Posted by Monty
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I should check the anchor. Then I remembered we were tied to a dock in Carolina Beach State Park until the morning, when we planned to resume our journey. Carol was resting after her stressful day when her anchorage was not accessible by the route she had charted the previous day (turns out we could have still reached it by using an alternate route and backtracking a bit). No problem, we spoke to a fellow cruiser who was going to this park (of which we were unaware) and graciously allowed us to follow them in. It turns out to be a great place with showers, a laundry, nearby grocery and miles of hiking trails through woods and wetlands.
Turns out the fellow cruiser is one whose blog we have followed for a couple of years while we hatched this harebrained scheme. We have taken much inspiration from their adventures. We recognized their boat beside us at Mile Hammock Bay on the second night. They left before we did the next morning (probably to time a bridge opening) and we caught up with them and a few other boats at another bridge while waiting for it to open. They have been doing this for years, we have been doing this for days. They kindly invited us to their cockpit and answered our questions patiently. Good people. If everyone out here is this friendly and helpful, we will be fine.
So back to my late night musings.
It occurred to me that the goal here is not to get the boat south so quickly that we miss too much along the way. It’s a sailboat, after all, and therefore more about the journey than the destination. So I decided, in the middle of the night, to stay an extra day in this lovely place. I informed Carol the next morning, and she agreed.
We walked to the grocery for provisions, did some chart plotting together, and washed some clothes. We have had a great time walking the trails, looking at wildlife, flora and fauna native to this part of the globe. Tomorrow we will get moving again.
And that is soon enough.
Turns out the fellow cruiser is one whose blog we have followed for a couple of years while we hatched this harebrained scheme. We have taken much inspiration from their adventures. We recognized their boat beside us at Mile Hammock Bay on the second night. They left before we did the next morning (probably to time a bridge opening) and we caught up with them and a few other boats at another bridge while waiting for it to open. They have been doing this for years, we have been doing this for days. They kindly invited us to their cockpit and answered our questions patiently. Good people. If everyone out here is this friendly and helpful, we will be fine.
So back to my late night musings.
It occurred to me that the goal here is not to get the boat south so quickly that we miss too much along the way. It’s a sailboat, after all, and therefore more about the journey than the destination. So I decided, in the middle of the night, to stay an extra day in this lovely place. I informed Carol the next morning, and she agreed.
We walked to the grocery for provisions, did some chart plotting together, and washed some clothes. We have had a great time walking the trails, looking at wildlife, flora and fauna native to this part of the globe. Tomorrow we will get moving again.
And that is soon enough.