We've Been Making Tracks

It’s been longer than it’s ought to have been with the blog and the writing of it, considering it’s been…. About two weeks, give or take a day but we’re in Florida now, and there is talk about heading to the Bahamas in the next few days since the winds are right, despite the tropical storm Beryl that’s been going about. I’m getting ahead of myself though, because now there is catching up to do. So, when we last left our heroes…

Charleston, city of ghosts, or at least it seems that way. There’s been pirates and wars and fires and stuff, and the city is quite proud of flaunting its history. I went for a walk after my shower, and headed for one of the many attractions laid out on the tourist map, which was the aquarium. It was less than five minutes away, big and impressive looking and boasting a large collection of aquatic animals, as an aquarium must. I was quite keen on going in and looking about, until I saw that the entrance fee was twenty-four dollars and change, which was about as much as I had in my pocket. I decided that was a little ridiculous and ran for a trolley instead.

In Charleston the trollies are free and the busses are not, so I took a trolley intent on finding a horse drawn tour of the historic city, which seemed nice. That being said I had no idea where to find this horse drawn tour, or where this trolley was going, so I sat back and enjoyed the ride, it was air conditioned after all. The trolley also had brass plated poles with swirls like the ones you find on carousels, it was quite nice. When the trolley stopped, I asked the driver where I might find the horses and their tour and he directed me to take another trolley and get off at market square.

The trolley I required was not there but the Charleston Historic Museum was, and I was just about to pop around that and see how much entrance cost when my trolley showed up, and I decided having a historic tour would be the more enjoyable way to learn about Charleston’s history. So I hopped on the trolley and spent a quiet, mostly uneventful public transit ride to market street.

Market street was cobbled and old looking, and right away I spotted a horse drawn carriage like the one that I wanted to take. I decided it was in my best interest to follow it so I could find the place where they sold the tickets and if by some accident I ended up walking most of the tour then I wouldn’t have the pay the price of the ticket and that was that. As it turns out the carriage was near the end of the tour and I found the ticket booth fairly easily. However, the ticket booth was right next to the market square which was a series of rectangular buildings dividing the road in two. That looked more interesting than a crowded carriage with a man yelling things over a microphone so I went in there.

Apart from a few people weaving baskets and other things it was just like any ‘market’ you might find with jewellery stalls, some places selling plastic watsits and toys, and a few places selling jams and other jarred goods. Civil war toys and figures seemed to be pretty prevalent and I almost bought one but I didn’t know for the life of me who wore the blue jackets and who wore the grey ones so I didn’t get any.

After wandering through the market and being notably underwhelmed I decided to go back out onto the street and go back to the carriage tours but once again I got side-tracked by a shop in a small street called ‘The Tea and Spice Exchange’ however once I reached it I decided I probably had enough tea, and walked right past it. Past it was a shop I did go into called ‘The Old Ghost Shop’ or something like that. I went in and was confronted by pirate flags, a whole shelf of ghost stories and then a bunch of incense, Celtic charms, fairies and other supernatural stuff.  The man behind the counter was very nice and we talked a lot about pirates and how Blackbeard had barricaded the harbour with The Gentleman Pirate and much of a bastard Edward Low was exactly. As a small note Blackbeard is Edward Teach, and Edward Low is another person entirely (they’re easy to confuse because both are named Edward and are pirates. Blackbeard however, wasn’t a psychopathic madman, he was mostly just scary looking).  I ended up buying Edward Low’s flag, as he was a childhood favourite of mine, commonly referred to as ‘that pirate who cut off some dudes lips, boiled them and made him eat them’ which was all I knew about him when I was little. 

Edward Low's Flag

After that I wandered through the French Quarter, which is also the ‘Historic District’ and found one of the oldest houses, cobblestones streets and other interesting things which plaques stuck on them. Then I faced the challenge of finding my way back to the boat, which wasn’t that hard since I had a map. On the way back I noted some likely looking restaurants and arrived to the boat, where I spent a little while reading as much as I could about pirates. I ended up finding a forty page paper called ‘Pirational  Choice: The economics of Infamous Pirate Practices’ which is really quite good.

