Christmas in Morehead City, NC

We had a very nice Christmas - hope all of you did, too!!! My daughter Heather was able to come down from the Raleigh area to visit for the day. Unfortunately, my daughter Nikki was unable to make the trip from Roanoke - that's a long trip for such a short time. We did talk to everybody, including Luke's daughters Lisa and Erin.


Our sister-in-law from Savannah, Beth, made the trip and stayed several days. She struggled to adapt to the boat... :-) Not hardly!!! We did some great female bonding a.k.a. shopping :-) It was great to have her available to run us around for errands, too. She even brought Christmas night dinner with her!




Our boating friends Sally and Ed were still in Morehead City, so they were able to join us for Christmas Day, too.





Wickie loves other people's coats, etc, so he absolutely enjoyed Sally & Ed's visit...



Wickie has also discovered that it's an easy jump to get off of the boat and onto the dock for a leisurely, exploratory stroll. We have to keep a close eye on him now. He never wanders far and returns when I scold him, but he's definitely become a wanderer. It's even more important to him at night. sigh. guess he's a cat after all.

We also had a visit from Luke's anesthesiologist, Michael, and his girlfriend Connie. They came by to check up on Luke. We were glad to see them. Luke's doing great - minimal pain or swelling. He's still taking it carefully, but we were able to go for a walk today around the water front in Morehead City.

There were a group of pelicans fishing by the boat in the still, foggy morning of Saturday, repeatedly taking off, climbing, and diving into the water with a loud kerplunk.

Luke got this great shot of a pelican taking off. They are wonderful to watch, soaring slowly only inches above the water.

Morehead City is quite a fishing town. There are a lot of tuna, marlin, swordfish, etc., charter boats. This is just the beginning of big tuna season, we're told. Here is just one of the many lines of charter boats, all about 55 ft in length. They go out into the gulf stream. We haven't seen any coming in yet from a day's charter, but I'd love to see what they catch. We're told the tuna this time of the year can run up to several hundred pounds. Here's the website for one of the charter boats http://www.impulsecharters.com/index.htm

Luke is fine

The surgery went just as expected - well. Luke was in surgery only 30 minutes. The doctor said that the tear was actually an old tear, years old, that has recently degraded, probably due to use and age. A little arthritis, too, that the dr. cleaned up. Luke had a spinal,block anesthesia so there are no negative affects like nausea and grogginess. The only current affect is that his butt is numb. :-)
He's resting comfortable now, in the cockpit of the boat, alert, Wickie helping as usual. Luke has to keep the leg elevated with ice on it for the next 48 hours and then can begin a few exercises. Pain meds as needed.
Ever since the incident that sparked all of this 3 weeks ago, he would walk normally with only a hint of ache in the right knee. Luke hasn't really had any pain, just the dull "clunk" in the knee. He wasn't absolutely convinced that the surgery was necessary until mid day yesterday when he stood up and the knee went "thunk" - pain and swelling, difficulty in walking. This was exactly what the doctor said could happen - no real complications until the knee decided to "go". We know now he made the right decision.
The folks at the surgery center were great. The anesthesiologist brought us back to the boat and got Luke back in the boat and settled down.
We have friends from the marina in Deltaville who are in Morehead City now, too. Sally and Ed are docked beside us at the Sanitary Restaurant. It's fun to have someone else here. We went for pizza and the game on Monday night, drinks and sandwiches last night. They will have Christmas dinner with us tomorrow.
So, a successful and pleasant experience at a nice lemonade stand.

Hanging out in Morehead City

Things are progressing. Luke found the problem with the windlass ---- dead motor. So, we have that on order and hope to get it in before Christmas. At least we have a solution.

Luke is using the time to install the SSB radio (single side band) that we will want in the Bahamas. The range, unlike the usual VHF radio, is up to several hundred miles. We can use it for communications with friends and family, plus the very important task of checking on the weather each day.

Don't know what time the surgery is scheduled yet, but still definitely Christmas Eve. I'll post afterwards.

We've decided to stay at the Sanitary Restaurant. There is water available next door (filled up the tanks today) and our solar panels allow the boat to create enough energy to power the generator which runs our reverse cycle heat pump. Also, we have a propane space heater, which is a great addition. Today is the cold day for our stay here - 24 tonight and windy. After tomorrow, the highs should be in the mid 60's and lows in the mid 40's .

