November 7th
We made it past mile 300, and South Carolina!
So, we left yesterday for Southport, on a 30 something (hey, great TV sitcom name) degree day. After bundling Elias in his 4th layer, and then the life jacket, he decided he desperately needed a bathroom. Following sound child "rearing" (no pun intended) principles, I told him he didn't need to go (having just gone), but he insisted. And then, "Mommy, I guess I didn't have to go after all." Which I guess may be preferable to our 25 minute visits to the restaurant bathrooms (just after the steaming food is presented), as we compare colors of liquid soap, try the paper towel dispenser yet again, and perfect opening the foot pedal controlled garbage can lid - good thing I'm not task oriented...
Possibly subliminally influenced by its name, we grounded twice in the Cape Fear vicinity - the 2nd time we were steering clear of the dredging work to counteract the recent shoaling - life's ironies...Once we arrived at Southport, we took advantage of the free overnight dock, requiring us to eat a meal at the adjacent restaurant - which we'd have rebelliously protested if our mouths weren't full of their fresh caught tuna and key lime pie.
In light of today's deceivingly shorter journey, we decided to postpone the homeschooling handwriting lesson (hey, I heard that!) until after our arrival. However, I tried to ignore that giggling tortoise on the nearby bank, when the 2.5 knot current in the opposite direction, routine grounding, and arrival at the swing bridge 5 minutes after the hourly opening delayed us a tad. Just to up the stakes on this year long voyage, I thought I'd try to race our ICW passage with my reading of Anna Karenina - presently with 750 ICW miles and 902 pages remaining.
During today's clean-up time, Elias informed me that he couldn't put away his plastic horses, since they were wild (i.e., wild ponies off Beaufort) - I hope Jonas doesn't get wind of the wild legos along South Carolina's shores. Although demonstrating increasingly more clever clean-up resistance strategies, I'm still happy to report that he jumps up and down whenever he sights a dog. On a remotely related note, warnings have been issued regarding some bacterial ailments transmitted at North Carolina petting zoos - how obscurely connected to our trip, I first thought, then revisited our New Bern website (oops!)
egret
We've been seeing lots of great blue herons, but I've been opting to view them directly, rather than hunt for the camera, discover its batteries need recharging, and miss seeing the bird.
Hey Elias, would you like to taste
my tall soy milk with a shot of cocoa
and steamed 2 percent?
We figured we'd get the grounding quota over with early today, so we got stuck before we even pulled up the anchor. Making the best of the situation, we dinghied down the creek to the town of Calabash, while waiting for the high tide. Yes, the famous Calabash style seafood originated here - so we asked the waitress if the $5.30 lunch special was Calabash style, to which she responded there's really no such thing - it's just breaded and fried - ah, marketing. Once the tide came in, our early morning 2 hour sail became a mid afternoon sail, which would have been okay under normal circumstances...However, this journey involved navigating the "rock pile" section (literally speaking) of the ICW, racing the fast approaching 5:30 sunset, and passing through the swing bridge that opens upon request, except today - when there was to be a 30 minute wait for construction (traffic on the ICW!) - so 45 minutes later it opened and we continued until another swing bridge, not indicated on the chart, appeared - surprise! - long story short, we made it with minutes to spare - the current was actually in our favor - only to arrive after this wilderness expedition at the free Barefoot Landing dock, situated in the center of a shopping outlets resort town (North Myrtle Beach) - tied up behind the "Jungle Princess" exotically decorated tour boat.
Since you asked, our grounding solutions to date have been, in order of occurrence: (1) putting the boat in reverse and jumping on the bow when jogged by power boat wakes, (2) pushing the boat with the dinghy, (3) eating "Calabash" seafood while waiting for high tide, (anticipated 4) hail the ferry
SHIVER me timbers
(35 degrees wake-up call at Myrtle Beach)
Did you call that towboat?
(Running aground off Cape Fear)
I basically detest malls, super stores, strip malls, and shopping in general...However, I did get a kick out of the "lymo" van service that picks you up at (and returns you to) your docked boat and takes you where you want to go - which in this town, means which shopping complex - so we chose Walmart - we stocked up on groceries (Elias has been milkless for 2 days now, not to mention my having to subsist without Dove dark chocolates) - it's hard to find health food, or even edible food, at Sam's-esque convenience stores - and Walmart actually has healthy cereal/oatmeal/cereal bars that the boys will eat (I hope this exciting content isn't too much for you to "digest") - we also needed some warmer clothes (since I didn't really believe it was going to be cold, nor did I have space to spare), after having worn their minimally packed pairs of jeans over the past weeks, Jonas and Elias looked like they were off the boat (so to speak) from Bermuda ( - shorts and sweaters). It was a bit questionable where these 20 or so bags were going to go, and how much more we could let the water line be submerged (- I suppose I could remedy that by exchanging Anna Karenina for the Cliff notes). Again surreal, but it a different way, I hopped off the dock to the outlets (across from the pond with the "beware of alligators" sign), as bedtime commenced. Sure I need to take a moral stand against these tacky tourist traps, but they did have a homemade ice cream shop. And furthermore, I was able to complete my holiday shopping for Jonas and Elias - there was a cool toy store that had Elias' much sought after but difficult to locate stuffed sea lion, and a real neat life-like horse set-up, to boot. Now, should I hide their gifts in the refrigerator or the bilge? Nothing like the ICW for a shopping spree! We even squeezed in laundry today, during which time Jonas and Elias created a 2 foot crater in the lawn of the surrounding trailer park. Sorry, no Walmart photo (you can take your own), although I do keep meaning to capture our laundry on the transport stroller experience.