We went out for dinner that evening and past the pub I had seen earlier called Molly O’something or other, and walked a few more blocks so we could see what else there was. My legs kinda hurt after my afternoon wander and so I was a little put out afterwards when we decided to go to the pub I noticed earlier which was the first restaurant we passed. The waitress there was nice and the food was good. Everyone had fish and chips, and we sat next to a poster which illustrated ‘The gentle art of making Guinness’ which was amusing as they had all sorts of strange machines and said they delivered the beer by dropping it out of hot air balloons onto villages. It was a quiet night, except for the moment I forgot myself and belched very loudly, luckily the pub was close to empty and nobody really seemed to take offence (that or they were too embarrassed that I dare do such a thing that they couldn’t call me on it).

The next morning we set off, left Charleston and were back to bobbing about down waterways best described as ‘a stretch of water with vegetation on both sides and sometimes a house’. Quite honestly I don’t remember a lot of the details.  We anchored in mosquito creek that evening, which was sort of a marshy place and was, for most of the evening, devoid of mosquitoes. That being said when they did come out they were these nasty little black things faster than mosquitoes in Canada. Not to mention their bites hurt and swell into little red welts.

Skull Island was the next anchorage after that, and was very, very underwhelming. It was the time when we started to see a marked increase in palm trees but other than that it was just another stretch of densely foliaged wilderness.

After Skull Island we anchored in Big Tom Creek where there was a really nasty thunderstorm. We had to put the electronics that would fit in the oven so they wouldn’t fry if we got hit by lighting, since we were the tallest things around by virtue of the large metal pole sticking out of the boat.  Luckily for us the storm didn’t last long and soon past us by.

The days by this point were becoming sweltering, and as aforementioned there were an awful lot of palm trees. The houses were also getting bigger, but thankfully most of them were less tacky than the ones we had seen before, except for one that was painted bright turquoise. We crossed John’s river, or something with a name similar the next day and anchored in alligator river which isn’t the same alligator river as the one we anchored in before. I spent that day looking forward to the one after it because Grandma said that there was an old island called Cumberland island that had wild horses on it and ruins of houses and poisonous snakes.

It was with high hopes and hiking boots at the ready that I woke up the next morning, only to find, later on that the winds were all wrong for Cumberland Island and we couldn’t anchor. So we pressed on which had the benefit of putting us within a one days sail to St. Augustine which is the oldest city on the continent.

The next day, as planned we got to St. Augustine though it was a bit late, so we decided to go to shore the next day and spend the day exploring and stocking up. I looked over the maps and such for the city and noted a few places I wanted to go, namely the pirate museum and the Lightner Museum which used to be a hotel. There was also a fort built by the Spanish out of shell stone (which as far as I can tell is basically concrete with shells in it but I’m probably wrong) that seemed like it was worth a gander.

I went to fort first and balked when I saw that it had an entrance fee (the fort in Charleston did not have an entrance fee, you just had to get there) and I wasn’t all that keen on seeing it when I had other things on the agenda. So I walked around the outside of it and to the pirate museum which was across the street. I puttered around in the gift shop there for a while looking at replica pistols and lots of things with the skull and cross bones emblazoned on them.

I went in eventually and was at the back of a school group being led by a man dressed like a pirate with a very loud voice. It was neat and I learned some things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise (namely that after drilling a hole in the head for skull surgery you nailed a silver dollar to the hole). Happily though, the group soon disbanded which meant I could read the plaques and look at the very good wax models in peace.

They had instrumentation, a really jolly roger and loot they had brought up from a sunken ship there, not to mention a room where you could learn to tie knots and ‘fire’ a replica cannon and pistol. The disembodied wax head of Blackbeard told you about the life and times of Edward Teach who was only a pirate for three years. At the end of the museum there was a room with things from movie pirates, including Jack Sparrow’s collapsing sword which was the center piece.  It wasn’t a very big museum all things considered.  It only took me around an hour to wander through and gawk and read all there was to read including the computerized book with short biographies of notable pirates of the area.

After that I decided to walk about in a slow meander towards the Lightner Museum. I went down Spanish Street, which is this street done the way the old city used to be as sort of a Spanish town. It was nice but I didn’t stay on it long as I got side-tracked down a little cobblestone alley that had a one man band in it who wasn’t playing anything. We stayed and talked awhile about nothing in particular and I left when he started playing as I still had things to see and it was starting to get on.

