Rivers, swamps, bombs and bears, oh my!

We have spent the last two nights at North Carolina anchorages, deep in the swamp, with no cell coverage.  I did not anticipate North Carolina having so much rural area along the ICW.  We have seen beautiful cypress swamps as well as brackish to salt marshes, with duck blinds, crab traps, and commercial fisherman.  Just like home!  We have seen a black bear swimming across the ICW, Pileated Woodpeckers galore, feral hogs, deer, warblers, cardinals, wrens, finches, and skimmers.  A veritable birder’s paradise.  Along the way we have passed North Carolina towns and cities such as Beaufort, Oriental and Belhaven.  Tonight we stop at Coinjock, our last North Carolina stop before Virginia.  Coinjock is a popular spot to lay over before taking the final leg of the AICW into Norfolk.  It is also noted for its steakhouse.  We will let you know!

We have traversed many rivers such as the New, Neuse, Pungo, Alligator, and Albemarle Sound.  The ICW here is a series of small channels connecting natural rivers and sounds.  It has been a relaxing part of the ICW, without the traffic and bustle of more urban stretches.  All that will change soon as we approach Norfolk, one of the busiest ports in the nation, with a huge naval presence.  Like home, we must monitor VHF channel 13 and stay out of the way of the commercial traffic.  We will also have a lock to deal with at Norfolk, and recreational traffic has the lowest priority, like the New Orleans locks.  Our AIS system comes in handy with the commercial traffic, as we can obtain the names of the tows/ships, and contact them on 13 for navigation instructions.  It also enables the captains to identify us and often they will call us by boat name, and tell us what side to pass on, etc.  On the whole, commercial captains have been very helpful, as long as you obey the rules of the road, and contact them for info.  Every now and then a big sport fisherman will blindly wake tows, and charge through the area at full speed, and all recreational boaters are tainted.  You should hear the VHF traffic when that happens!  Both Alexis and I have taken the Florida and Louisiana on line boating courses (even though because of our age, we are exempted from doing so), and are very familiar with the rules of the road.  Anybody contemplating this trip should also do that, and read Chapman’s book on seamanship at a minimum.

 

In a few days we see our grandkids (and their parents) and are very excited.  Stay tuned!

The AICW runs through Camp Lejeune, the USMC base.  Because of live fire exercises, the waterway was shut down for about an hour.

These guys made sure even the big sportfisher boats stopped!

Note the osprey taking in the bombings.  We could hear and feel the artillery shells exploding.  

Blowed up sir!

Beaufort, NC.

Ready for a night on the town in Beaufort.

Oriental, NC.

Fog on the Alligator River.  

We were buzzed by several of these.  Do any of you pilots out there know this jet?

We saw lots of duck blinds, but this one by the houses was interesting.