For the first time we are feeling that we can slow down and enjoy the “South”. Yesterday was reasonably warm and today it looks like it will be warmer still. Seeing Palm trees and Pelicans is now a regular thing, so we must be headed in the right direction.
After we left Beaufort and the Homer Smith Marina and Fish processing plant, we continued South on the ICW to “Mile Hammock” Anchorage. This is owned by the US Military and is a favorite for people traveling between Beaufort and Wrightsville. Just about exactly half way. I think by sunset there were 19 boats anchored. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of light Artilery fire and other military operational sounds. This part of the ICW is also used for live fire exercises and is sometimes closed for obvious reasons. We saw several of the “Targets” scattered along the shore as we went along.
We also passed by a Navy base where they were practicing vertical take off and landing with their Jets. Reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger “Your fired!” Those Jets. Very loud.
As there were several bridges that operated on a scheduled we have learned the art of keeping in a neat row without moving but very carefully using FWD and REV and a tiny bit of rudder to maintain our position in line abidst the wind and current. A couple of small z drives attached to a geo stationary controller would work well here!
Sunset at Mile Hammock AnchorageOne of our pet peeves has become hedges that remain unclipped. This is one great example. We have found that whenever we walk we usually end up going single file for part of the way. I guess walking is just not as popular as it once was.We saw this sign in Belhaven. Thought is was quite a mix of businesses. This was only half of it. There were more things written on the back. When we went inside along with the Christian Book Store, which only sold Bibles, was a pool table, some arcade machines, Candy, Snacks, The services of a Noterary and Bondsman, Avon and a number of other various, completely unrelated services and good! Got to hand it to the proprietor, he was making the most of every opportunity!We past hundreds, maybe thousands of docks and houses in the last couple of days. At least 1/4 of the docks and houses showed some sign of damage from Hurricane Florence. There was about 20 feet of water above the norm, but we noticed that most of the homes were already built up about another story, either on posts or a full basement beginning at ground level. The docks often had a roof or a widows walk atop them but many were twisted and collapsing.Notice the blue tarp on the roof of this house. This was a regular site. You really could not look at a group of houses without seeing several like this.Here we are anchored behind two other recently retired Cannuks. Wrightsville Beach, which is the recreational area of Willimgton NC. It is a very popular free anchorage. We even had a visit from the Town Police this morning asking how long we were planning to stay. I suspect they have had issues with long term liveaboards in the past. They took a picture of our boat and every other boat in the anchorage and went off on their patrol.