The Lightner Museum was only a few blocks away and had really nice gardens with little brown lizards everywhere. The lobby was beautiful with mosaicked floors and pillars and stuff. I talked to the lady and she let me get in for the college student price, despite the fact I didn’t have a college student ID (or any ID on me at all). The first floor was absolutely magnificent, there was a music room, a ‘science and technology room’ with a collection of native American artefacts, a blown glass steam engine and a stuffed lion, along with tonnes of other things.  There was also a ‘model village’ which was a bunch of glass cases with little set ups in them like a child’s room, or a barber shop or an emporium.

After the first floor though things quickly got less impressive. The second floor was not as nicely done as the first and mainly featured collections of ceramics and cut glass. The building had linoleum and areas where the pools had been had been were concreted in and there were little boards that endeavoured to tell you what they ought to have looked like.

There was a ‘ballroom gallery’ but it didn’t look much like a ballroom at all, and just had little alcoves with some random furniture and a chandelier. There was also the third floor which was reserved for more furniture, cigar label art, buttons, and embroidery samplers. Some of it was neat but most of it was underwhelming as I was hoping that the rest of the museum would have at least some of the opulence of the lobby.

On the way out I browsed the gift shop which had nothing I deemed spending money on and I considered walking to a shop and buying ice cream but my feet hurt and I decided it was much more preferable to walk over the park and lay on the grass in the shade. I’m pleased to say that is exactly what I did. It was very nice even if the grass did prickle a bit. Eventually though I got to hot and walked back to the marina where I convinced the water taxi to take me out to the boat before his next scheduled run.

From there, I lounged about and did nothing. We were going to go out for dinner that evening but there were foul weather reports so we stayed in, and that worked out alright because there was a thunderstorm. There were some really nice forked lightning strikes, luckily nowhere near the boat so they were pretty to watch. Also Grandma and Grandpa bought me a camera to replace my old one, which was really super nice of them. It takes great pictures and does some panorama stuff, which I think ought to turn out very good.

A little Panorama

From Saint Augustine we’ve come down to Hobe Sound which took us five days. There hasn’t been anything terribly notable about those five days. There’s been big houses, and pelicans and other sorts of things that I’ve written about before and haven’t the mind to write about again. There has been no more of the big biting flies but lots of mosquitoes. Grandma says Grandpa looks like he’s got the measles and I can’t move about without knocking into one of my own (I have one on each wrist just to make typing fun).  The nights have been muggy and hard to fall asleep in but with the tropical storm giving us high winds it looks like perhaps we get a reprieve if we keep the hatches open.

As far as new wildlife I’ve seen jellyfish and what I thought was an ibis when we made a short stop to change the gas tank in the dingy as the old one wouldn’t close properly. The best thing that happened though is when I was sitting on the bow watching us chase small fish about (they seem to think they could outrun the boat and then dart off suddenly to the side when they realize they can’t) when a white shape comes out from under the boat and scares me half to death. I pull my feet in and realize that it’s a dolphin, a super close dolphin. Then another dolphin joined it and another one after that. I was really hoping they’d break the water and play in the bow wave and be generally awesome but after a few seconds they slipped out of sight.  Grandma also saw a manatee but it was submerged when I got there so I never got to see it. Still, we’re going through manatee zones so there is hope.

The plan now is to get to a marina in the next few days to stock up and then nip across the gulf on Wednesday when the winds are right. So until then we’re back to waiting but that’s alright. Adventure awaits!  

The Next Thrilling Instalment

I had the vague notion of starting this blog entry off with the phrase ‘gentle readers’ just because I could and it always gives me a chuckle. Either way it’s been over a week, gentle readers, that the events of the previous blog had transpired. So I will do my best to catch you up but the days and places are starting to blur together. We had a great conversation last week about whether it was Wednesday or Thursday and what exactly had happened. Grandma assures me that this is perfectly natural for ‘cruisers’ but most cruisers are old so I’m not sure if it comes with the lifestyle or the aging, but that, currently, is irrelevant.

