Norfolk - It's begining to feel like Christmas

[Kyle]I mentioned in the previous blog that Interstate 95 is the busiest (most traveled) in the United States. It wasn't actually too bad when we first joined it at five a.m., after leaving Andy and Robin's. By the time we crossed the border into Georgia (GA) a few hours later, we were starting what was to be a whole day of slow-and-go, and even occasionally stop-and-go traffic. At least we had pizza and sandwiches aboard to keep us from starving (haha!).

The drive North

When we finally exited the car with our creaky joints in Virginia Beach, it had been five hours and three minutes since our last fuel stop. The outside temperature was twenty degrees Fahrenheit (11°C) colder than when we had climbed in. Yeeesh! That's cold. First priority: find out where we packed our coats.

We spent a relaxed time with Liz, including plenty of card-playing and a girls' outing to watch the new Barbie movie

We spent our first few days in the area staying with Liz, one of Maryanne's good friends (they met when studying to be volunteer EMTs/Ambulance Medics). We had a good mix of quiet time with each other and a excursions out and about for variety. We also used Liz's place as a base for a few chores and outings of our own as well as a quiet place to get caught up on our backup of computer jobs (like blog writing). Maryanne got to take a side trip or two to catch up with other friends where possible.

My favorite evening with Liz was when we all went to the Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas lights. It sounds so banal, but it was really incredible. The staff there did an amazing job of lighting up the entire place like a, um, Christmas Tree. Actually, it was more of a whole Christmas forest. Even grumpy old me was bounding around like a kid who can't wait to see what's next. I kept having to remind myself to stay within sight of the group.

Christmas lights at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens was a treat

For our last week in Norfolk, we went to stay with Kate and Mark again. By this point, we have all known one another for half of our adult lives. They are the closest non-family family that we have and coming to their house to be in their company feels like the closest thing to coming home that two rolling stones like me and Maryanne can have without being out on the boat, bobbing around somewhere. To me, personally, I find their company to be the most rejuvenating of all and I look forward to visiting with great anticipation.

Of course, we had a great time. We crisscrossed the town, ate out a lot, repeatedly stayed up later than we all thought we would, and took in our own Christmas light show (not as good as the Botanic Gardens, but the company helped make up for it).

Mark helped me repair the last of the bear damage to our rental car and Kate took a day off to show us the area of Richmond where she grew up. It's very charming.

Christmas themed Doggy-Day-Care, and the beautifully decorated Cavalier Hotel

The Virginia Beach Boardwalk also had a drive through Holiday lights display (fun, but not as good as the Botanical Gardens)

We were happy to overdose on Christmas lighting displays - here are a few from the famous 43rd Street neighbourhood lights

On less busy days, we were more than happy to enjoy Kate's wonderful cooking (which I like a bit too much, but she is so good at it) and hang around having long talks about whatever comes up.

The pets even got comfortable enough around us that we would sometimes wake to find significant sections of the space at the foot of the bed had been claimed by one furball or another. The dog (Poppy) was the funniest. She would wedge herself into the slowly increasing valley on top of the comforter between me and Maryanne. Then she would wait patiently - sometimes for hours - before one or the other of us woke to see her giving a look that clearly said, "Okay, you can scratch me now."

I know it sounds corny, but as we were hugging them all goodbye, I was missing them already and looking forward to the next time we get back. Norfolk is the closest place we have that feels like a "home".

Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) - Part 1/3

[Kyle]Day One (Apr 4th)

It was time to get moving again. We left Charleston at dawn along with a whole cohort of boats that had been waiting out the weather. Most were powerboats that were faster and significantly shorter in height than us. They were already receding around the next curve in the waterway when we arrived at the first bridge. By the time it opened to let our mast through, the other boaters were well out of sight. We spent the rest of the available daylight mostly by ourselves, slowly gliding by marshland that was occasionally interrupted by a mile or so of waterfront housing, every one of which seemed to be at least a part-time Bed and Breakfast.

Day 1: Charleston to Winyah Bay (ICW mile 406)

By sunset, we had made it to Winyah Bay, just downstream of Georgetown, South Carolina. We weren’t quite fast enough to get there before the midges came out for their evening feed, though. We anchored pretty far from shore, so the situation was probably a lot better than it could have been. It would have been nice to sleep with the hatches open, but not nice to wake up covered in little, itchy bites. I guess that’s what fans are for…

Day Two (Apr 5th)

Following our pre-dawn departure, we had a very atmospheric first few hours as the flooding tide took us up the Waccamaw River from Winyah Bay. There was not a breath of wind, which made the water an upside-down version of the views above. We went through thick fog interspersed with cold, clear spots where the mists clung to the tops of cypress trees whose buttress roots splayed out before entering the mud below the water’s surface.

As the sun rose further, all of the moisture burned off and we were soon hiding from it under the bimini to keep from being cooked.

High tide arrived just as we passed the tidal border between the waters fed by the inlets for the Waccamaw and Calabash rivers. Now the ebb was helping us along. I would love to take credit for timing it that way, but we would have needed every minute of daylight anyway, so we were going to have to take whatever we got.

Day 2: Winyah Bay to Sage Island (ICW mile 329.5) - now in North Carolina

I had planned on anchoring for the night in the Calabash, right on the border between North and South Carolina. I had done it once before and really didn’t like it. There is a lot of tour boat traffic through there and they seem to take a certain pleasure in charging and then swerving to throw big wakes on the anchored boats. There is no suitable alternative nearby. With our all-day boost from the current, we had just enough time to carry on, now on the flood coming in Calabash’s inlet, to get all of the way to a very peaceful spot on the Shallotte River where it was just us and one other catamaran. That was so much better.

