Monday, May 5
Ahh - the joys of cruising in your own boat. The idyllic days on the sun-drenched water, the cocktails on the beach or with friends on their boats, the beautiful quiet anchorages that not everyone knows about… What could be better? Well, one thing that’s not on that list is coming back to your anchored boat in the evening and finding your whole boat - outside and inside - covered with millions of mosquitos. Get out the DEET, get out the flyswatter, get out the citronella candle - anything to fight back the hordes. I’ve been swatting for about the last fifteen minutes and the overhead is starting to look white again, rather than a speckled grey. It will be a mess in the morning. We’ll have to start the generator so we can vacuum up all the casualties and get the cleaner out for all the smudges throughout the boat. Ahh - the joys of cruising…
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| Live firing warning |
Actually, up to the mosquito event, it was a pretty nice day. We started out about 8:30 AM from Wrightsville and had great weather all day with a south to southeast wind pushing us most of the time. There are a couple of low bridges along the way which only open
on the hour or, 20 miles further, on the half hour. Luckily, our timing was “on” today, so we only had to wait about 5 minutes at each bridge. One of the bridges was at the southern entrance to Camp LeJune, complete with warning signs about possible live firing exercises by the Marines - none today, however. |
| Forested shores in North Carolina |
Earlier, we considered stopping in Moorhead City for the night, but we got there around 1PM and decided to keep going. We stopped for fuel a few miles later then kept on going to Oriental, NC. This is a pretty little place which is very friendly to the boating crowd. They have a couple of free docks (with an espresso shop across the street), some nice shops and good restaurants. The free docks were taken, so we anchored out before taking the dinghy to join the others for “sundowners.”
It was just after another beautiful sunset when the mosquito invasion occurred. We had been warned by a fellow traveler with local knowledge that the situation was ripe for the “blind mosquitos” to hatch tonight. Now, I really don’t know if they are truly mosquitos or just some other flying insects (although they look and sound like mosquitos!) and I don’t know if they are really blind, and I don’t know if they bite. I tried not to give them the chance, if they do. I think I’ve got things under control now in the salon, and I don’t hear much more screaming from Elaine in the stateroom, so we will, hopefully, have a restful night. Bzzz…..
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| Another sunset - they seem to get better and better |
Notes from Elaine
I feel compelled to mention two things about this trip so far - "No-see-ums" and "manatees".
I am a western United States girl - had never heard of no-see-ums and they are in abundance in Florida through the Carolinas. Even the name reeks of juvenile mockery - really? How bad can these microscopic gnats be? Two weeks and hundreds of bites later, my skin looks like a mini chicken pox epidemic. They sting. They itch. And apparently industrial strength DEET is the only way to combat them (oh my, that sounds healthy) but I am so desperate I will do anything. We are now in the quaint town of Belhaven, North Carolina and I am hoping we are migrating out of their habitat. However, our next destination is The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia so don't hold your breath folks.
The other mysterious creature that is prevalent here in Florida and Georgia are the manatees. Apparently they are endangered because boaters run into them in the waterways (probably akin to running into a cow in your car) so we have slowed down for them for hundreds of miles during this trip. I was beginning to think that this was a tactic that the communities used just to get boaters to reduce their speed until we actually saw not one, but TWO of these mammoth creatures in Haulover Canal in Florida. Warty and walrus looking, I guess I need to eat my words when we slow down for manatee crossings in the future.
Despite the slow downs and insect bites, we have been touring civil war sites ( such as Ft. Sumter) and quaint southern towns such as Beaufort, Isle of Hope and Savannah, South Carolina. And we are heading into the Chesapeake so I guess I will go brush up on more early American history.
I am a western United States girl - had never heard of no-see-ums and they are in abundance in Florida through the Carolinas. Even the name reeks of juvenile mockery - really? How bad can these microscopic gnats be? Two weeks and hundreds of bites later, my skin looks like a mini chicken pox epidemic. They sting. They itch. And apparently industrial strength DEET is the only way to combat them (oh my, that sounds healthy) but I am so desperate I will do anything. We are now in the quaint town of Belhaven, North Carolina and I am hoping we are migrating out of their habitat. However, our next destination is The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia so don't hold your breath folks.
The other mysterious creature that is prevalent here in Florida and Georgia are the manatees. Apparently they are endangered because boaters run into them in the waterways (probably akin to running into a cow in your car) so we have slowed down for them for hundreds of miles during this trip. I was beginning to think that this was a tactic that the communities used just to get boaters to reduce their speed until we actually saw not one, but TWO of these mammoth creatures in Haulover Canal in Florida. Warty and walrus looking, I guess I need to eat my words when we slow down for manatee crossings in the future.
Despite the slow downs and insect bites, we have been touring civil war sites ( such as Ft. Sumter) and quaint southern towns such as Beaufort, Isle of Hope and Savannah, South Carolina. And we are heading into the Chesapeake so I guess I will go brush up on more early American history.
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