We got to the visitors center on time (two Fridays ago now) and the place was very nice. It had manicured lawns and aggressively air conditioned buildings which were welcome because it was hot and muggy outside. The center itself was full of pamphlets and two old ladies, but the highlight was a taxidermy otter perched in a state of perpetual alertness near the front door. He was wearing a collar that said his named was ‘Otter Banks’. Next to that was an informational page describing otters, their playfulness, diet and habitat WITH ALL THE‘IMPORTANT’ INFORMATION TYPED LIKE THIS. It was really quite funny.

Otter Banks

The ladies in the center told me that there were three walking paths to choose from if I needed to stretch my legs, a quarter mile loop, a 4 mile stretch and a bunch of old logging roads across the river but if I went there I would need to return by six because that’s when the bridge went up and they didn’t want me to be stranded. So I went back to the boat and got Grandpa to agree to go on a walk with me, he chose the quarter mile one, which had a lovely view of the river but was really a joke in length. At the end of it though was a little steam locomotive housed in a pavilion without sides and inhabited by bees. It was a cute little thing though and made the walk worth it.

Little Steam Locomotive

After that Grandma said she’d go for a walk with me, we thought of heading to the logging roads and bringing a walkie talkie to call grandpa and the dingy to pick us up when we were done because it was almost six already but we changed our mind. So we started walking to the 4 mile trail and passed a bill board for the logging paths. They had a swamp walk and I really wanted to do that so I ran back to Grandpa to get the walkie talkie. By the time I had returned though, Grandma had talked to one of the park rangers and he had told us that we couldn’t go, dingy pick up or no.  So we did end up going on the 4 mile paved trail. v

It was really quite nice for the first little bit, it was secluded and had all sorts of butterflies and beetles and such. After a while though it came out and ran right next to the highway which was a less nice. Just before the path met the road I heard a rustle in the leaves and Grandma and I took a closer look. The noise had been made by two little lizards who were in a fight, one had the other’s tail clamped firmly in its jaws and they were tussling about. Unfortunately when I tried to move the leaves with a stick they ran off.

We kept walking and found a bunch of dead bees, one of which was not quite dead and tried to climb on my shoe and up my leg which was a bit unnerving because I couldn’t tell if it had its sting out or not and it was a fairly large bee. While I was taking pictures of said bee, grandma saw a rabbit and I took pictures of that too. He was rather fearless (we were ten feet away so I guess he figured rightly that he could get away faster than we could get to him) and sat and scratched himself and did that little bunny thing were they rub their nose and pull their paws over their ears like they’re cleaning their face. Eventually though he decided he had better things to do and went off. After that Grandma and I decided to turn back as it was starting to get dark and the path showed no signs of veering back into the forest any time soon (I should mention that those pictures were super fuzzy which is why they are not featured here).

On the way back in the forested bit Grandma spotted a snake on the path and I went and picked it up and held it. It was a little green thing and after its initial fright it was perfectly content just to chill in my hands. I told Grandma that I would hold it and she could pet it but she wasn’t having any of it so after a few pictures we let it go and it went right back to sunning itself in the last bits of light on the path.

Me and the Snake

After the snake we saw a deer in the bushes to the side and a silvery black fox came out onto the path and gave us a look before disappearing back into the forest. It was really quite neat. We got back to the boat as the mosquitos were coming out and settled in for the night.

The next day we made it to Elizabeth city after getting stuck in a big thick mat of weeds that had to be cut off the boat with a kitchen knife and got showers at a fitness center. Then Grandma and Grandpa showed me this shop which has a definite twenties feel. They were having a sale and I was going to buy a ridiculous hat for kicks and giggles but they were all too big and falling apart so I didn’t. We went back to the boat and chilled after that because it was raining pretty hard. Later that evening after the rain had stopped I went out for an explore.

Mat of weeds

I found this old abandoned house thing over the water and got onto and was going to explore it with utmost caution but the door way was a veritable nest of all sorts of spiders so I didn’t. Instead I kept walking around town and eventually found a comic book store where I spent the rest of the evening chatting with people and even playing a game. It was a space game called ‘Strange Encounters’ and was basically all about expanding your influence across the universe via pacts, betrayals, outright war and using your wiles. I was one turn away from winning but then I had to leave so I could be back on the boat in time for Grandma and Grandpa to go to bed.

