Return to Elizabeth City

Elizabeth City
N 36 17.807 W 076 13.103

We're back on familiar territory. Namely, Elizabeth City, the place that we've written fondly of before. We just returned from the Rose Buddies' daily wine and cheese party. It was held at Fred Fearing's house today. All the sailors (men and women) were treated to a tour of Fred's house and outbuildings. Wow does he ever have a fortune in antiques! Apparently Fred began collecting antique items a lifetime ago. Now he's 93 himself and the antiques are even older and more valuable.

At the factory we met another cruising couple from Gloversville NY and a second couple from Cobelskill, NY. Both of those places are close to Schenectady, so we felt very much at home.

This morning on the radio we were saddened to hear that the search for the sailing vessel Flying Colors is still on. I think the rumor I heard yesterday that the boat was found was untrue. We also heard that most of the North Carolina ferries were closed yesterday. The water was too shallow because the wind had blown the water away.

At the party, we also met the couple who took our spot at the Oriental public dock when we left. They stayed there four days because of the weather. The told us that the wind blew the water in to Oriental. The water covered the dock and the street and the properties one or two blocks inland. The Bean coffee shop across the street was closed because of high water. The coffee shop itself is up on stilts, but no customers could get there except by swimming.

Another juicy bit of gossip heard on the radio this morning -- a collision between boats on the canal we just passed yesterday. Apparently a power boat up on full plane ran into some other boat, and the other boat was taking on water. The Coast Guard dispatched a rescue team. It's hard to imagine being rescued while on a canal.

The weather has been great today. Morning fog, soon burned away, then blue skies, gentle breezes and moderate temperatures. I loved it. There were no blimps on the tarmac as we passed the blimp factory. Too bad, I like to see the blimps up close.

We'll stay here two days.

We ate southern cooking in the Colonial Restaurant tonight with our Canadian friends Dave and Karen from Summer Salt. It was great. I had chicken livers; the first chicken livers I've seen since eating chicken liver sandwiches with Russian dressing at Maurice's Lunch Counter in Schenectady sometime in the early 1990s. These livers tasted almost as good as Maurice's. By the way, a couple of years ago I went to the new Maurice's on Wolf Road in Colonie. I asked if they had chicken livers. The
proprietor said, "No. All our customers who ate those are dead." Whoops. I guess I should be glad that I didn't eat that often. Notwithstanding heath hazards, they were delicious.