Sampling The Pleasures

Elizabeth City, Mariner's Docks
N 36 17.915 W 76 13.099

Well, we have been sampling the pleasures of Elizabeth City for 3 days. This place has a lot to offer.

• David and Hilde on Raven told us to visit their friend Earl on Dancing Bear at the nearby marina. I scribbled a note to myself to do that. As I was getting off the boat, I met a woman named Nora. Nora comes to the docks each day to offer rides to the grocery store to cruisers. Nora saw the note, and said, "So, you know Earl huh?" My goodness, the social net strengthens yet again.
  
  
• Another couple came in on a trawler today. They said they remember meeting us at the public dock in Vergennes Vermont. More social net.
  

• We had a great buffet dinner at the Coral Restaurant. They had chicken livers on the buffet. Wow! I haven't had chicken livers since Maurice's Restaurant in downtown Schenectady closed down. I went to the new Maurice's Restaurant and asked for chicken livers. They said, "We don't have them any more; all the customers who used to eat them are dead." Down here in the south, they don't have such a fetish about healthy food. Good.
  
  
• Libby went to the laundromat, and Nora gave her a ride back.
  
  
• We went to the Rose Buddies party on Monday and got to meet Steve, the mayor of Elizabeth City. Steve is very upbeat on his town. That's great. Steve told us that they are going to lay a plaque commemorating the Rose Buddies, and Joe Kramer and Fred Fearing who founded it. The plaque will be dedicated September 18, 2008.
  
  
• I've been waiting for more than a year to get our anchor windlass repaired. The nut that releases the clutch was frozen. Elizabeth City is the only place on the East Coast I know that has a real machine shop close to the water front. I dismounted the windlass. That sucker weighs 100 pounds! Nora drove me over to the machine shop with it.
  
  
• We visited the Museum of the Abemarle. Last year we visted the same place and I panned it in a blog article. It was a big beautiful building with almost nothing to display. Well, now that has been cured. They have nice exhibits and we learned a lot about the history of this region. I recommend this free museum if you're in the area.
  
  
• I was able to walk to a hardware store and to an auto parts store to buy some things needed for the boat. Very convenient.
  
  
• I'm able to get free WIFI here at the dock.
  
  
• The machine shop fixed the windlass for only $20. I'll write a separate article about this later. Nora came to drive me back to the boat with the windlass.
  
  
• Libby went to the Fitness Warehouse today for a shower. They have a pool and sauna too. It's very relaxing.
  
  
• Tonight, we went to the diner theater. That's a place where you go to eat diner, then to watch a movie right from the diner table. It is very relaxing and pleasant. There, we met a nice young couple of Coast Guard people. They worked at the Elizabeth City Coast Guard Station (which is the biggest on the east coast). They also just bought a Cape Dory 28 foot cruising boat, and hope to do some real cruising themselves. They had fun picking our brains for cruising knowledge.
  
  The movie was Narnia. In normal circumstances, neither Libby nor I would choose to see such a movie. It is just not our kind of thing. We went for the diner. Surprise, we both enjoyed the movie immensely. It was great fun.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The hospitality of North Carolinians is great, and the best of the best are found in Elizabeth City. It really earns its nickname as the Hospitality Harbor.