Veteran's Day Weekend 2010
14 November 2010 | Whortonsville, Harker's Island NC
Lane Kendall
Veteran's Day is a holiday for me and I had requested the Friday after to give us a long weekend at the coast. This trip had been planned for quite some time. We had invited Becky and Charles down for a sail. Unfortunately, plans changed and Becky and Charles were not able to join us. The weather forecast was for sunny skies and mild temperatures for November. There was however a forecast for strong North winds and small craft advisories Thursday and Friday, diminishing on Saturday. The thing the forecast did not mention was the way the strong North wind tends to cut through most clothing. This is especially true on or near water. As it turned out, sailing was not part of the weekend activity anyway.
Thursday October 11, 2010 Veteran's Day
When the weather starts to get cool, we tend to travel to the coast in daylight hours and arrive before dark. This allows us to turn the ship's heater on and maintain the sun's warmth into the evening. When we arrive after dark and the boat is already cold, the little heater never catches up all night long and the cabin just stays cold all night. We left home before 8am. Packing is not much of a chore since we do it so often and never completely unpack between trips. We stopped at IHOP in Asheboro for breakfast. The food is consistently hot and tasty and the service is good. After breakfast we traveled on to Raleigh where we stopped at the North Carolina Museum of Art to see a special exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings and prints. We had been to the Norman Rockwell Museum during our trip to New England many years ago. He was a master at capturing expressions and telling a story in a single picture. We have many museums in North Carolina and most of them are completely free. This special exhibit had a charge of $15 but was worth every penny. The most surprising thing to me was the number of people in attendance on a Thursday morning. Maybe folks were taking advantage of the holiday to attend. In any case I highly recommend it.
We stopped at the Neuse Sports Shop in Kinston so I could renew my fishing license and buy some bait shrimp. I like to at least be legal in my futile attempt to catch fish. Our last stop was Aggie's Sandwich Shop in Bayboro for an early dinner. We split a steak submarine sandwich and a single order of fries. Good, fast, cheap and hot is the winning formula fast food, and Aggie's has it all.
When we arrived at the dock Nick was headed out to help Eric land his big Hatteras Motor yacht. I went with him to help but Eric did a really good job of handling the huge vessel in a tight area. Art was working on the toe rail of "Resolute" his classic Tartan 30. Chuck was working on the cabin sole of his Island Packet 35. It was a good turnout for a November weekend. It was late in the day but we had plenty of time to start the heater running. There was time to visit a bit before time to turn in. The boat was warm and comfortable and we slept well under multiple blankets.
Friday October 12, 2010
The weather was crisp, clear and cool. The forecast was for small craft advisories and winds from the North in excess of 20 knots. Southern Star can easily handle that kind of weather but her crew, on the other hand, prefers a little less excitement. We had been talking about driving over to Harker's Island and Saturday seemed like a good time. We took the ferry at Minnesott Beach and drove to the Island in about 2 hours. Harker's Island has been and is known for fishing. It is also know for boat building, specifically the classic Carolina flat bottom workboats built by "rack of eye" and no drawn plan. Of course at one time they would have been sailboats but with the advent of gasoline and diesel engines they built pretty much the same boat using mechanical power rather than sail. Since they were working boats it only made sense to go to the more reliable and faster powerboat over the more aesthetically pleasing sailing version. Harker's Island does not appear to be a particularly sought after vacation destination, but we did see a lot of fishermen. There are private ferries that take fishermen and their vehicles to otherwise inaccessible areas of the core banks where the fishing is good. Some areas are becoming more gentrified but mostly it is still a fishing island. We visited both the National Seashore welcome center and the Core Sound museum while we were there. Both were interesting and well done. Boat building is still alive and well but unless I missed it, they are all built with fiberglass and not the traditional plank on frame wooden construction.
In an effort to support the local economy while on Harkler's Island, we had lunch at the Fish Hook Restaurant. Their special of the day was a fried fresh flounder and shrimp combination with 2 sides. Although fish is far and away my favorite entrée, I prefer my fish baked or grilled. Fried fish is acceptable if it is fresh, cooked correctly and served hot. I figured if you can't get fresh fish on Harker's Island where could you get it? Well, they got the fresh and hot part just fine but the "cooked correctly" part, not so much. You'd think that folks who cook fish for a living would learn to cook it properly but that assumption was false in this case.
After we consumed our grease quotient for the next two months, we were off to Beaufort. Judy wanted to do a little shopping and I always enjoy checking out the watercraft center and the Beaufort docks. The snowbird traffic must be slowing down on the Intracoastal Waterway because there was not as much activity at the docks as I expected. I watched the dock masters land several vessels while Judy shopped. We left Beaufort for Ensign Harbor and arrived at the Cherry Branch Ferry landing just in time to watch the ferry pull away. The good news was that we were first in line for the next ferry. We got back to the boat and had a light dinner, then rigged the ship's theatre and watched a DVD. We slept well under multiple blankest and the little heater puffing away.
Saturday October 13, 2010
The weather was pretty much the same as it had been for the past two days with bright sunshine high temperatures in the mid sixties and a brisk Northeast wind. We had no plan for the day except to take a brisk walk. I put my new fishing license to work for a while in the morning but the new license didn't seem to help my luck. I suggested that we drive to Oriental to take our walk and I could also check out the consignment shop. There were a couple of places that Judy wanted to shop as well, so she packed a picnic lunch and we left for the big city. Shopping in Oriental seldom takes a long time. I did find a pressure switch for one of my two inoperable jabsco water pumps at the consignment shop. I only paid $5 for the switch and it will surprise me if it works. If it does I will have a spare (although still crappy) water pump. We enjoyed our picnic lunch at Lou Mack park and watched an organized sailboat race. The boats were healing a fair amount and we could tell the wind was stiff even in the more protected waters upriver from our docks. We went back to the boat and found that Ken and Jan were down for the night. They were taking measurements and assessing several upcoming projects aboard Serenity their Catalina 30, Southern Star's sister ship.
A planned meal with dock mates is a bit unusual but we knew Art was at his boat for the week. We took enough salmon for a third meal and invited him to have dinner with us. We caught a lucky break when he offered to furnish fresh local sweet potatoes. Judy made coleslaw and we grilled salmon at the cockpit. Ken and Jan joined us as we were finishing up and Eric joined us when he got back from dinner. It was like old times telling stories and experiences with friends. After the sun went down the temperature followed and it soon became too cool to be comfortable. The boat was nice and warm and again, we slept well under multiple blankets.
Sunday October 14, 2010
The wind that had been forecast to diminish in earlier forecasts was now slated to continue through the day. We woke to a fairly dense fog on the creek, but Art said to was clear inland and the fog should burn off by 10am. He was planning a critical last coat of varnish on the toe rail and needed warm, dry and reasonable calm weather. Since the weather was a bit murky we were encouraged to head for home a bit earlier than usual. Also we were going to try to catch up with Becky and Charles for dinner near home. We left before 11am with a planned quick stop in Raleigh to drop off a staple gun for Matthew's ongoing bathroom project.
Our near future plans are uncertain at this point. Since our new grandson has not shared his arrival schedule with anyone, we will need to stick close to home for the next few weeks at least.