Come Sail Away over the Ocean Blue!

I am so enjoying my routine of meandering the ICW that time slips away and for one reason or another my blogging gets way laid. Some of the good excuses I have, and they are legit, forgot to charge up my laptop and we are anchored with no extra power for charging, and/or asleep on the settee, or got into a crochet or stamping project! So look at the date and you will see when we actually at the place you are reading about! After Swansborough, we anchored in Wrightsville Beach. We accidentally found this area by checking into various possible coves and such, and discovered a very nice anchorage! Apparently a lot of boaters know of this place.  The area was filled up.  It was a great spot! Two other boats were there that we had met before - Take Five and North Star.  Take Five came over to us and gave us a ride in their dinghy to shore and we had a lovely dinner at the Mexican restaurant with them! I had the best Chile Rellonos! (We unfortunately didn't get an...

We needed a place to stay for the night, so we decided to stay at a very inexpensive marina, Dudley's in Swansborough.  When we got there it was still in a rising tide mode, and there wasn't enough depth for us.  We got mildly stuck a couple of times, gave up and went elsewhere.  We found Swansborough's town docks and stayed there.  There were no facilities for boaters.  This area was hard hit by Florence and they were still renovating.  We did get off the boat and visit the very small town of Swansborough. These photos show some of the Hurricane's Florence's wrath:   I was fascinated by the bright color of this house!  the town docks   Here is a part of the town.  Some of the shops were open, some were closed for the season, some were still recovering from damage. This duck came up to me looking for a handout.  Unfortunately for him I didn't have anything. Ed's comment was that he was a di...

We stayed 2 nights here in Oriental.  I love this town!  They experienced some bad flooding from Hurricane Florence and are still going through renovations.  The cute coffee shop, The Bean, was closed for another couple of months.  Several other shops were still under reconstruction, and the laundry, at the marina where we were docked, had signs up that said that "thanks to Flo" the machines were all down till new ones came in 3 weeks.  We could see piles of debris from the inside of places that were flooded out. The greatest part of this town in the community's enthusiasm.  There always seems to be an event when we come in.  This year it was a Halloween costume party/fundraiser to benefit the renovation of the city's cemetery.  It was a hoot!  So many creative costumes and a live local band.  One of the town's people told us the band needs to change their venue since they play the same songs and in the same order every event.  Fo...

When we stopped in Elizabeth City, NC two years ago we were told that they stopped the tradition of giving roses to the women and offering wine and cheese to all the visitors that came by boat to the city docks welcoming them to their charming city.  The new leader of the Visitor's Center decided to reinstate this long revered tradition.  When we docked, one of the volunteers met us, helped us with our lines and helped me get a rope around this too tall piling.  He invited us the newly renewed wine and cheese get together that evening.  (Don't know where the roses were!)  It was so nice, not only the wine and cheese, but to meet other boaters.  We met a very nice couple who had an adorable Yorkie, named Libby.  With this couple and the young couple we met on Emerald Fire back in the Dismal Swamp, we went out to dinner at a lovely restaurant where we ate in their alley outdoor eating area.  It was very quaint, but very cold.  Sinc...

I am starting this entry with photos.  The photos really tell the whole story!   The journey, long awaited for, was as fabulous as I was expecting from so many peoples' raves about it! It was like motoring in a forest! As you can see from the photos, there were houses along the way, it wasn't really out in the wilderness. In some places it felt like it, though!   George Washington owned about 1/12th of this area but sold it. Around Washington's time many wanted to drain the swamp and use the land for farming and such. That did come about due to the expense involved in draining it. So glad it remained the way it is! There were some very interesting vegetation down the swamp. Several areas had these bushes growing out of what looked like a big ball root. After a while we realized that the plants were growing out of old rotted out pilings! Very cool! There were some dead trees along the edge that I thought had a beautiful shape. In so...