Coochie Coo

Neuse River, N34 58 W 76 45
November 11. It is such a splendid morning under sail out here on the river that I found myself inventing a song -- “Five knots two. Sky is blue. Coochie Coochie Coochie Coo. We’re on the way to New Bern town.”

Last night in Oriental was a lot of fun. We went to an amateur theater production of “Sylvia”, an adult comedy in two acts. Out of two hundred or so people in the audience only a dozen or so were sailors. It was easy to tell. The sailors wore levis and t shirts while everyone else was dressed in semi formal evening wear. No matter, everyone had fun.

The easy social live of cruising sailors also became a little more apparent yesterday. We talked Alan and Laura, the couple on the other Westsail, into going to the play with us. While we were talking, another sailing couple, Richard and Pat, just happened to overhear as they were walking by and said they too would like to go to the show. So the six of us went together. Before the show, we six were sitting on the deck having cocktails when a fourth sailing couple came into the harbor in a little dingy. They rowed up to our boat, passed up a bottle of wine and asked if they could join the party. They were Tom and Rosie.

We needed a propane bottle refilled. The store is about one mile away. I was trying to lash the bottle to the bicycle, much to Libby’s dislike. She was afraid I‘d fall and the bottle would explode. I had to admit that the worry was somewhat justified, but I wasn’t going to walk a mile with a full bottle of propane. Just then a strange man came along and said, “Come. I’ll give you a ride up to the store.” The man’s name was Ed, he moved to Oriental recently, and he was just being helpful. Boy what nice hospitality we’ve found in North Carolina. The horrid man at the Alligator Marina was the only blemish.

The social contacts are easy to make. Interestingly though, the sailors and the power boaters seldom mix.

Remember that young couple we wrote about before? Sam and Jackie. They showed up last night too. While Libby and I were relaxing two days in Oriental Harbor, they had been pressing ahead under sail in rather rough weather. Sam, told me that his only out-of-pocket boat expense since leaving Maryland has been 13 gallons of gasoline. I still admire their spunk.

I met another sailing couple on the sidewalk, Jim and Paula. They are from New Jersey and it sounds like they have extensive cruising experience. We talked about vagabond sailors. I told them the story about Misty Isles that I blogged about last June. They told me about Chuck. Chuck had a Bristol 28. He sat at anchor in New Jersey month after month. One day he was gone. Jim asked other boaters about Chuck and they said, “He scraped up $100 so he headed south as far as the money will take him.” Jim and Paula met chuck a few weeks later 50 miles southward. The money didn’t take Chuck far. They met him again a year later in Saint Augustine Florida. Jim and Paula took a cruise to the Bahamas, the Keys and the Tortugas then headed north again. Eight months later they got to Fort Pierce, Florida and there was Chuck. However this time Chuck had a woman onboard. She had jumped ship from a 49 foot luxury yacht to sail with Chuck. Wow!

This morning Alan and Laura left bound for Moorhead City then Bermuda. Richard and Pat left for the Bahamas. Sam and Jackie were going to rest a day before continuing. Libby and I left for New Bern. New Bern is up the Neuse River a way. It is said to be bigger than Oriental, but still unspoiled. We’ll check it out.

They sure make big rivers down here. The Neuse River is 16 miles wide at one point and 150 miles long. Compare that to Lake Champlain which is 13 miles wide at one point and 125 miles long. But this is a river! Northerners like us though have a hard time grasping how shallow these bodies of water are. Champlain has some shoals but mostly it’s deep from shore to shore. Down here the lakes and rivers can be only 2 to 3 feet deep for mile after mile and from shore to shore. They have narrow channels, some natural, some man-made. One has to pay close attention or risk running aground.

I confess that having a chart-plotting GPS makes an almost irresistible temptation to become dependent on it. It is so graphic, so easy to use and so accurate that it’s a pleasure. It would be much more challenging to navigate this trip with only paper charts and compass. I really need some days with the GPS turned off to keep in practice. I intend to do that real soon now.

Libby is spending the morning practicing tying bowline knots. She’s been trying to master the bowline for a year now. Laura Grayson taught her a simplified method of tying a bowline. Libby is profoundly grateful to Laura for that.