We zipped right through the rice fields of South Carolina in four days, spending the last night (Saturday April 27) at the Grande Dunes marina in Myrtle Beach, the place we’d left Willie Dawes for a month last year, when we drove home for a visit. We contacted our friend Chris who lives nearby and she came to meet us for dinner. We found a great, quiet little Mexican restaurant and spent the meal catching up.
We crossed into North Carolina on Sunday and made a late lunch/early dinner stop for takeout from Fishy Fishy in Southport to eat on the way to our stop at Carolina Beach. Monday night we were in Mile Hammock, the anchorage adjacent Camp LeJeune. We found out later they began live fire exercises the day after we left, keeping boats huddled off to the side and unmoving, but when we were there all was quiet and the only concern we had was for the Onslow Beach Bridge. This is a swing bridge with a 12 foot clearance when closed, so most boats need it to open to pass through.
We’d been hearing for at least a week that construction of a much-needed new bridge was altering their opening schedule. Some reports said the bridge wasclosed between 8am and 5 pm, others said they would open at 12 noon, and one report said as of April 29 it was closed to all marine traffic until the weekend. I called the bridge tender to find out what the reality was - open on the top of the hour, they said. We timed our arrival for 9am and squeezed through the opening with the construction barge taking up part of the channel. We continued on to Beaufort and dropped anchor in Taylor Creek, between the town and the Rachel Carson sanctuary. We had time for an afternoon walk and this time ashore, we saw the little Maritime Museum was open. In our past visits, we’ve always managed to be there when the Museum is closed. It’s a great little museum, with exhibits on the local ecology (salt marshes), economy (fishing), and history (Blackbeard.) They have a really nice section devoted to pirate artifacts, with a focus on Blackbeard’s vessel Queen Anne’s Revenge, which had been excavated outside the Barrier Islands in the late 1990s. I didn't take photos in the Museum, so I'm showing you the Beaufort shrimping fleet.
After Beaufort we moved on to Oriental, another of our favorite North Carolina towns. We tied up to the free dock next to one of the shrimp docks and made good use of the little Captain’s Quarters, a small house with a lounge and free wifi. Dan was part of the MTOA (Marine Trawler Owners Association) webinar that night (Wednesday May 1) on cruising New England. Dan gave a four minute presentation on seven different cruising destinations in Maine. (I will post the link to that webinar in the next blog.)
From Oriental we moved to the Outer Banks. We have not cruised this area before. Thursday was a gorgeous, perfect day for cruising out the Neusse River to Pamlico Sound and over to Ocracoke Island. The Sound was flat calm. Ocracoke was a little reminiscent of Tangiers - isolated, with a long, proud history of ten family names in the settlement, dependent on fishing - except Ocracoke is much more accessible and thus, touristy. But despite the many shops and many, many rental cottages, it has a unique charm and pride and we really enjoyed walking around and taking in the sights. There’s a great little historical museum, a waterman’s exhibit in fishing shack on the dock, a lighthouse, and a small cemetery dedicated to the four British sailors who washed ashore after a German U-boat sunk their ship during WW I. We spent yesterday afternoon and this morning (Thurs & Fri May 2 & 3) exploring Ocracoke.
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