Into the Dismal

North from Ocracoke we stayed in Manteo, NC.  The town has all you need and plenty of space on two free docks.  You can pay a per-person fee to use the facilities at the marina next door (laundry, showers).

After Manteo we had a decision to make – do we take the Virgina Cut or the Dismal Swamp Canal?  Reg voted for the Virginia Cut based on names alone but we ending up taking the Dismal.  We were told is was prettier, had more free docks to tie up at, and has speed restrictions so is really only used by cruisers.

The Dismal is the oldest continuously operated lock system in North American (the Rideau is the next oldest).  George Washington ordered its construction which began in 1793.  Over the next 12 years the canal was hand-dug by slaves whose owners were paid for their labour. Apparently there was once a hotel on the canal which ran across the North Carolina – Virgina state line.  It was a popular place for duels as the dead person ended up in one state and the shooter in another which meant they were rarely (ever?) prosecuted. We didn’t see any rogue duels on our passage.

The trip up the Dismal was lovely.  Free docks, friendly lock masters and bridge operators, pretty scenery, and no fee to transit.  I think we made the right choice.

The night before we entered the Dismal we stayed in Elizabeth City, home to the most boring street names in North America

Down the Dismal

We had our bug screens up because we had heard it was quite buggy (it wasn't really).  Here Riley pokes his nose out the window like a dog in  a car.

The water in much of the ICW is the colour of root bear.  Compare this to my photos from the Bahamas  or even northern Lake Michigan.

Ocracoke

We spent much of the stretch after Charleston just powering through.  We were all a little miserable to be honest so we made a decision to slow down and make sure we enjoy these last months as part of the trip and not just a long run home. With that new attitude we arrived in Okracoke on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Ocracoke is only accessible boat but there are large ferries bringing a constant stream of tourists so it is quite a busy place. The big claim to fame here is its history of piracy.  Blackbeard met his end here by way of 25 stab wounds, 5 bullets holes, and eventually beheading with a broad sword.  Pirate kitsch is all over the island which had me wondering – how much time needs to pass before a terrorist becomes a romantic figure? Will Timothy McVeigh be considered a hero in 200 years? Will Disney make a family film series about him?

This well on Ocracoke is rumoured to be the original well that made the island attractive to pirates.  

They are tall like grown-ups but they still play like little kids

Ocracoke is a fun laid back town. People wander around barefoot and the local coffee shop is full of dogs.

Yes, that is the paws of another dog on the table you can see on the bottom right.

Ocracoke was also full of these geese that looked like Canada geese but with thick necks.  Google tells me they are likely Cackling geese.

From Ocracoke we took a small tour boat to Portsmouth Island to visit an abandoned town.  We paid for the boat but the actual island visit is free. Portsmouth Village was founded in 1753 as a port where cargo was transferred from large ocean going vessels onto smaller boats which could cross the shallow Pamlico Sound to the mainland. Mother nature caused the beginning of the end of Portsmouth with hurricanes that opened up a larger inlet further north at Hatteras and shoaling which began to close up Ocracoke Inlet. More hurricanes requiring continual rebuilding hastened the village’s demise. From a peak population of almost 700 in 1860, the village boasted only 3 by 1971.  In 1978 the village became part of the US National Seashore and part of it has been preserved as a park.

On the island you can visit several of the homes, the schoolhouse, the general store and post office, the church, and the lifesaving station.  A warning to anyone considering a visit – it is VERY buggy.  We were loaned mosquito shirts complete with full head coverings and I’m not sure we would have visited the whole place without them.

While we were up in the lookout at the lifesaving station and had cell service, Sam received word of his entrance scholarship to UW. He assures me this is no big deal but Reg and I are pretty proud.

The Portsmouth Village uniform

One of the last occupied houses in the village

Not too different from the composting head we use on the boat now!

Riley hanging out on his phone enjoying the antique surroundings.

North Carolina

From Charleston we went back into the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and headed north out of South Carolina and in to North. The ICW feels like being back in the rivers.  Sure, it is pretty, but not very exciting.  But unlike the rivers the ICW is full of powerboats who love to speed by and wake our boat sometimes to the point of having water come in through our forward hatches.  Jerks.

