Oh, Mama, can this really be the end - to be stuck in Oriental with those Beaufort Blues again...

Yes, Noel is now an official hurricane, and we are just slightly south of Cape Hatteras. No going any further until the big boy blows out. What in the world to do? Two nights ago we had a lovely music party on Bill and Caroline's boat. Clearly we were having some fun. Yesterday they took their boat out for a day sail. The opportunity to sail their gorgeous 40 foot Pacific Seacraft was too much for both Wayne and Claude, and they were delighted to take turns at the wheel. Scratch that. Wayne was delighted to take a turn at the helm. Claude pouted and whined when he had to turn it over, and demanded a St. Pauli Girl as compensation. A couple of St. Pauli Girls later, il ne fasait plus la guele. It was sunny, breezy (10-15 knots) and nice yesterday afternoon, and I broke my self-imposed rule of NEVER going for a "pleasure" sail again. Knowing that we would be at the marina for a few more days, I figured what the heck, why be a party-pooper. I felt no need to demonstrate my lack of prowess at the helm, but Caroline was the real helmsman that day, bringing that big boat into the slip like a pro. Caroline and I took a trot to the grocery store, and on the way back what do we see but Claude behind the wheel of a Lotus! One of the local gents we met at the Tiki Bar took a liking to Claude and somehow that bugger managed to convince the guy to let him drive his racecar. We are still trying to comprehend how he gets people to do these things. Claude rocketed out of town from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds (according to his own account). We were happy to see him arrive safely back, as this British racecar has the steering on the right and therefore a left-handed stick shift. The evening came to a blissful close as we shared a potluck dinner under the stars on the deck of the Oriental Marina. Our other friend Rich on the Kelly Rae joined us - you can still see his boat on the towndock harborcam. Do check it out if you get a chance. You will see that the water is steadily rising and has now obliterated the road in front of The Bean. We can still step out onto the dock finger next to our boat, but this will almost certainly be underwater by the end of tonight. We were lucky to have made it to this very safe hurricane hole just as Noel decided to play hardball. We took borrowed bikes to the grocery store this morning, and are probably tucked in for the rest of today and tomorrow. It does not look like we'll make Beaufort before Sunday at the earliest. Rich thinks he is going to Beaufort tomorrow to catch a weather window to make the crossing to Bermuda on Sunday. This sounds like certain death, or at the very least a suicide wish to me, but what do I know? I am glad to have reservations for tomorrow night as well as tonight, and so many new good friends with whom we can share this storm experience.

Parts and Friends in Oriental: how to weather the storm

Claude is fixing his "muffler" himself with a combination of rope, goop, nuts and bolts. He tried to get a new part, but unfortunately it seems no one makes that part the correct size for his boat any more. As you can see from the photo above, he is proud of his workmanship. The part is installed now, the boat is running, but we are not moving. Tropical Storm Noel has threatened to spank us, and we are tucking in and staying in Oriental until the the big blow that is coming will pass. We are very happy at the town dock in our little 'pod' of boats. The nice folks sitting with us in the other picture are Carolyn and Bill from the Worthless Wench. We had a little happy hour on the dock, all you can eat shrimp dinner at a local restaurant and then a musical party with guitars, harmonica and accordion. It was such a lovely evening! Other notable events include a Francis-Edgell tennis match in which Edgell took Francis all the way to 7-5 only to have Francis win the set. This incredible feat was repeated the very next day. Someday I will win fair and square, just like the occasional game of pool. Anyway, this little town is so cute, so well maintained, so clean, so amenable to boaters, we are certainly falling in love with it and we are extremely glad to be able to wait out the storm here.

Oriental Webcam

For all of those who pick up on us the next day or so, the following link will take you to the Oriental, NC harbor webcam. We are the boat at the end of the dock. You can see our blue sailcover, and the bow. Claude is on Merope on the right hand side of the dock, and new friends Carolyn and Bill on the "Worthless Wench" on the other side. Beautiful, sunny and clear for now, but as Noel makes it's way around we may be looking at some nastier weather later in the week. Oriental is a sweet little town, very boater friendly. We even found a tennis court, so we'll be taking some more pictures this afternoon on the way to play. Here's the webcam link:

http://www.towndock.net/harborcam50.shtml

Bienvenu Claude! We create a team.