The birds like the restaurant, too. It provides a great windbreak for us and them when the wind blows from the northwest, like it did today. We've got white egrets...

and pelicans...

And we have spectacular sunsets!!!

A little change in our plans.....

Yulp, a little change in our plans. There are a couple of snags, actually. Remember the uncooperative anchor windlass? It's still uncooperative. It's gotten worse with each use. Luke has replaced the circuit breaker, but that wasn't the problem. We're still working on the solution, possibly a new windlass. The windlass is what we use to let down and bring up the anchor each time we stop for the night, so it's essential. We can't do it manually, as the anchor "rope" is actually chain that weighs 1 lb/ft and the anchor itself weighs 45 pounds. Even with 20 feet of chain vertical, that's about 70 lb to haul up hand over hand -- that we'd really rather not do every morning.

And, Luke has a meniscus tear in his right knee. He first noticed it right before we left Deltaville, but hoped it was only a strain, sprain, etc. An MRI here at Morehead City, NC confirmed the diagnosis of a complex tear of the meniscus, plus leaking, and an associated cyst that is causing swelling and pain. Luke isn't in much pain, just a popping sensation in the knee and a dull ache at times. Both the orthopedic group here and his orthopedic doctor back in Roanoke recommend the repair at this time, as there could be consequences if he waits. It should be a simple orthoscopic procedure which will allow him to put weight back on the knee the same day of surgery, no stitches, no crutches. But he does need a 7-10 day recuperative period. The surgery is scheduled for Dec 24, which means we should be leaving Morehead City and continuing our journey south by early in the first week of January. We are still looking for a place to stay during those weeks.

Right now we are docked, at no charge, at the Sanitary Seafood Restaurant in Morehead City. The restaurant is closed for the season. This is apparently THE place to eat in Morehead City during the tourist season! We appreciate the free dockage- it gives us great access to the town.

It's ok for now, but has no water fill ups or electricity. Both will be important if we are to be here for almost 3 weeks, so we are looking for a better solution. Hopefully we can find a marina where we can keep the boat. We have a couple of possible solutions.

So... where IS that lemonade stand! We're sure it's here; just need to locate it. Well, Wickie has located it...but he's quite easy to please...

Actually, the orthopedic group seems quite good and the weather, while mostly foggy and drizzly so far, isn't nearly as cold as further north. It's back to my roots - Christmas and New Years in North Carolina!

There has to be one of those days now and then.....

Sigh. We started with good intentions, up and ready to go at 6:45. Yes, that's A.M..... As dawn was just thinking of breaking, we were surrounded by gun shots! It was like being on a firing range! There were occasional squaks of ducks startled out of their slumbers. The shooting continued as the light increased. ---- duck hunting!!!! The hunters were EVERYWHERE, on all of the points of land around us, shooting into the air at ducks. We turned on the Christmas lights on the outside of the boat to be sure they saw us.

The morning started warm (upper 50's) and sunny. Looked great. So, we started our usual routine of raising the anchor. Then, the anchor windless died with the anchor half way up. So, Luke, the Engineer, went to work and of course, fixed it. But that cost us an hour or more. By then the fog had rolled in.

This was the first time we've had to get out the fog horn since Maine. Luke & I took turn nagivating via the GPS, chart plotter and radar or watching the canal and blowing the fog horn. Wickie loved it....

Along the river was a shrimp boat harbor. I love this picture of the shrimp boats in the fog.

The fog finally broke as we approached Oriental, NC. It's am amazingly small harbor, but they claim to have 3000 sailboats scattered throughout Oriental. Beats me where they hide them all. You can see both sides of the harbor in this photo of Latitudes.

Anyway, we stopped long enough to walk into town and pick up a package from the post office and grab lunch. The day was warm and sunny and perfect. By the time we ate lunch, the wind picked up, the skies opened and poured rain, and the temperatures dropped by at least 15 degrees. We were, naturally, dressed for the warm and sunny.