The next day we stayed in Elizabeth City because the winds were wrong for getting out of where we were docked and we might have ended up damaging the boat. Since it was Sunday the comic shop was not open and I went for a proper long walk around the city. A few people asked me where I was going and if I wanted a ride and there was a large incidence of car horns being honked in my vicinity but it was a nice walk and I found some train tracks. After about two hours though I had had quite enough walking and went back to the boat and spent the rest of the evening doing things that required minimum movement except for when Grandma and I went to a church to listen to a choir who was singing music to celebrate the 60^th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. They were a good choir and the music was quite nice.

We set off the next morning went down the Pasquotank river, which I honestly don’t recall much about except it looked a lot like the other rivers, a very wide stretch of water with trees and other brush on either side. After the river we crossed the Abermarle sound which was brown and choppy and pitched the boat about.  On the other side of the sound was Alligator River where we stopped at a marina for water, lunch and gas.  The little building there that served as restaurant, gas station and convenience store had some interesting things in it, like alligator foot back scratchers, one of which I bought. It’s got a claw pointing forward and looks like a thing of evil but I’m fond of it. That evening we anchored up the Alligator River and had our first run in with these really big flies that buzz about and try and bite you. They’ve been plaguing our journey on and off, usually during the day when we’re motoring (we’ve done a bit of sailing but really not all that much the motor is on most of the time).

The next day we went up a nice little canal (that was a bit wider but otherwise an awful lot like the dismal swamp canal) up Pungo River but then we had to turn back at Pamlico river because the river was very, very choppy. So we went and anchored in Slade creek for the night.

The next day we crossed the river and anchored in Long creek because the winds were wrong. I think I spent most of the day reading, writing and playing videogames and there really wasn’t much to be said about it. By this point most places start to blur into each other, each being described as a stretch of water with some trees on the side.

Thursday we were boarded by the coast guard for a routine inspection. I was asleep for that and Grandma says I missed some hot men, which is a shame.  We crossed the Nuese (news) River after that, motored right passed the city of Moorhead and went and anchored in a place called ‘Spooner’s Creek’ where all the docks are private and there is rich fancy houses.  Grandma pointed out that the further south you go the bigger the houses get.

The Cruiser’s Guide said that there was a dingy dock and we decided to go ashore to get rid of some garbage and stock up on some food. We took the dingy to the dock and I got off and read the sign which informed us that contrary to popular belief the dock was not for public use and that you shouldn’t tie your dingy there or block the boat ramp. We decided that we’d pull the dingy up on the side where there was grass and such as to not be blocking the boat ramp and Grandpa would sit in the boat while Grandma and I took the garbage.

While walking the dingy from the dock across the boat ramp to the grassy bank, Grandpa fell into the water, hit the dingy, which started to float away and dropped the painter (the bright yellow rope you use to tie the dingy onto things). Grandma yelled at me to get the painter before the boat floated away so I went in after it but I slipped too and landed in the water as well. This would have all been fine if Grandpa hadn’t had his Kindle in the dingy when he upset it and I hadn’t had my camera around my wrist. So after a small amount of moping and trying to ring out clothing without taking it off, Grandpa stayed with the dingy and I went with Grandma but without my camera.

The trip to the strip mall was pretty uneventful, if a bit wet ( I squelched when I walked). We missed Walmart at first, walked in a really big circle and found it. Once there we stocked up and I bought myself Orange Rooibos tea with cinnamon and a package of sour patch kids and consolation food. We went back to the boat where Grandpa told us that he had sprained his wrist on top of everything us, but if we soaked the electronics in fresh water (Spooner’s creak is salty been very close to the Atlantic) and let them dry they might work so all was not lost. So we motored back to the boat and had a quiet evening.

After Thursday came Friday which I don’t remember at all to be completely and totally honest but Grandma’s notes say we anchored at Sloop Point.  I think the only really notable thing that happened was we were anchored by more large beach houses, passed by a replica ferry and a motor boat with drunk girls. It was pretty quiet evening.