Meet Claude, our new travel-mate in the photo above with Wayne at the M & M's cafe in Oriental, North Carolina.
The sail from Belhaven to Oriental, North Carolina was made much better by the addition of our new team member, Claude! Claude is from Quebec and he is single-handing his 29-foot sailboat Merope all the way to the Bahamas as well. We travel about the same speed under sail and under power, and having anchored near eachother in Belhaven started to chat about teaming up. Claude is a fantastically smart and talented person in addition to being a mighty sailor and Harbormaster at his yacht club back home in Canada. He is a diesel engine expert among other things, which makes us feel incredibly safe. He is teaching us to actually use the GPS as it was designed to be used. He is a charming French-Canadien gentleman with whom I can even practice my French! We are so lucky to have teamed up with him, and hope to make the whole voyage together. The teamwork element was very important yesterday, as we sailed from Belhaven to Oriental in a huge, following wind. We crossed 2 of the "4 most dangerous passages on the ICW" - according to our chart book. The first was the Pamlico River/sound. The wind was about 15 to 20 knots on our tail, and the waves short and choppy. We had the main out and were flying along around 7 knots motor sailing. Surviving the Pamlico, the waterway narrowed down into the entrance of a 4-mile long canal and we had to maneuver upwind to drop the main. Claude, of course, had to leave the helm during this as he was all by himself. I was at our helm, and Wayne up front taking the sail down. Well, of course I did not quite realize that no one was at Claude's helm and nearly ran into him! The only casualty was my head as the boom swung a bit quicker than anticipated. We got the sails down without any great difficulty, and enjoyed a nice quiet motor down the canal. I was able to give the captain a break at that point, as the sail down the Pamlico had been athletic to say the least - especially after the fun Halloween we had. Exiting the canal, we entered the Neuse River and 14 miles of rolling, short choppy waves from 2 to 4 feet or so, a howling wind and screaming downriver with the Genoa out. Poor Claude had engine problems ( go figure, he's the mechanic) and so we cut our engine too and made great time without it. Regrettably, the changeover from mainsail to Genoa and subsequent rolling of the boat, the bang on the head, and the general poor condition from the night before all conspired together to completely incapacitate the first mate who is prone to motion sickness. Oh yeah. I was over the rail the whole time, nothing left to even spew out but heaving anyway. From time to time Wayne would need help and I would verify position with GPS and charts, look for a buoy, or take the helm briefly. Mostly, however, I was completely limp and useless. Several hours later we made it to Oriental harbor and were blissfully accomodated by the Oriental Marina. We will post some pictures of our host and hostess Thomas McIlhenny, Daisy Taylor and dockmaster Bub. Joe and Laura and the rest of the crew are as friendly as can be, and extremely helpful. Taking a hot shower last night in the beautifully clean facility - complete with fresh towels, shampoo, soap and hand creme - I thought I had died and gone to heaven. That was until we went to the M & M's cafe and had a fabulous dinner. Life is good again! We regret having missed most of the World Series but Go Sox! and Go Blue who also won this weekend. We will be happy as 2 little clams watching the Packer game tonight on the Toucan Grill's big-screen TV and knowing we have a wonderful new friend and an easy day to Beaufort tomorrow.

River Forest Manor Halloween: :Putting the Bel back in Belhaven

After a VERY wet night and day on anchor in Pungo Creek, we motored back to Belhaven to enjoy the hospitality of River Forest Manor and Marina and their Halloween Party. Discarding the notion of both dressing up as streetwalkers (this is the South, after all), we settled on our version of Captain Jack Sparrow and his pirate wench. The proof is as documented for you on the preceding photos. The River Forest Marina is around 100+ years old, circa great lumber and transportation barons, and was built by a very wealthy North Carolinian for his family. The original crystal chandeliers and sculpted ceilings remain in beautiful condition and the house now serves as elegant reminder of a by-gone era of southern grandeur. Our hostess for the evening, Ms. Charlotte Furstenberg, is the lovely vampirella in black. She made sure the party got going. Wayne was making new friends right and left, and we were having a lovely time. Just as we were about to leave, Charlotte announced we had won the costume contest (being the only couple there in costume aside from the employees) when entitiled us to our entrance fee back and 2 free drinks. We really could not take full advantage of our good luck, as had a big sail scheduled for early the next morning. Still, we managed to hang around to enjoy a wee bit more of the outstanding southern hospitality there is to be found in the classy River Forest Manor.

