April 3,4, 2007

April 3, 2007- I woke up early and was ready to hit the road and see more of Wilmington but alas, my legs and feet were not ready for more of the day before. So I started to get ready to move from Wilmington the following day. I got my charts already and plan A and plan B set in case things do not go the way you think they will. I was headed for the marina home of Grand Finale but got a call that they were still wading through a years worth of mail and they would try to catch up with me at my next stop. This is also Easter Weekend coming up which is a family time so all the changing is fine with me. And after being gone for a year on a trip of this magnitude it is time to really set down and let it soak in. I am hoping that the little walking around I did today will help get the circulation going again. I should not try to get so much done the first day I play tourist but I am always so overwhelmed with each place that I guess I do not have any self control.

April 4, 2007 – As usual on a travel day I am awake before sunup. I got up and went through my usual morning routine and then laid the charts on the table and made some notes about things to do on the way. Thanks to Bob in Southport, I acquired a wonderful book called, “Managing the Waterway from Hampton Roads, VA to Biscayne Bay, FL. It does the waterway mile by mile and gives you lots of insight as to what you are seeing along the way. By doing it mile by mile and looking at the charts you can see lots of things you would ordinarily miss. I now have three books to consult each time I move and each one has its place but this book I find is the best one. Today when I left Wilmington it was 7:10 AM and the sun was up but hidden by the clouds. At Wilmington when coming from or going to the city you use the main shipping channel and that always makes me keep an extra alert eye as to what is going on. This morning I met a fuel barge in a pretty tight turn that he was approaching so I called on the radio and asked which side he wanted me to pass on and received no indication on the radio so I gave him and the tug guiding him into the terminal as wide a berth as possible and went on my way. A little further down the way some container ships were unloading and I passed them slowly so I could observe what was going on. Then it was down the channel and into the entrance to the waterway called “Snows Cut” and Shorty and I were off and running for the day. Like I said on plan A I had selected a couple of possible places to stop and I reached the first one way too early to call it a day so went on to the next one and it was still too early. So tonight I am tied up at my friend’s private dock near Swansboro, NC. This is a wonderful protected spot to take a few days and see if the weather is going to improve going forward and I certainly appreciate it. The boat, Come Good Home lives in this boat basin. On the way I passed some areas which were just a sand strand away from the Atlantic. The wind was blowing really hard today but I could not see any surf like I have on some prior days. I passed by some Swing Bridges which if you are more than so many feet high they swing them open for you to pass through. The last thing I came by today was the Camp Lejeune Marine base which is huge and covers a lot of area including all the way from the base across the waterway which runs through it to the Atlantic. When they are having firing exercises on the base they close down the waterway. You reach this sign on the south end which if it is flashing red you must wait until it stops or you might get shot up if someone misses. When I went by it was not flashing so I proceeded on. All of a sudden I hear a big boom about midway through and then another and then more of them. I thought to myself if I had missed the red flashing light or what I had done. But I was already in the middle and they didn’t seem to be shooting my way so I better get the heck out of Dodge before they do. Finally I located the source of the booms and I think it was some kind of exercise with the jets flying around because they were making the boom noise. And when I got to the other end the red lights were not flashing either. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued just a little further to where I am now tied up enjoying the sunset. It is so quiet here and the birds are chirping, and the geese are calling as a wild flock landed for a rest across the way. The tide is now coming back in after being out most of the afternoon. I have met the neighbors and we spent the afternoon talking about various things. The sky is very cloudy and they are saying it will be a very cold Easter weekend. I think Shorty is really enjoying this respite. The water is kind of gurgling under the hull and he moves slowly back and forth with what little wind is still occurring at this point as it almost always quiets down in the evening. Today’s trip of seventy-five miles took me just five hours and twenty minutes which I thought was tremendous because some of the time the currents were against me. I like to watch the salt spray as it moves aside when the boat passes through the water on plane.
While I am here so close to Camp Lejeune I am hoping to visit with a friend of Marilee and I who is in the Navy Reserves and who is stationed here. I am probably five miles from the base and I still can’t hear the trainee’s counting cadence for the drill sergeant. Times might have changed since I was in the Air Force. Hup one, Hup two and don’t look at your shoe’s.