Saturday I do remember, we went down the Fear River which has some of the moat garishly coloured houses on it. I don’t know if it was this day that we saw the really big pink house that has big pictures of marine life (dolphins and starfish) painted on its sides but I think it might have been. Some of the other houses look like they had been built in the sims and were all sorts of colours from yellow to green and cherry red. We anchored in Shallot Bay that evening, which I don’t think was too close houses but I could be wrong.

Sunday we passed the South Carolina border and Myrtle beach, it was raining and over cast so I stayed inside most of the day. There were a few brightly coloured umbrellas when it cleared up, and we went down a river that was practically touching the Atlantic ocean, separated only by a spit of sand. We anchored in George town which is little and quaint. It was too late to really explore but we walked for a bit and saw nothing out of the ordinary, although we were anchored by some factories and all the houses had square roofs.

Funnily enough, I can’t quite pinpoint which day we went through this swampy area that had trees pressed in on all sides, hung with Spanish moss and would be the sort of place where you expect to find swamp monsters lurking about. It was quite nice otherwise and later on once things widened up we saw a bald eagle chilling on a tree and a pod of dolphins. I’m fairly certain that all that was yesterday but I honestly don’t know, it could have happened before George town (well the dolphins didn’t the pod happened yesterday. We were also passed by the coast guard. They waved).  We anchored in a nature reserve and talked about how we might not actually make the Bahamas and would go the Florida Keys instead which I have been assured are really very, very nice. We decided to play it by ear so really we’re not certain where we’re going to end up.

Today is going to be another short day, we had an early start (well some people did. I didn’t) and are heading to Charleston which is a place awash in history. I’m going to take Grandma and Grandpa’s camera with me when I go exploring and after I take a shower. We’re in Charleston harbour as I type and can see Fort Sumter which is where the first shot of the civil war was fired.

Besides the daily things, there are some things I just can’t place, like the day we saw pelicans and I sat out on the bow to watch them and decided they were really quite dorky birds or the day that Grandpa told me he thought he saw and alligator. I also can’t decide what day I noticed that the vegetation was getting markedly different from the stuff seen at the dismal swamp with tall trees with little branches to the top and bushes that clustered beneath them and things with fronds that trailed in the water or when the water turned a neat shade of blue-green ish or when we saw the first dolphin of the trip.  There have also been lots of terns and shrimp boats with big mechanical arms but those are everywhere. We just saw a blue shrimp boat go past with a bunch of gulls following it in fact (there are also lots of gulls but as far as I can tell there are gulls everywhere).

Now, as long winded as I have been I think I’ve covered almost everything and so shall sign off here. In the next thrilling instalment I can promise you some notes about Charleston and probably more bird sightings and who knows what else. Stay tuned!

It's a Start

So we’ve been on the water something like four days now, having left Tuesday morning of this week. When we left the waves were choppy and the whole going was a little rough as the wind was against us. The sum total of our efforts that day took us from the boat yard to fishing bay, which to be completely honest is about a half hour drive over land. 

We anchored in fishing bay and took the dingy out for a test ride. It works wonderfully, and I even got to drive it a little. I also gathered up the courage to go swimming but it was pretty cold so I didn’t stay in too long. We invited grandma and grandpa’s French friends, Bernard and Marianne, over for supper and it was nice even though the cabin was full of flies. There were some difficulties getting them back to their marina as grandpa couldn’t get the dingy to start for a while.

The next morning we planned to leave early and head to Norfolk, which if I remember correctly, is about 60 nautical miles (don’t ask me the difference between nautical miles and actual miles because I don’t know). However there was an issue with the instrumentation as the chart plotter was telling us it couldn’t see the gps. So grandpa spent the day on and off the phone with the tech support people, trying to fix it but to no avail. We lost that day and spent another night in fishing bay.