Not so belle Belhaven

We left our gloomy anchorage (first picture) yesterday, preparing to go down a 22-mile ditch in the swamp (second picture). it was Eeyore all the way. Our cruising guide had suggested that Belhaven is lovely and popular stopover. The third picture is the main industry here in Belhaven, the fertilizer factory. With the wrong wind-direction, it is quite fragrant. The town itself is seen in the fourth picture. The very cultured lady at the local gourmet wine and cheese store told us in her lovely British tones, "we are a two-stoplight town you know....." The fifth picture documents the BEST thing about Belhaven: a marvelous public library with computer access, wi-fi, a lovely remodeled interior and a screened-in porch with rockers for reading the paper, etc. To it's credit there are a block or two of lovely, stately homes in the southern tradition at the very far end of town, but most of the town is either dying or dead. The anchorage itself afforded little protection in the hellacious south wind that blew last night, but today the weather has settled down and we were able to walk the mile to the Food Lion and reprovision successfully. On the way there I saw a new sight: a cotton-field in bloom. We had to walk over and pick a wee bit...We are truly in the real South now. The library even carries the most recent edition of "Conservative Citizen" in the periodical section. Needless to say, we did not have a look at it. There are quite a number of boats anchored here, as it is a well-used stopover for pilgrims on the trail. That is really what it feels like. It is unthinkable, the number of boats that are heading south along the intercoastal as we are. We see folks we have seen before at any number of different ports. We also get passed by just about every other boat as we are very nearly the slowest "on the trail" at all times. That is, except under sail. Yesterday we spent a glorious half-hour under sail without the droning of the diesel, and during that time we flew! Being the slowest has certain advantages: for example, there is always someone ahead of you to let you know where to go. We met up with another fellow slow-poke today, a gentleman from Quebec named Claude. We intend to meet up this evening to discuss kind of teaming up. He is sailing all by himself, and although experienced with the ICW is not anxious to truly go it alone. We travel about the same speed and prima facie appear to have the same basic cruising philosophy (called gunk-holing) so it all appears to be a good fit. We'll be taking the next couple of days to get to the Beaufort area and then hope to grab a slip at a marina to ride out some inclement weather that has been predicted. Wayne has heard that the ICW below Beaufort is quite different, "Prince of Tides"-type scenery. That would be a welcome change from the interesting but seemingly endless and buggy swamp. Those of you in the UP will smirk to know that while we are having warm, humid weather, we are also still getting bit by mosquitos.

Norfolk, VA to Coinjock, NC: Toto, we are not in Kansas any more

Entering Norfolk harbor is absolutely nuts. There are enormous battleships, container ships, tugs, sailboats, power boats, yikes you name it. Then, there is the question of where are we going anyhow? Basically, left (port if coming from the Chesapeake and heading toward the ICW). You get in to what we now know is the largest natural harbor in the world, and all you see are destroyers, aircraft carriers, e-bloody-normous boats of all types. After you pass through a militarized marvel for about 20 minutes you get to the container shipyards (Norfolk International) and it's cranes the size of the Empire State Building and still you have not gotten to the place yet. That place, mile marker zero or Red 36, featured in a previous entry, was our home for a few days. Norfolk was big and glossy. Portsmouth aging gracefully. But then, jumping off into the ICW requires a trip down the Elizabeth River passing more enormous ships (see photo three), lift bridges, swing bridges, and one completely inconsequential lock until you arrive at Great Bridge, VA. There are a number of bridges surrounding Great Bridge and one associated lock. We entered the lock along with our cohort of boats, and slung long dock lines around the bollards. We knew the lock would lift or lower us no more than 5 feet. This is child's play. Wayne settled in to read for a while and I decided this was the moment to re-do my toenails. Some time later, the lock operator sauntered out and mentioned to the nearest other boat, "girls...they are always doing their toenails." I looked up, and shortly afterward the southbound lock gate was opening. I said, "Hey Wayne! They are opening!" He was as astonished as I was that the whole procedure had taken place while we were not looking. OK, after the Erie Canal's Waterford Flight of Five with locks of 40+ feet, this was nothing. Ask my daughter Sarah. She'll tell you. It was WORK going through the Flight of Five. I was filing my toenails and we were locking through without even knowing. Everything in perspective. OK, so it was cool tying up in Great Bridge. All the free tie-ups on the west wall were taken, so we actually tied up to some trees on the east wall. You can buy anything you could possibly want in Great Bridge, it is so commercial. We did find an awesome sports bar where we watched the Red Sox on one screen and Michigan ( Go Blue!) beat Illinois on another screen. I even beat Wayne in a game of pool fair and square that night. These things must be recorded for posterity and a legitimate record. So, Great Bridge is a fun stop where you can tie up for free, but then it is out into the ditch. Soon afterward, you arrive in the thick of the swamp, where the fourth misty pictures of boats navigating the perils of a lift bridge in the cool morning air is taken. That was this morning as we were headed to Coinjock, NC. Yes, the 1st picture is Wayne at the helm in the swamp. We were unable to take the Dismal Swamp route due to lack of water, so we took the "Virginia Cut' instead. Sufficiently swampy for anyone's taste. We crossed the Curritick Sound at the end of the day to arrive here at one of 2 marinas that comprise the entire town situated on the east and west sides of this tiny canal and were amazed to tap into fast and furious wireless. Will wonders never cease? Tomorrow we will cross the Abermarle Sound heading toward Belhaven, NC and the true confederacy. Stay tuned...more adventures are sure to occur on this most unusual of highways.