Friday, May 11, 2018
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| We arrived just in time for sunrise over Pasquotank River |
We woke with Clay's alarm at 5am this morning. Our schedule today was to all drive our cars from the Fairfield Inn to Charles Creek Park across the street from Waterfront Park at 6am. At 6:30am the bus was to meet us there and we'd load our luggage. The bus would take those who didn't want to walk to Waterfront Park to board the
Belle of Washington at 6:45am and we'd depart at 7am. The bus was waiting for us at the Hampton Inn for reasons that remain unclear. Clay left me with the suitcase and the crowd and crossed the street alone to photograph the sunrise and check out our boat. The boat's departure was only delayed by minutes in the end.
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| Belle of Washington |
Today was our longest sailing stretch from Elizabeth City downstream on the Pasquotank River to sail south down Albemarle Sound for several hours. We averaged about 6.5 knots per hour which was a little under the vessel's max speed. It was smooth sailing except for a short section as we entered the sound and turned south. That was where we encountered some excitement and we were told we veered very wide into the sound and added hours to the trip. We had to give
Harvey Point wide clearance but we still felt shock waves rock the boat. We could see black smoke, helicopters and hear explosions. If you zoom in on
this map at the point of land before the 2, you will see it. Otherwise, it was a surprisingly unscenic sail. We did see our only dolphins of this trip during the Albemarle Sound sailing today. So, that was special.
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| Clay sailing Pasquotank River |
I should say that max capacity for our boat was 66 people and we were at capacity. That meant once you found a spot, it was yours. There was not room for everyone either inside or outside. We choose to be outside, upstairs under that awning you see at the aft of the boat. It was a reasonable choice given the nice weather. It was less crowded than downstairs up front where the food and drinks were served. The only downside was that we couldn't hear the speakers who were downstairs in that lounge area. They used a boatwide PA but unless you were standing directly in front of one of the 4 speakers upstairs you couldn't hear.
Dr. Kevin Cherry was the lead NC employee from NCDCR who accompanied us on the trip and spoke in that capacity as well as a resident of the region. The others were Bland Simpson,
David Cecelski and
Tom Earnhardt. Tom Earnhardt brought along a videographer to shoot scenes for his UNC-TV show. The videographer brought still and video cameras as well as a drone. Clay only brought his phone and had some serious envy. But he also did not have the group waiting for him to constantly move his equipment from place to place!
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| Drone buzzing Belle of Washington |
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| Our breakfast at our metal seating area |
Since we were out of the Fairfield Inn before breakfast was served today, we had a cold breakfast onboard Belle of Washington after setting sail. It turns out that a neighbor of ours works for the NC Dept. of Cultural Resources and was working this trip. When we talked to her at the reception last night about breakfast, she told us meals were her responsibility. We asked her if she was getting Bojangles' biscuits for early mornings on the boat and she was sad to say no. Pastries and fruit and fig or cereal bars and coffee. We were disappointed and made a pitch for Bojangles. She took it under advisement.
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| Leaving Elizabeth City, NC |
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| Our videographer setting up |
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| Crab pot collection |
So, we had a scheduled 5 hour sail this morning. We should have gone ashore at noon at Albemarle Plantation Marina. We arrived there around 1:30pm. The good news was that a brigade of volunteer residents waiting on the dock in the blazing midday sun for us. They graciously whisked us all directly to our waiting bus and thence to our waiting lunch. I haven't mentioned the weather, it was HOT. It was late July/August hot, over 90
°F. That was much hotter than predicted even the night before we left home. We spent days trying to stay out of the sun, otherwise it was beautiful weather.
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| Rear or streetside view of Newbold-White House |
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| Our cold plate lunch |
By 1:45pm, the bus was headed towards Hertford. Our next stop was for lunch and a tour at the historic Newbold-White House. It is the oldest known brick house in NC. They had set up a cold plate lunch for us in their visitor's center, so it didn't matter that we arrived at 2:15pm instead of 1pm. We learned about the prominent role of Quakers in the establishment of NC during our 3pm tour of the house and grounds, as well as their replica periauger. We reboarded the bus at 4pm for the trip to Edenton, our overnight stop.
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| Our subgroup at the rebuilt smokehouse |
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| Front or river-side view of Newbold-White House |
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| Their replica periauger |
I'll also stop this blog post here and pick up in Edenton, NC in the next post. It was a long, full day!
