ICW the good times, and the good people.

   I have problems taking photos of random people. This is actually an issue now, as many times, some of the best pars of the trip are the people you meet. I wish I had photos of the crazy hyper woman at the buffet. Her accent was so adorable. She was so much fun to spend 30 min with, that it made me want to not leave that town! So I promise, I will take more candid photos of the people I run into from now on. We will keep the DSLR with us, and snap away!
   That has been one of the great parts of this trip. We have met some wonderful people. I would say the first nice person, on the ICW was the lock keeper at the great bridge lock. She was WONDERFUL! I woke up super early that morning, because i knew there were lock issues. I had to keep trying to call, because 3/4 of a ring and the phone went dead on her end. On the 3rd try, success! I asked, "when can we get thru the lock" she said, "you have 30 min, can you be here then? I said, "sure can." Waking Dana at 4AM, and raising the dead, are both quite the chore. Before i had even gotten the engine started, i was on the radio to the bridge, asking for passage. Pushed the button on the engine, hoping it would start, and it did. Wiping the goop from my eyes, peering thru the fog bank, we left.

   It was pitch black. Dana was still learning to use the HID spotlight, so she went on the bow, with the light, to spot. There is a learning curve to this, and i do my best to be patient. But i am bad at that. I make the assumption many times that because i know the intricate details of nearly every aspect of a task, others do not. So she was shining it back behind us 20% of the time, showing me channel markers we had passed. That in itself would not be a big deal, but each time i loose my night vision. We had a nice talk that day about what to spot, and what to never spot. No problem. We made slow progress, our GPS has a rough idea on the ICW where the channel is most of the time, here it did not.

 

     The lock keeper, she was awesome, provided us with so much information about the local waterway, I forgot most of it. This was our first great person.

  The second great person was the man from the marina. The marina in the little town I loved.
River forest manor marina. The man who tied us up knew exactly what to do. It amazes me how many times we have been to a marina and the rope catchers know nothing about tying up a boat. I understand cheep labor, but at what expense? This whole town of, Belhaven, NC was very nice to us. Not even one person laughed at the two fat folks, riding thru town, in a golf cart. When we got to the Food Lion, it was clear why. Cars i had not seen in a junk yard in 8 years were being driven. The entire town was dirt poor, with the exception of the road the marina was on. I think money brings with it a level of piety that can be achieved no other way. Some of the nicest folk i have met in my life, have been poor, or low income. What makes them so happy? Well many of them, I knew for a fact, Had a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is easier for a camel to go on his knees under a low doorway, then it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. 

   Matthew.

Matthews Point Marina

   I was seeking a warm place for us to spend the night, as we have no good heat on the boat. So i found a 
place with a low rate. Matthew answered the phone. He told us his rate, $1 a foot, but told us the bad 
news of the very low water, and how a 6.5 draft would be very hard to get in. Very hard it was. That we
were welcome to try, and that he would be closed. He said don't worry about paying, as it was just for the 
night, but because of him, the wife had her warm shower, and we had a warm bed. 

 

He was not joking. It was shallow. I felt like i was back in NY, using a bulldozer, as we went thru the silt. I could not even get sideways to the dock. so i parked nose in, and tied up. This was our free night. It took us no less then 30min in the morning to reach the channel, at 3/4 throttle. During the night, the water level had dropped. The moral is, if you draw more then 5' this is not the place for you.

One last stop, and we were out of the ICW.