Dowry Creek, then to River Dunes
26 October 2017 | River Dunes Marina and Resort
Clear, but cold morning!
I'm writing this from River Dunes Marina And Resort, outside Oriental, NC. But most of what I'll describe is from Dowry Creek Marina, simply because that is where I spent two of the three days since my last blog post.
The group spend three nights at Dowry Creek. The marina is 6 miles outside Belhaven (itself a fairly small town), and there isn't much around the marina except for marshes, and a lots of houses on the water. On Monday, our first day there, Wally had arranged for us to go on a tour of the Pamlico Rum distillery, and a chance to walk around Bath, NC - North Carolina's oldest community.
After a late start, 15 of us piled into a van, went to Bath, and from there to the distillery. This distillery was not what we expected... The husband and wife who started this have only been in business three years, and have only been selling their rum for less than a year. The distillery building is two shipping containers, and the distillery itself makes only one barrel a month. The still itself held maybe 50 gal of the mash. They could not give us samples due to not being licensed for that - so we had to be content with dipping a finger into the various stages of the distilling process. They plan to grow, but they are very small.
After our tour, we went to the local ABC store in Bath to buy a bottle of their rum. Liquor stores in North Carolina are run by the state. But unlike New Hampshire, where the stores are the size of a large grocery store and carry thousands of liquors, these ABC stores are tiny, with limited selection.
We walked around Bath, went inside the oldest Episcopal Church in America, and looked at the various houses. It's a very charming, sleepy and small town. Fun fact about Bath: They have only three restaurants. These restaurants coordinate when they are closed. When we were there, only one was open - so that is where we went to lunch.
Monday night, a cold front went through (this front is what has been the cause of stormy weather in the northeast). We had winds gusting over 50 mph, and a downpour. The winds drove waves into the marina, causing boats to pitch up and down. A number of boats were damaged by the waves driving their bows into the docks and pilings. Grace was lucky, and had no damage. It was a wild night, with folks up at 2am adding and tightening up their dock lines. Sleep was difficult.
Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day, although windy. I used the day to change the oil in the engine. That evening, we had a potluck dinner - which was great both for the variety of food to the opportunity to have a meal together.
A word about the Dowry Creek Marina. The people there are very nice. Neil - the manager, rented the van and took us for the distillery and Bath visit, at no charge. Laundry was free - they even had quarters by the one machine that took quarters! Neil brought shrimp to our potluck on Tuesday. It is cheap - $1/ft, 50% discount for the 3rd day. But the docks leave something to be desired... There are pilings, a center dock, and short 6' dock extensions for every two boats. If you dock bow-in - which most of us did, to get off you'd have to pull the boat close to the dock, climb over the lifelines, lean out to a piling, and then gingerly step onto the dock. Getting back on the boat was the reverse - but harder as the bow was quite a bit higher than the dock. I actually fell one time when my feet got tangled in the lines.
Yesterday was another fine day. I left the marina a little after 9 am, and motorsailed down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico River, down Duck Creek, through the canal, and then to the Neuse River, to River Dunes Marina and Resort. As you make your way along the ICW, you really get an appreciation for how it consists of rivers, creeks, sounds and estuaries, connected together by canals. Wally picked up shrimp as he came here, and last night we had a shrimp cookout.
I have to confess - I'm a bit ambivalent about these past seven days. If I had to put a label on this, it would be 'too many nights in marinas (six) and not enough anchoring out (one)' . The marinas are nice, great to have the conveniences, and to be able to easily visit. Wally has organized activities, such as the shrimp cookout, for us at every stop. But marinas are usually a ways from a town, and not much to do. And I miss the chance to explore the waterways that comes when you anchor out, like I did when we were at Tuckahoe Point anchorage. Anchoring out gives you a better sense of the waterway and surrounding countryside than marinas do. Some others in our group have expressed the same sentiment.
The group will be leaving here tomorrow to go to Beaufort NC. The itinerary has us staying there two nights - although a weather front comes through Sunday so we may need to stay another day. Beaufort should be interesting as the marina is right in the town.