We walked back to the boat and left for an anchorage across the Neuse River. It was rough and rolly, but only a couple of miles wide. We're anchored now, warm, cozy, and relatively still. It's interesting that only now are we beginning to see more sailboats headed south. There are 3 others in the immediate anchorage area. One is from Canada, one from New Hampshire, and I don't know about the other. It was rainy and blowing when we got here. Maybe we can talk to them tomorrow before we leave for Morehead City.

One thing I love about getting further south along the NC coastal area is the pelicans. The Brown Pelican is common here, with their white neck plumage in the winter.

In fact, the entire bird population seems to be better here. We've also seen commorants, loons, lots of terns and seagulls, and hugh populations of some sort of short black duck with white sidewalls. Try as we can, we can't identify them.

Wickie waits for Santa and his sled pulled by 8 tiny mice.....

Yes, Virginia, there is Christmas, even on a sailboat headed south....

Elizabeth City, Alligator River, Albemarle Sound, Pungo River

We've made a lot of progress in the past 3 days - amazing what you can do when the weather is right :-)

The Visitor Center is roughly right at the NC border. From there we went to Elizabeth City for Saturday night, down the Pasquotank River in the Albemarle Sound, across the sound, and into the next section of map, following the one immediately below.

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Section 2 of maps! Anyway, from the Albemarle Sound down the Alligator River for Sunday night, and then down the Pango Canal (means "dust" in Indian), down the Pango River, across the Pamlico River, and then just south of the river for tonight. Tomorrow we will stop at Oriental NC to pick up mail and then another 10 miles or so before stopping for the night. The plan is to spend Wednesday night in Moorehead City/Beaufort. That will take care of the inner NC ICW route and put us on the coastal portion of the ICW. yeah!

When we left the Visitors Center on Saturday it was COLD. 31 degrees of cold. Icy decks. But on the bright side, it made a beautiful fog just across the top of the water. It was a nice day actually, and warmed up into the upper 40's. This isn't us - it's the only other boat we've seen on the waterway so far.

This section of the Dismal Swamp Canal was beautiful, filled with cypress knees rising out of the water. Very swamp-ish looking....

We passed through the South Mills bridge and lock on the way to Elizabeth City. My mom lived in South Mills as a young woman, when she was dating my now 90 year old dad. Still a small town.

Elizabeth City was nice, but too cold to do a lot of exploring. We walked around the waterfront area, visited the very nice Museum of the Albemarle, ate great seafood at the Economy Seafood Diner/retail store, and retreated to the relative warmth of the boat. My dad grew up in the county around Elizabeth City and was nostalgic about our visit there. He had hoped to join us there, but unfortunately it didn't work out this time.

Another cold, icy morning, but this time it warmed up into the upper 50's - much better! Nothing too unusual this day. The water was so still that we had perfect reflections in the swamp of the trees and sky. Luke's the photographer here.

Today we made a lot of progress. We did see golden eagles, a couple of pairs. One pair fished the water right beside the boat, not 10 feet away from us. They were magnificent.

It was warm today, in the upper 60's!!!!!! What a nice change! We were down to jeans and tee shirts in the boat - much better than thermal lined jeans and sweatshirts. Tomorrow should be warm, too, but possibly rainy. We have figured that we need to get to the GA border before the weather changes significantly. I'm ready :-)

Dismal Swamp Welcome Center

After waking up to rain at 7 AM, the skies finally gave way and the sun came out! What a welcome sight after 3 days!

We left the dock at the Deep Creek Lock by 9 and passed by the Deep Creek draw bridge. It's a very narrow bridge, manned by the same lock master as the Deep Creek Lock. The lock and bridge are in sight of each other, a quick jaunt by the lock master from one to the other.

We idled slowly along the beautiful, narrow Dismal Swamp Canal at about 6 mph. That was fast enough in the shallow waters. Hwy 17 runs along much of the canal, only a few yards from the water. I've been on that road before, but never dreamed I'd actually be the one in the boat instead of the car. :-) The highway is filled with lots of little picnic stops along the swamp canal.

The water in the canal is a deep tea color, due to the tannin in the cypress and juniper trees in the swamp. It's an amazing tea color. This is a shot of the very lowest step on the back of the boat, the part that is always under water as we are underway. BUT - the acid is at such a high level that the water is the cleanest in the USA. In the colonial days, it was used for transatlantic voyages because it stayed clean and potable for years. Clean or not, it's having a definite affect on all white surfaces on the boat, inside and out.

