Oriental

Next stop was Oriental. We are getting closer and closer to Deltavillle. It wasn’t far but the last stretch, as always seemed to go on for hours. We had to motor across the Neuse River which is very wide.

We finally dropped anchor in the choppy water and spent the afternoon see sawing up and down in the easterly. 

On Saturday morning we had to go the shop to buy the most important commodity on the boat: wine!

Andrew wanted to watch the rugby which was starting at 9am,  Wales against Springboks. So we went early, the Piggly Wiggly opened at 7am. it was a mile walk, which is 1.6km. It is HOT today, no wind. which was a blessing because then there is no fetch on the water ergo we don't get wet!! Bonus.

On the way a guy stopped and asked us if we wanted a lift. Yes please! We hopped in the back on his bakkie. He was not going to the Piggly but dropped us there anyway. Very friendly!!

The Piggly has a free shuttle service to the docks. You have to spend $60 to use the shuttle. HA HA! We spent far more than that on food and other essentials. We got the shuttle back and Andrew was back in time to watch the rugby!

We left Oriental on Sunday morning and sailed for a few hours until we reached our intended anchorage for the night. It was lovely. A big wide space with a few houses on the shore in the distance. 

We played loud music until sunset when we eventually had supper. We were just not in the mood to eat while the sun was still high in the sky. The sun is still setting after 8pm!

There was good wind the following day. We put out the head sail and sailed all the way to Belhaven. We had to enter the anchorage through man made walls, like going over the moat into a castle! 

We went ashore for a walk. Laura hadn’t been of the boat in a while so it was very necessary. We needed to find a emergency care place to get meds for Laura. Her spots on her face were not getting any better.

At first Andrew wanted to get an Uber as the emergency care place was just over 1 mile away, but there are no Ubers or they are not plentiful here. So we walked! And it wasn’t that far. A mere 2 km. We walked much further than that in Grenada to get to the shops!

At the emergency care Andrew got on the scale. He has been wanting to weigh himself for ages. He weighs 89kg! He said he hasn’t weighed that since he was at school!  He hasn’t tried to lose weight, but as he only eats twice a day, I am not surprised!

Slinky Husband!

We got some advice and meds for Lau. They think it is contact dermatitis. She has had this before so it must be something in her system.

The pharmacy was close by. It was not your regular CVS or Walgreens, but a mom and pop operation. It looked like something out of the 60’s. The pharmacist seemed like quite an alternative guy. He told us about using listerine as sanitizer and went on about CBD oil. He even put some on our necks where he says all the nerve endings are. I am not sure what I was supposed to feel, but when we got back to the boat, I had lots of energy and the boat got a good spring clean.

We had heard that people here stop and offer you lifts if you are walking. Maybe it was because there are three of us, but nobody stopped. I did enjoy the walk though!

I decided that the boat needed a clean. I started in Laura’s cabin and found black mould on her hatch (window). She mentioned that there was some on her shelf. I had a look and was horrified. I immediately got the vinegar out and started a deep clean. I have a feeling we have found the source of her problems. 

A few hours later the boat had been cleaned with vinegar water, dusted and swept to within an inch of her life. Hopefully Laura’s spots will go now!

Andrew and I did a few trips in the dinghy to get water. On the way back on the last trip we got wet as the wind had come up, whipping up the waves into a white capped frenzy. But at least the tanks are full and the blue jerry cans on the deck are too.

After phoning Matt for his birthday on Wednesday, 26 June, we upped the very muddy anchor and headed out into the ICW again. It was going to be a long one of 30nm so we wanted to get going quite early.

There wasn’t much wind, so we motor sailed. We spoke to Matt again at around midday when he was opening his gifts. It was really hard not being there. But the upside is we, hopefully, will be in SA for Christmas. 

That night we anchored way off the ICW and had to make our way through a mine field of fish/crab pots to get there. It was quite rough and we were bounced around quite a lot.

The following morning we headed out, once again watching for crab pots. They were quite organized, in lines with a gap in between. 

Storm brewing

Andrew has bought and downloaded something called Bob's Tracks. It shows you the exact line to follow in the ICW. There is a magenta line on the chart plotter but that has been known to take you into very shallow water. Bob's tracks is brilliant. We had been using it since the beginning of the ICW. We got back onto Bob's track but found that the track we are following was not in the channel. We missed a crab pot by centimeters and continued to watch out, dodging more as we went along. Finally they seemed to stop and we were able to relax.

On the way, in the Alligator River Canal, Andrew called me up to the cockpit. He could see something in the water and thought it might be an alligator. We had been looking out for them and hadn't spotted one yet. I got the binoculars and saw that it was a black bear swimming across the river! Incredible. By the time we got to the spot where he went ashore he was long gone!

Andrew had been talking about Coin Jock for a while and wanted to stop there. It has a dock on the side of the ICW. No marina to worry about. He phoned and booked a spot for us. 

When we arrived we docked without any issues. It was quite expensive at $130 per night so we only planned to stay overnight. I must say it was nice not to be rolling all over the place. 

Once we had tied up and Andrew had been to the office to pay, I gathered all the washing and found the laundry. It was the smallest room ever! There were two washing machines and two dryers. The one machine was being used and the other one was broken! I waited around for the owner of the clothes to come and remove them from the washing machine. He finally came to get his clothes. I mean, what is the policy? Do you take the clothes out and place them somewhere, hopefully clean when the machine has been stopped for 15 minutes? I was going to give him another five minutes and then he appeared.

We bumped into him again a bit later when he was going to take his clothes out of the dryer. He was from a monohull which was moored just in front of us.

The following morning we got chatting to him and his wife again. We were planning on leaving at 8am after the dock hands arrived for work, thinking we would need help. After watching Bruce and his wife get off the dock with no problems, we decided to do the same. And thank goodness we left when we did!

We had lots of bridges to get through. Most of them had to be opened for us but were only opened on the hour or half hour. We missed one by about 5 minutes and had to wait for the next opening. The grumpy bridge master would not wait at all for us. 

The current was taking us closer to the bridge and Andrew had to go astern several times to avoid being too close! The next bridge only opened on the hour, so we had to motor the 2nm very slowly. It was the longest hour wait of my life. 

The most interesting one was a lock. They opened the gate for us and we had to tie up on the port side. Then they let the water in. It didn’t feel like much. I think I was expecting a whoosh of water, which is stupid because if the lock was full of boats, we were the only ones there, then the boats would bash into one another. The gate at the other end opened and we made our way out. 

The next stress was a train bridge and right next to it, a bridge that closed between 3:30 and 5:30 - rush hour! 

When we got there bridge 7 was closed because a train was going through. The bridge master eventually opened that one. We made the next one with 10 minutes to spare! This one lifted up! It was really weird to see. 

We finally arrived in Norfolk at about 5pm. It had been a very long day, but an interesting one. We decided not to go ashore. There weren't many places to tie up a dinghy and some charged a hefty fee. Instead we watched the boats going back and forth. We also watched the T20 final which South Africa sadly lost.

Trump Supporter

On Sunday we set off for Deltaville, anticipating another very long day.