One highlight was our stop in Wrightsville Beach which is just another Atlantic beach town but is near the home of a good friend of mine from my Buccaneer racing days.  It is so lovely to visit someone in a real house and sit around a real dining table!  We also lucked out because she was on her way out of town for a few days so we got to raid her fridge of most of her fresh fruits and vegetables.

Our Wilmington Hostess

Reg was spoiled for choice!

There is a large military presence in this area so we anchored in some interesting spots on this stretch.  One popular anchorage between Wrightsville Beach and Beaufort, NC is a basin off the ICW surrounding by a training ground owned by the Marine Corp and used by military and security agencies from all over the world.  It was no surprise, then, to be woken in the middle of the night by bright lights shining in our windows as someone was practicing some sort of clandestine night time water operation.  I’m glad I was warned about this in the cruising guides or I would have been terrified!  We also anchored near a bay where the air force practices bombing.  The bay has floating targets and they drop God knows what on them.  We didn’t see anything dropping but we were buzzed by quite a few aircraft (which usually has me running for a news website to double check the US hasn’t gone to war with someone).

An escort while we find a good spot to drop the hook

For anyone reading this who is planning on being in the area – the free town docks in Oriental, NC are worth a stop.  When you come into the harbor there are two docks clearly marked right ahead of you but there are also two on your starboard side at the end of the marina where the pumpout dock is which are easy to miss if you don’t know they are there. Oriental is a cute little town with an excellent coffee shop right on the water and the best chandlery we have come across on our trip – Inland Waterway Provision Company.  The store has a great selection of all the usual gizmos you would expect (although surprisingly very few shackles) but also has a consignment section with lots of goodies.  They have a spot with chairs where they welcome cruisers to hang out and use their wifi.  As an added bonus they sell local beer and produce – what more could you want?

I loved these trees with their exposed root systems

Charleston, Charleston...

I suppose there are worse earworms:

We traveled to Charleston in one go directly from St. Augustine.  By we I mean Sam and I.  Reg and Riley rented a car and stayed in a hotel instead of sailing straight for 34 hours.  I think the rough crossing from the Bahamas has scared Reg away for life.

The houses along the waterfront on the way into Charleston were stunning.

The local college sports teams are called the Cougars.  And here I thought I had found the perfect club for me!

This house was being raised from it's foundations presumable to protect from flooding. I wish I had been there on a weekday to watch the work.

We spent two nights in Charleston so I would have time to visit a southern plantation (and go to a farmer's market - strawberries are in season down here!). We chose the McLeod Plantation mostly because the location on Jame's island is a short Uber from the marina.

The cotton plantation was purchased by the McLeod family in the mid 1850s. When the Union army advanced on James' island in 1862, the family was forced to evacuate. They took most of their slaves with them but 10 fled in the night prior to the evacuation to try and reach the union troops and freedom. History is silent on the fate of 9 of them but it is known that one did reach safety and joined the union forces.

With the house empty, the confederate troops used it as a field hospital and headquarters for most of the remainder of the civil war. The north occupied it for a short time right at the tail end.  The part of the history of the south that I was completely unfamiliar with came after the war with the formation of the Freedman's Bureau which was responsible for, among other things, selling small parcels of land to former slaves. The slave who escaped in 1862 and joined the union forces returned to the plantation and purchased land under this program.  Unfortunately the bureau was dismantled when president Johnson (who became president when Lincoln was assassinated) vetoed a bill to renew the charter for the Bureau.  With the dismantling of the Bureau, the introduction of Black Codes in the south, and the rise of the KKK, any advances made were rolled back and the plantation land returned to the McLeod family. One wonders what things would have been like had Lincoln not been assassinated.

The slave cabins on the property eventually became homes for share croppers and were inhabited until 1990 when the last of the McLeod family died at the age of 104.  Rent at the time for the small one room cabins was $26 per month and included electricity but no running water.  One cabin was inhabited by 14 members of one family!

