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"The largest wooden structure in the world"- an old blimp-building barn, seen from the estuary of the Pasquotank River, leaving Elizabeth City (in disgrace - Gregg hogged the cheese dip at the Rose Buddies' party) for the Albemarle Sound and Roanoke Island. The twin building was burned down some years ago, presumably in "the largest wooden structure fire in the world". |
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Docking at Manteo on Roanoke Island, we took the opportunity for a bike ride to explore the wonderful Elizabethan Gardens. Avoiding the somewhat-twee waterfront, we puttered around the island and its creeks in the dinghy, resorting to oars in the shallows and sharing the peace with turtles, snakes, birds, frogs and insects. |
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We broke the trip from Roanoke to Ocracoke with an overnight anchorage between
two spoil islands in Old House Channel; I had spotted this on the chart and
local knowledge suggested "Yeah, you can try it" - it turned out to be excellent,
but might have been a very different proposition with any unfavourable wind. A beautiful sunset silhouetted the pelicans flying south and resting on the islands; later, we lay on deck marvelling at the Milky Way. I was awakened by a cormorant landing heavily on the stern rail by my head; I left him to it and went below, thinking "This is what I planned for, but never really expected to find...". |
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| Clamming at Ocracoke; the hollow aluminium handle is an excellent sound chamber, amplifying the noise of the rake hitting clam shells in the sand. This rake was loaned to us by the marina harbourmaster, along with some advice on clam grounds. Baked clams for dinner - lemon juice, ham, garlic and cheese with clams on the half-shell, preceded by half-a-dozen raw as the hors d'oeuvre. The great white hunter fed well that night... |
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Womble gracing the marina dock in Ocracoke's Silver Lake harbour. |
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No wind on the much-feared Pamlico Sound, en route from Ocracoke. Our bicycles are mounted on a standard car bike rack, attached to the stern rail with pipe clamps. |
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We found an unexpected peaceful retreat in the formal but pretty gardens of the historically-restored palace in New Berne, up the Neuse River; somewhat off the beaten track, but a delightful place for a few days break. |
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Birdwatching and walking the dinghy at Cape Lookout, another beautiful anchorage off the main ICW route. A short trip outside from the cacophonous Morehead City to a secluded, natural anchorage that is generally much shallower than the charts might indicate. We were overwhelmed by the number of dolphins working through the schools of fish driven in by the strong currents around the cape. We didn't see any of the storied wild horses, but there were plenty of droppings... |
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The race is on - to the next bridge before opening time; a typical scene between bridges on the ICW. It is often possible to fly the genoa on these stretches; roller furling
is a boon in situations like this. We eventually got fed up with the bridges, and went outside from Fort Lauderdale to Miami; this approach offers its own challenges... |
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An early start gets you out in the early morning chill, but the sun is still worthy of respect. |
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The beautiful Atlantic shoreline of the Carolinas; the breaking waves are constantly attended by those avian flibbertigibbets, the scurrying shorebirds. |
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We weathered a cold snap at the friendly little Blue Water Point marina, by Lockwood's Folly inlet and river. We only found it at the end of a rather desperate run out of the Cape Fear river and past Southport, which had no room anywhere. |
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A beautiful anchorage on the Waccamaw River; perhaps our favourite area of the Intracoastal, we moved a whole five miles to our next anchorage. The recent cold snap had killed off all the flying insects, so we were blissfully unbothered by flies and mosquitoes. |
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A typical early morning on the ICW in central Florida. |
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Manatee at Titusville; we had five eating up all the seaweed around Womble, whuffling, farting and sneezing with majestic disdain for the niceties of human manners. If only they fed on mosquitoes as well... |
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Villa Vizcaya, Miami. The same day, the general peace of the area was broken by vulturing media helicopters, picking over the bones of Sylvester Stallone's somewhat acrimonious departure from the neighbourhood. We saw a hand-written sign propped against a nearby wall : "Hey, Sly! Take Madonna with you!". |
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