The next morning we headed out, using another gps (that wasn’t connected to the chart plotter) to get to Norfolk. It was a pretty long day and we took two hour shifts at the wheel, which mostly involved standing about, adjusting the autopilot to keep us on course and keeping an eye out for motor boats, cargo ships, the occasional crab pot and whatever else we might run into. There was a cargo ship, whose name I can’t recall, who was with us most of the day. It appeared as a tiny speck in the distance behind us but had passed us before we got to Norfolk and then disappeared into the distance ahead of us. We saw it once we got to Norfolk being loaded up, it was going to somewhere in Alabama, which was interesting. Most of the other boats we saw were heading to Baltimore. In any case, we got into the anchorage at hospital point at about five o’clock. Hospital point is where there has been an army hospital for a very long while (since the civil war says grandma). There are some huge naval ships there that dwarf even the houses and lots of barges and tug boats too.

I had wanted to dingy out to land and explore Norfolk a little but we managed to get a rope wrapped around the propeller when we anchored and so grandpa spent the evening trying to get that all fixed and I didn’t go exploring after all. There was however, a rather nice, (if nosey) man who came about when we first got settled, asked us a bunch of questions about our boat and regaled us with the story about how he had lost a rudder in the storm and so was stuck at hospital point until he got a new one.

He went away shortly after and I spent the evening feeding a pair of ducks (a mister and missus by how they hung around each other).  They were quite bold, and even though I only fed them a bit when I went out on the bow later to watch the sunset and the city lights they came by to see how I was doing and more importantly if I had food. Seeing as I had none they went away (though they did check back) and there was a bit of excitement when an interloping duck showed up and the pair had to chase him off, mostly by swimming towards him and quacking.

There were also lots of neat boats that came through. There was a lovely green one with sort of side rectangular sails, which was a tourist boat (it became a party boat later). There was also a replica paddle steamer with a paddle that really moved though we were fairly certain that there was an engine in there somewhere. There were also a few little boats moored near us, one appeared to be abandoned and Missus duck went and chilled on it for a little while.

Then this morning we set off and having decided to talk the ‘dismal swamp’ route down the icw we headed for the nearest bridge. On the way we past two railway bridges which have a section of railway that lifts vertically to make it look like a big iron arch. They’re pretty cool. After that we went through an industrial area where there were very exciting metal bangy noises, though I couldn’t see what was going on.  We also saw a really big, dirty looking boat with the word ‘UGLAND’  painted on the side. The boat was called senorita, which everyone thought was a bit of a misnomer.

We got to the bridge early and waited around a bit until we could follow a tug boat named ‘Mary Mac’ and the barge it was pushing through.

After that things got very scenic, lots of trees and shrubs and little bits of sandy coast lines with lilies growing by them and geese hanging about. There are two locks on this route and we went through the first one which brought us up something like ten feet. It was hard though, since I was at the stern and that was the bit the water was trying to pull away from the wall, but I wasn’t supposed to let it. Luckily grandpa was there to help and everything went smoothly. The lock operator was a very nice man, who can play the conch shell which is pretty darn awesome (by play I do mean produce a melody).  He is rafted up with us tonight at the visitors’ center on highway 17 on the border of North Carolina.

The center borders the canal so they let it double as a visitors’ center for boats too. However, we were told we would want to leave at about seven thirty tomorrow morning as there is to be a ‘paddle for the poor’ and if we didn’t get out of there fast we would soon be sharing the canal with three to five hundred canoes and other such vessels.

The canal itself is super pretty and certainly doesn’t deserve the name ‘dismal swamp’. It’s got lots of vegetation growing on the side and a fair amount of animal life, we’ve seen herons, turtles, deer and lots of bugs so far (for a while we had a heron flying in front of the boat, and I thought we were ‘chasing’ him though grandma thinks he was leading us either way he got tired and went to roost in a tree).  It smells really nice here too and for stretches it has honey suckle and wild roses growing on the sides. The left side of the canal is pretty close to the highway though usually you can’t tell that unless there is a car going by, the right side is all over grown and wild looking.

We’ve gone 28 miles today and plan to get at least to Elizabeth city tomorrow, though I’m not sure how far that is. In any case I’ll keep you updated as we wander into pockets of internet so you should be hearing from me again soon (ish).

P.S We've been to Elizabeth city and such but I havn't got that much typed up yet. Since we have internet now though I've decided to post this as incomplete as it is. Also there are no pictures since the connection isn't good enough to upload them. Hopefully the next installment of our thrilling adventure will have some.