Day 34 - Elizabeth City, NC
01 May 2015
Day 34 - Thu 30 Apr 2015
Docked - Elizabeth City, NC
[photo: welcome sign in Elizabeth City, NC]
Here it is the last day of April already. Spring should be here by now, right?
It was a very restful night and I got up early to watch the Survivor episode I missed last night using the Internet. It is the only TV show I care to watch besides news and some documentaries. I watched the first episode many years ago and got hooked.
I first got the generator going to get a little heat into the boat, mainly for Diane, heat water, and re-charge the batteries. During the mandatory (can't skip or fast forward) commercial breaks, I started prepping another hot breakfast of home fries and veggie omelets. We enjoyed it as the rain started to fall gently, as it will do on and off all day.
We made plans to meet up with a cruising buddy from Elizabeth City, Billy, who we met in 2012 and wound up being in Manteo together for 2 days. We had let him know about our new boat and big adventure, so he was following our blog. Now that we are here, he will come over to see the boat and take us to lunch.
In the meantime, we got our umbrellas and walked the few blocks to the beautiful Museum of the Albemarle. The building alone is amazing, but they have quite a few exhibits inside that are extremely well done, a pattern for all the NC museums we have visited. There happened to be 2 whole busloads of first graders in there, and when they were sitting on the floor in several different groups, it was almost impossible to pass by. They hadn't thought that through very well. We enjoyed our visit greatly and then walked back to Diva Di in the rain.
I took advantage of the nearby public restrooms that had a working electrical outlet near a sink with a mirror (that combination is not as common as you might think) to use the clippers to buzz my head and trim my beard. A shower immediately afterwards is a nice bonus, but you have to walk in the rain somewhere nearby and pay $5 in cash, so it was not that important, mostly for the hassle of it.
Billy showed up near noon while it was drizzling heavily and we had a good chat on our boat. He still has his 2 sailboats, but just bought an old 25 foot Chris Craft to fix up and trailer to the FL Keys this coming winter. We walked to lunch where Billy and I had a fabulous Texas beef brisket with baked potato and salad. Diane had the chowder and a salad. We enjoyed it all and Billy insisted on treating us - very generous.
After lunch, Billy took us in his car to see quite a few homes in the rich section of town, some of the poorer section, and the main drag with all the stores and eateries. Both at lunch and in the car, Billy had a story for just about anything and he tells them well. You could see him being dumped off just about anywhere and he could ingratiate himself with the locals immediately. He dropped us off at the dock and we said your goodbyes. Hopefully, we'll see him in Punta Gorda this winter.
On the dock, we saw Robert and Corinne from Ariel and we chatted. Before I knew it, the ladies were heading to Diva Di for Corinne to learn Mah Jongg, so I invited Robert aboard for a drink and a chat. That lasted a few hours and before we knew it, the time was almost 1700. Despite the large lunch, I made some rice and we enjoyed the shrimp creole from the crock pot the other day. It was wonderful, especially with the rain continuing to pour and the cold seeping back into the boat.
Not long after that, Dan from s/v Paloma came over. He and his wife Kathy are employed at the Mid-Atlantic Christian University here in town and had just come back from a shakedown cruise on a boat. We had contacted them via email to see if our boat would fit at the free docks they offer and the answer was no. They still wanted to meet, so we invited them over when they got back. We had a great chat with Dan; boaters in general are very friendly and helpful types. People from the Carolinas are also very hospitable, we have learned.
With the rain still steady, we had enough activity for the day and took our books to the berth to get all snuggly warm. I don't think we got very far before we were asleep. Friday, we brave the continuing rain and stronger N winds to head to the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center for the night.