March 29, 30,31, and April 1, 2007

March 29 - Today was only a four hour run from North Myrtle Beach, SC to Southport, NC and the weather started off warm and I was wearing shorts. Well this evening I am in my jeans and wearing a sweatshirt. A front passed through that changed the weather in a few hours back to cold. It is in the high fifties but the northwest wind is what is really killing any warmth. It is also overcast and has been raining all afternoon which was in the forecast this morning but only as about a 30% chance. The Cape Fear River to Wilmington lies just around the corner and I will be running a bit up it before turning and going to Wrightsville Beach, NC on Monday. I don’t like to run on weekends if I can help it because of all the jet ski and fishing boat traffic that is going every which way and I can not keep track of it all. The terrain now has changed from trees to sandy to marshes and it can’t decide exactly what it wants to do but it is definitely different from what I experienced in South Carolina. I am now 310 statute miles from Norfolk and the end of the waterway there. I will have another portion of it in New Jersey or at least they say some of it is navigable.

March 30 - By staying here it will give me a chance to see the old town on my walk about. I am just up a block and turn to the right and not very far from there to the river. I am not going up river to Wilmington because it is so hard to see a large city without walking a long distance and Charleston, SC did me in. My walking shoes almost retired themselves that weekend and so did my legs. The smaller towns and villages are where the character really resides especially when they are as close to the ocean as Southport is. At the docks in the next little basin are a bunch of shrimp boats and commercial fisherman and looks like some good seafood restaurants right next to them. The docks at my marina are all being changed out to the new floating kind and it really makes it nice for old guys in small boats. But you have to know how to schedule bathroom breaks because the restrooms are about a half mile from the boat. I don’t mind the walk however, because it gives me a chance to look at all the boats. There is a beautiful Bavaria sailboat one slip over and I have been drooling as I look at it. It is owned by a man from England who has single-handed the boat across the Atlantic and through the Caribbean and then to Southport and he has been here for three years and now is getting the boat ready to go back across the Atlantic. Next to that is one of the big Benetau’s and of course being a marina right next to an ocean inlet there are lots of sport fishermen and even though I hate them for their wakes they are big and bold in the designs they come up with.

March 31 - The folks here are serious fishermen. They started leaving the marina at daybreak this morning and there have been boats going past my slip all day long. I did not do much today. I scrubbed the inside of the boat up and took the salt off the motor from the other day. It is hard to believe I started this on the 29th and haven’t got it posted yet. I must be getting into the rhythm of doing nothing real well. I will be back up and doing more tomorrow. If the weather is nice in the morning I am planning to move up the river to Wilmington, NC and do a little tourist bit there and then start moving north again. I know I said I was not going to Wilmington but I have been convinced by my friends here that I really need to go there. They are predicting two cold fronts will pass here in the next two days with higher winds and rain so I will play it by ear. Southport is a very nice place to wait something out and it just happens that a couple of blocks away are some friends who I played tag with for a few days on the waterway and now we are two blocks apart and tied up at docks. One of boats has Southport as its home port and the other one is just a short distance away from finishing the Great Loop Cruise. So I have been doing a little too much socializing and not enough moving but I have enjoyed it very much. I have more people to meet up the way in North Carolina and then it will be time to make some serious moves on the water because April has arrived. Here it has been nice, I can see the ship channel from my slip and when the tide is in I can see the ships coming and going.

April 1 - One thing I don’t usually say too much about is the seemingly instant friendships which are formed on the waterway. As you know from above; you meet at a marina and you leave and go different directions at different speeds and then you round a bend and here is the boat you met two days before or so. You call on the radio and then talk about where you are going next and all of a sudden here you are as close as a couple of blocks from one another. Being in a small boat and not a cook I always feel that I can’t socialize as much. But my friends on “C” Life whose home port is Southport invited me to come aboard and enjoy a low country boil along with the friends from Grand Finale and then I met there friends who have a boat called LiL David and are just south of here at Hidden Beach NC. Well the food and the conversation lasted till long after my usual bedtime and I felt totally comfortable. This happens all along the waterway and I am going to be visiting with more people whom I have met as I go north from here. And to top it all off they invited me to attend an oyster roast which I have never had before in my life. They steamed the oysters in a big pot and then put them in the middle of the table where they had oyster knives to open them with. I can’t ever remember in my lifetime touching a shell with the oyster cooked in it. These were extremely good and fresh from the beds and had a great salty flavor that just kept you going back for more. They also had all kinds of food in the house that people brought who attended the roast. They had great jambalaya and other types of food and desserts to numerous to mention, and I was totally full before I even got started well. Met more people and even someone who grew up fifty miles from my home in Iowa and who went to college the same place I started. It is such a small world these days and if we could just have more interaction like this I think a lot of problems would go away. I really sincerely wish that everyone I know could experience what I am doing. It has always been very hard for me to meet and make friends but this trip seems to be changing that part of me. The hospitality experienced so far has been tremendous I appreciate it so very mcuh and they say it does not change as you continue onward.