The original front facade of the house, it became the back door when land was sold off for a golf course and a road cut through the rear of the property making that the front entrance.

The font of the McLeod Plantation house.  This fancy columns and portico were added in the 1920s as it was deemed not grand enough when the back door became the front door.

A three hundred year old oak tree near the house. She was gorgeous.

A row of slave cabins.  I believe there were once 23 of them.  6 or 7 remain.

St. Augustine

We are not big fans of Florida.  The place is littered with abandoned boat (often making for crowded anchorages) and the boaters fly past us with large wakes that send objects flying in the boat if we haven't stowed everything.  St. Augustine is the exception and well worth a visit.  

It is the oldest continuously occupied city in the US and has a fascinating history. The whole area was "discovered" by Ponce de Leon in the early 1500s (unfortunately we, like he, did not find the fountain of youth).  He claimed the land for Spain.  Of course the French didn't think that was a good idea and by the mid 1500s were also settling in the area. The Spanish began to build fortifications and the town of St. Augustine was born. Poor St. Augustine had a rough few hundred years after that.  In 1566 the local native tribes burned it to the ground. They couldn't hold the town, and the Spanish rebuilt. In 1586 Sir Francis Drake attacked and burned it to the ground.  He couldn't hold the town and the Spanish rebuilt. After another raid by another Brit in 1666 the Spanish finally decided that perhaps a more robust structure was in order and over the next 25 years or so they built a stone fort which still stands.  

In 1763,  as part of the treaty ending the 7 years war, Spain gave Florida to the British in exchange for Cuba (much like trading baseball cards). Shortly after that the American Revolution began.  Spain sides with the Americans and as part of the treaty that ends the Revolution in 1783, Britain trades their Florida territories back to Spain in exchange for the Bahamas (unlike baseball cards, apparently trade-backs are allowed in international treaties). The Americans are not pleased about this and fight with the Spanish for the next 40 years or so.  The Seminole, the French, and some Haitians all get involved.  Finally in  1819 Spain sells their territory in Florida to the Americans for 5 million dollars.

With all this history, tours of the town and the fort are well worth the time.

Now, for the photos:

This was in my St. Augustine photo folder.  Because I've been so lazy about blogging I no longer have a clue when or where it was taken or even if it is a sunrise or sunset (likely a sunset since I'm rarely up that early) but isn't it pretty?

On the way into St. Augustine - another damaged and abandoned sailboat. I'm amazed some level of government can't get the owners to remove them.

We had our first meal out since returning to the US in St. Augustine. After the lack of fresh produce in the Bahamas we were all overwhelmed by the choices.

Just out riding around town with a parrot on the handlebars as one does.

Magnolia Avenue.  They are actually 100 year-old oak trees - the magnolias all died in a cold snap.

After looking like scruffy pirates in the Bahamas the boys went to an old fashioned barber shop to clean up which included neck shaves and scalp vacuums:

The plaque with the context wasn't installed yet. I'm curious what it will say.

Souvenir shopping (no, we didn't buy it).  They also had a t-shirt depicting Abraham Lincoln riding a bear holding the US Constitution and a rifle.

The oldest wooden schoolhouse in the US. The closest Riley has come to attending school since last June.  

One of the jewels of St. Augustine is Flagler College built as a 5 star hotel by one of the founders of Standard Oil.  It opened in 1888 and became a college in 1968.

Sundial in the courtyard. The frogs tell the time and the turtles the season.

The lobby:

The dining hall complete with the larges installation of Tiffany glass in the world.  A little fancier than those at the University of Waterloo:

The fort, Castillo de San Marcos:

Not sure how they can paint this prat as a good guy

Can you imagine a military these days going to so much effort and expense to make their killing machines so beautiful?

The civil engineering exhibits are always the best part of any historical tour

The fort was built with coquina quarried from nearby Anastasia Island. Coquina is a limestone of broken shells.  It is so elastic that the fort could apparently withstand a cannon ball strike at close range. 

The St. Augustine mooring field as seen from the fort. Can you spot Binary?

x