Day Three (Apr 6th)

As our pre-dawn-to-dusk schedule remained the same, the moon and thus the tides came later. We were starting to get out of sync, but only a little. We were doing okay until about the time we saw Lydia waving at us from Take Five at the marina in Southport. By the time we turned north to follow the Cape Fear River, the current was holding us back more and more by the minute. We got excited when it turned in our favor as we transited Snow’s Cut to the New River, but then we were right back to fighting it again. We had a nice tailwind, though, which allowed us to keep our speed where we would like it. It took us right until the last minute of daylight to get to our anchorage at Sloop Point, just out of the busy channel for all of the boats moored at the docks on Topsail Island.

As we headed northward, the houses on both sides of the ICW got more numerous and much bigger. We saw single homes that were much larger than the buildings we have seen on some small islands that house the entire government. More impressive was that since the water is so shallow and marshy, each home has a loooong railroad trestle-style pier leading from the house to the ubiquitous center-console fishing boat, jacked up on a lift at the end. Most of the piers had thick railings on each side, as well as a covered seating area by the boat. Each one looked like they took more lumber to build than the house. Out of all of the thousands that we saw, only two had someone obvious out enjoying them. I imagine that if you are lucky enough to have one of these homes, you will ironically need to spend most of your time somewhere else, working to pay for them.

Day 3: Sage Island to Sloop Point (ICW Mile 264)

Day Four (Apr 7th)

Our luck with the current finally ended. A big blow was on its way and none of the anchorages that were available in the next sixty miles offered much protection. The best plan I could think of was to continue past Beaufort, North Carolina into the more protected waters of the little creeks to the north in the section between Bogue Sound and the Neuse River. To make this work, we had to leave Sloop Creek in the last few hours of the moonless night. This synchronized us with the current, but in the wrong way. Every time we would pass an inlet, we would go from fighting the flood to fighting the brand-new ebb.

This leg of our trip started beautiful and calm with glassy water and the slightest of tailwinds, which was not enough to be worth deploying any sail for a speed boost. By afternoon, lowering clouds arrived along with a building headwind that slowed Begonia down even more. Even though it was Saturday, all of the recreational traffic quickly thinned until it was just us plodding slowly away in the channel.

By the time we made it to the Beaufort/Morehead City area, the sound of the wind through the rigging was completely droning out the engines. When we finally made it out of Bogue sound, we were better protected from the wind and waves, which helped our speed through the water, but the adverse current picked up to more than compensate for the gain. We were now fighting the building flood coming south down Adams Creek from the Neuse River.

We got to our anchorage twenty minutes after sunset. We were as far as we could get and still be protected from the building swell in the Neuse. That was a long day. Since the next day’s weather was supposed to be worsening, we knew it was also going to be a short night with an early start.

Day 4:To nowhere in particular (ICW Mile 188.5)

Charleston, South Carolina

[Kyle]Charleston is one of our favorite cities on the East Coast, so we were happy to make landfall there after nearly seven years away from the U.S. Even before we had cleared in, we were already invited to cocktails aboard Take Five by Bill and Lydia, who are Chesapeake-based members of the Offshore Cruising Club (OCC) were also passing through Charleston. Joining us for cocktails were Kurt and Carol, the Charleston port officers for the OCC, the very same group that had been there on our arrival to say "Hi" and help tie our lines. What a warm welcome and a lovely first evening back in the USA.

Charleston has a classic style and is a pleasure to just amble about the many historic streets

After Take Five departed the next morning, we spend the bulk of our day doing the usual boring marina jobs that build up between visits. Among the jobs, it was the first time in several months that we had access to fresh water and a hose, so Begonia received some long overdue pa-treatment. Maryanne did some basic grocery shopping in the first real supermarket we’ve seen since we left South Africa back in the new year (thanks kindly to Carol, the local OCC port officer for the assistance). We were both flagging at the end of the day, but insisted on walking downtown for dinner as an excuse to enjoy the beautiful city along the way. Actually, we weren’t planning to go that far, the local Yacht Club was advertising a pizza night and that sounded just right for us. Once we arrived though, they confessed to some staff issue, and told us the only pizzas on offer were frozen ones from Walmart. We took the hint, and went off to find a proper pizza joint. We ended up at New York Pizza, where they were so faithful to the style that it was impossible to eat a slice without folding it in half like the New Yorkers do.

Our next day was reserved for proper tourism. We started with a trip to Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. The Confederates relentlessly blasted it to rubble from all sides within the first few hours. Hearing the accounts and looking at the photos, it seems amazing that any of the Union soldiers within survived at all. All did, in fact, and were later allowed to surrender the fort and return to their Union ships without further harm. They even got to keep their flag. By the time they got the fort back four years later, it was basically just a mound of dirt riddled with bricks.

Fort Sumter - where the first shots were fired of the American Civil War (1861)

We spent the balance of the day walking through Charleston’s stately streets, the college (university) buildings and the town’s many museums. We chose a route back to the marina via Fast and French, a restaurant recommended by Kurt and Carol. It is small, with only a long bar and just a handful of tables and it is endlessly charming. We were very lucky to get a couple of the spots at the end of the bar.

Beautiful Charleston kept us quite busy

After we sat down (at Fast and French), a whole string of regulars came by to be told their usual table wouldn’t be available for a while. All took the news in stride and none seemed to begrudge us the time to fully enjoy our delicious meal at a proper French pace while they paced the sidewalk outside trying to appear busy.

We walked home with the warm glow of full bellies that included some good wine and arrived just as one last cold rain shower announced that the time had come to dive inside for the rest of the night.