front of or behind us today are here, too. We'd travel alone for a long time, but everyone would catch up to each other when we'd have to stop to wait for a bridge to open.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2007
We woke up early and left the marina at 6:45 am for what we expected to be about a 10 hour ride. We got to see the sun rise over the waterway, and more of the knobby-rooted trees that someone said are cypruses.
Passing through Abermarle sound was like crossing an ocean, except it was flat and calm all the way. Part of the time, we couldn't see land. We spotted a few pelicans today, and another bald eagle. Very cool! We arrived tired but finally warm at the River Forest Marina at about 4:30 pm. The temperature has been rising all day, and it's probably in the 60s. Bryce, the man who helped us tie up to the dock, says tomorrow will be in the 70s. Yay! We were pleased to find that we have free internet right on the boat, so finally a chance for Lin to catch up on e-mail for work. River Forest Marina is in Pungo Creek, in Bell Haven North Carolina. We're at about mile 135 on the ICW, and have reached mile 1101 on our trip.
On our way to New Bern NC, where we'd planned to leave the boat until our next trip, we looked on the maps and charts for a place to stop and rest. There was a little town called Oriental that sounded like an interesting place to check out. We were fortunate enough to find a free town dock, right across the street from the best coffee shop in the world, "The Bean".
Oriental is a great place! Small, cute, friendly town. Nice people, some great shops, art gallery, a handful of really good places to eat. At the Bean, we were told that the locals that hang out there often hold up signs with numbers on them, rating people as they dock their boats across the street at the Town Dock. Luckily, nobody was watching us when we came in.... although I'm sure they would have been ever-so-impressed by Lin's amazing dock-lassooing techiques.
In Oriental, there are boats and kayaks and bicicles. Lots of folks have dogs, who are all polite and give you a nice greeting. There is no leash law, and often dogs hang out on the porch of the Bean while their people are inside. Most streets do not have lines on them, and there are no streetlights that I remember. At one point, we were walking down the street back to the boat, and a couple standing on the town dock said to Moe "Are you from New Hampshire?"
Everywhere we go, there is someone who knows Moe.
This particular man was an acquaintance of Moe's from "home". Tim was in Oriental with his wife Paula, living and traveling aboard their gorgeous custom made boat. We spent some time with Tim and Paula, walked around town together, ate together, and laughed together. Tim was able to get us a spot at the place where he and Paula were keeping their boat, the Dorothy Gale. Clancy's Marina is named after a dog, which in our eyes makes it even nicer. We were able to dock directly across from Tim's boat. We decided to cancel our trip to New Bern, leave the boat in Oriental for a few months, and spend some more time there.
In town, we met some really great people: Melinda, who brought us real mistletoe that grows down there, June, who was so friendly and cheerful every morning at the Bean as we came stumbling in for our coffee, Happy, who is as lovely as her name, and Ray, who was kind enough to pick us up and drive us 30 miles to the airport at 5 am on the day we headed back home. It was hard to leave Oriental because we met so many great people in such a short space of tiem. It's beautiful and quiet there, and we are looking forward to when we go back!