We made one detour today, taking the dinghy to Lake Drummond. We couldn't actually get to the lake, but we did the 3 mile feeder "ditch" to the little picnic/camping area at the base of the lake. It was a beautiful dinghy ride, a stop about 1/2 way between the lock and our destination, the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center.

Luke enjoyed the ride through the canal, finally getting a little sunshine.

As we approached the welcome center, we were treated with a bald eagle. She soared over us, along the canal, for almost 10 minutes, circling higher and higher. Finally another eagle joined her. I think they were trying to divert us from their nesting area. Absolutely magnificent!!!

We ended up at the welcome center dock for the night. We were accompanied by another boat that was with us at the lock. We were the only 2 boats in this section of the canal today.

And - sunset over the Dismal Swamp Canal

Last, but not least, I just can't resist a cute face.....

Heading south!

We are finally on our way south! It seemed like it took a long time to get started after our return from the trip north for the summer. First there was the little issue of just how many groceries do you really need for several months..... probably less than I bought. And this stuff doesn't include the cereal boxes or Wickie's 5 boxes of litter. I thought I'd never find a place to stash all of this stuff. Notice Wickie helping out, over in the upper left, on his red blankie?

Luke's arm is almost healed and he's doing great. Wickie is "back in the saddle", back to his old ways and relatively comfortable in his boat.

We left on December 8, 2008, with the help of our friends Nancy and Jim, tossing off our lines in the crisp 24 degree morning. Such good friends!!! Wind allowed us to sail for about 2 hours, but then we had to pull down the sails and motor the rest of the way to Little Creek, VA, outside of Norfolk. There we had a great visit with my sister-in-law, Judy. She made a wonderful dinner for us!

Tuesday was much warmer and mostly sunny. The route to the ICW takes us through Norfolk and into the Elizabeth River. We saw an interesting activity of a Navy helicopter pulling something through the water, maybe a small boat, via a tow line out of the rear of the helicopter. Most strange and very loud, with lots of spray from the water below.

I've never been through Norfolk from the water and was amazed at the number of ships there. I know it 's a shipyard, but really! THAT many ships!!!??? It was quite impressive.

The river has a series of bridges, most of them normally in an open position. We had to call to have one open for us. They are so close together -- here are 3 of them right together.

Norfolk is "Mile 0" on the ICW. From there you take a short run down the Elizabeth River in the ICW and have an option to take the Dismal Swamp Canal or the Virginia Cut. We opted for the Dismal Swamp. Here is a map of the first section of the ICW, from Mile 0 to Elizabeth City, at the mouth of the Albemarle Sound. From now on, I'll have a similar may of the section of the ICW that we are in at the beginning of each blog.

The route is in the South Branch of the Elizabeth River, under Hwy 64. I've seen the water from that bridge so many times over the 20 years that my friend Sara and I have gone to Nags Head. It was incredible to know that I was finally, after all of those years, IN the water below, headed for the Dismal Swamp Canal.

As soon as we took our 63 ft mast under the 65 ft bridge clearance, we made a 90 degree turn to the right and entered the Dismal Swamp Canal! What a welcome "highway sign". :-)

The swamp is narrow and shallow. It is supposed to be dredged to 6 ft in the center (we draw 5'4"). We found water "thin" enough to be 1.7 ft under our boat. That is shallow enough.

About 3 miles into the swamp is the first of 2 locks, the Deep Creek Lock. This takes the boats from the lower section to the higher southern end of the canal. We were fortunate to be the only boat in the lock, so the lock master took lots of pictures of Latitudes as the locks filled. The first is when we first entered the lock, at the lower level of the swamp. Next the water has filled the lock about half way. Finally, we are at the upper level of the lock, ready to simply motor out into the next section of the waterway.

The lock master's dog U-turn has discovered Wickie in the cockpit. ..

We spent Tuesday night at a city dock immediately after exiting the lock. It's a nice area, a city park by the waterway. Town is only a couple of blocks away, but we feel like we're in the middle of nowhere. The weather was bad today, worse tomorrow. The plan is to spend Thursday here too, and hopefully leave on Friday for the NC Welcome Center, about 18 miles away further south.