9/18/18

Cruising North Carolina

Hurricane Florence dominated the news all last week. Initially, the forecast was for a category 4 (140 mph winds) storm, but thankfully it weakened to category 1 (90 mph winds) when it made landfall near Wrightsville Beach Friday morning. The storm surge and the relentless rain from the slow moving storm have caused catastrophic flooding in the region.

We know the North Carolina coastal towns well, having cruised up and down the East Coast twice. Even though the last cruise was in 2004 (fourteen years ago!), we remember some places vividly, thanks to our passion for writing, and taking pictures and videos. There were many first experiences: eating hush puppies and chicken n dumplings, listening to the thick Southern accent, and visiting Beaufort, Elizabeth City, New Bern, Ocracoke, Washington, Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach.
Mai Thai (middle) on the Dismal Swamp heading for Elizabeth City
Our trip's log to Ocracoke on the Outer Banks can be found here.
Map of Shackleford Banks Cape Lookout was a destination on our cruising bucket list. We got there an hour before sunset. Unfortunately, the weather started to deteriorate; we spent an uncomfortable night rocking and rolling. So much for the protected anchorage. Alas, we never set foot on the island as we ran back to Beaufort the very next morning.

Passing by Shackleford Banks, we spied a bunch of party-goers frolicking on the beach. We decided to join in the fun. It's shallow here, so we cautiously sounded our way in.
Shoals appear at low tide at Shackleford Banks
Sometimes the best plan is having no plans at all. Shackleford Banks was paradise! We spent several blissful nights enjoying the calm waters and the peace and quiet. Beautiful sunrise greeted us every morning. Wild horses roaming the beach awed us, and shelling was the best (on the East Coast)!
Beautiful sunrise at Shackleford Banks, Beaufort
Wild horses strolling by was our morning scenery
Pamlico River as we headed towards Little Washington
And how can we forget Wrightsville Beach? It's a cruiser friendly beach town with amenities and a sizeable anchorage. Its vicinity to the Masonboro Inlet provides easy access to the Atlantic Ocean, so many cruisers like to stop here. The current flows in and out, easily turning boats around no matter what the wind direction, and at slack tide all the boats swing every which way. But the holding was good, and it's a great place to meet, or meet up with, other cruisers. In October, we stopped here for a few days on our way south. We hung out with friends we met in Baltimore and took a taxi to check out Wilmington.

Upon our return, we found a Canadian sailboat had dropped anchor kinda close to our boat. We have the utmost respect for sail boaters, especially since this one came all the way from Canada. We were concerned but didn't say anything. Around 6 the next morning, we heard a loud BAM! We jumped out of bed and clambered up to the deck of the boat. The Canadian sailboat had rammed into us. The captain apologized profusely. Turned out he did not let out enough line. How he managed to travel so far without mishap was beyond us. Luckily Mai Thai got away with just a minor scratch.

These were some of our cruising adventures in North Carolina.
Currently, many towns in the state are inundated by the rising waters. Some parts on I-95 is flooded. Wilmington is completely inaccessible. Sadly, Hurricane Florence had done quite a bit of damage. We pray and hope for the best for the people affected.

This post is shared on Through My Lens, Our World Tuesday and Weekend Reflections.

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10 comments:

  1. Thank you for your post. It reminds me that life continues forward with hope.

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  2. Lovely landscape and sun sun capture . Please tell something about my capture on my blog.

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  3. Brings back so many fond memories of my cruises through the Great Dismal Swamp, Ocracoke Island, and dozens to Cape Lookout from "Mine-All-Mine"s home port of Beaufort, NC. One of your best blogs ever Eileen.

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    1. Thanks for the nice comment, Don! Our first time to Cape Lookout was on your boat. I have a video of that trip too!

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  4. You have some great place to travel when the weather gets back to normal. My ex has a boat on the east coast and travels from Florida north to Virginia. He's a liveaboard right now. He was far enough north to avoid all the damaging winds and rain. - Margy

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  5. Agreed Eileen. Gosh the weather last week was so stormy the world over, between hurricane Florence in North Carolina, and typhoon Mangkhut in Hong Kong and the mud slide in the Phillipines, I think we got off lightly in Bangkok with our usual heavy monsoonal rains.
    It was lovely to learn more about the beautiful North Carolina area and such a shame to think of all of Florence's devastation and destruction in the region.

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  6. Wonderful cruise, beautiful captured views, nicely told, and very nice Reflection shots. Thank you Don, for taking us along. I came as a Reflection participant.

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  7. @Wandering Wren, @Jim
    Something got reset in my blog setting, so did not see your comments until now, almost a year later! Anyway, thanks for visiting.
    Eileen

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  8. I'm so happy you left a message for me on my blog so that I could find you. What an amazing life you are living right now! I clicked on this post because this is my home for 1/2 a year (Florida the other 1/2). I hope you had a good time in Wilmington. We love going for walks along the River Walk. So we were in NY for our son's wedding when the hurricane Florence hit. It should have taken us 10 hours to get from NY to NC. It took us 2 1/2 days!! It was an experience we will never forget! Anyway, thank you so much for stopping by Life Of 2 Snowbirds. Hope you will come back one day soon! I will be back to catch up with you from time to time too!

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