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We were docked when the battery-operated smoke detector over the bed started chirping at about 6:12 am. Apparently, the new Captain onboard apologized for all the noisy side-thrusting to pass through the swivel bridge to enter Port Royal and dock at the Waterfront Park right in downtown Beaufort. We slept right through all that! It was the dying battery in our smoke detector that sent Clay out for the 6:30 am escorted walk. A cold front had come through and it was in the 50s F here this morning. I stayed in and got the battery replaced. We did not appreciate the Lowcountry Heritage Tour. We found the white woman guide who had no kinship with the Gullah people masquerading and imitating a Gullah woman to be borderline offensive. Also offensive was the fact that she was constantly selling something, books, maps, Jesus and/or real estate. The tour just didn't sit well with us. We did see low country outside of Beaufort though so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We drove over the McTeer Bridge. It is a pivot bridge and we got stopped coming back over and got to watch how it works. We could see several islands including Parris Island and our destination St. Helena Island. We stopped at Coffin Point, Coffin Point Praise House and the Chapel of Ease. We drove through the complex at Penn Center. We learned that Beaufort was one of the first southern cities to fall to the Union during the Civil War. It was where the first secession documents were signed yet one of the first to fall. It was just abandoned by the wealthy planters. Thus it was spared any damage during the war as it was occupied as a port and center. It was also the earliest experiment in dealing with the aftermath of slavery and the beginning of reconstruction. We learned a lot.
We were back for lunch. The Marine Corps Band was setting up in the park where we are docked. They started a concert for Veterans Day at 1pm. That was a bonus and we had prime seats. After lunch, Clay was going to replay the morning walk for me. He has a horrible sense of direction. I called quits on it. We did some shopping on the main drag and then headed back to the ship. As we crossed the street, we found ourselves between the red and blue horse carriage tour kiosks. Clay wanted to do it, so asked at the blue one with the earliest time. They took 3 women ahead of us and the 2 of us for a final tour today. It was $23 each. ACL charged $30 each and filled every seat on the carriage. We scored. It was a good 50-minute or so tour and we learned a lot again. We got to catch a glimpse of the Big Chill house. We were back in time for cocktail hour.
We are docked here until about 4:30 am tomorrow. We are told we will cruise the ICW to Hilton Head by 8 am or so. We are supposed to anchor off Harbour Town and tender in. Three of the 6 tender runs are priority to those on tours. We did not book a tour. The choices were alligators or dolphins on small boats. The Ship to Shore for tomorrow has a couple of caveats about canceling due to weather. The forecast is stormy with a high of 64. Having ridden in Independence's open tender in Beaufort, NC we are not planning to go ashore at all in Hilton Head at this point. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We depart Hilton Head tomorrow at 8pm for Savannah. Fingers crossed for better weather there as we have Segways booked!
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Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Sunday, November 11, 2018
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Charleston, SC
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We had a full day today on our 2nd day here. At 9 am we took the complimentary tour to Magnolia Plantation. It was a great place to visit and included the house tour. It was the 1st plantation to become a tourist attraction. Really interesting, was that the stories they were telling about the family members that lived there sounded so familiar. I had read a novel based on them! I recommend Sue Monk Kidd's "The Invention of Wings". Most of us got back in time for lunch before the afternoon tour to Ft. Sumter. There has been a consistency to the cluster cuss factor every time we go ashore with no info, wrong, incomplete, untimely, different info to different people. The ground operator here put it best yesterday, ACL has such high employee turnover, that no one ever knows anything from one visit to the next. It is unfortunate because I find their itineraries desirable. But at these prices who needs their problems. The Fort Sumter visit went smoother. Everyone made it back. The National Park Service knows how to handle a crowd and has it down pat. We paid $35 each for the afternoon tour.
We are all aboard now, I assume, because we're casting off. We have not been told if we are heading back to the Atlantic Ocean. I guess we'll know in an hour or so, by dinner time. Back after dinner.
I am a much happier camper now. We cruised back down the Ashley River just a little and turned into a narrow channel to the right. We're back in the ICW! We will only sail til 2 am according to the schedule before docking in Beaufort, SC. Clay is planning to join Harold's 6:30 am complimentary walk in the morning. We are both signed up for the 9 am Lowcountry Heritage Tour at $50 each. We'll be free the rest of the day. It being Sunday we don't know how much will be open. The afternoon tour was a $30pp horse carriage ride that we decided against.
We don't sail from Beaufort until 5 am on 11/12. We'll arrive in Hilton Head, SC at 8:30 am on 11/12. So, still not much scenic cruising, but if the rest of the cruise stays in the ICW, I'll be happier.
photos
We had a full day today on our 2nd day here. At 9 am we took the complimentary tour to Magnolia Plantation. It was a great place to visit and included the house tour. It was the 1st plantation to become a tourist attraction. Really interesting, was that the stories they were telling about the family members that lived there sounded so familiar. I had read a novel based on them! I recommend Sue Monk Kidd's "The Invention of Wings". Most of us got back in time for lunch before the afternoon tour to Ft. Sumter. There has been a consistency to the cluster cuss factor every time we go ashore with no info, wrong, incomplete, untimely, different info to different people. The ground operator here put it best yesterday, ACL has such high employee turnover, that no one ever knows anything from one visit to the next. It is unfortunate because I find their itineraries desirable. But at these prices who needs their problems. The Fort Sumter visit went smoother. Everyone made it back. The National Park Service knows how to handle a crowd and has it down pat. We paid $35 each for the afternoon tour.
We are all aboard now, I assume, because we're casting off. We have not been told if we are heading back to the Atlantic Ocean. I guess we'll know in an hour or so, by dinner time. Back after dinner.
I am a much happier camper now. We cruised back down the Ashley River just a little and turned into a narrow channel to the right. We're back in the ICW! We will only sail til 2 am according to the schedule before docking in Beaufort, SC. Clay is planning to join Harold's 6:30 am complimentary walk in the morning. We are both signed up for the 9 am Lowcountry Heritage Tour at $50 each. We'll be free the rest of the day. It being Sunday we don't know how much will be open. The afternoon tour was a $30pp horse carriage ride that we decided against.
We don't sail from Beaufort until 5 am on 11/12. We'll arrive in Hilton Head, SC at 8:30 am on 11/12. So, still not much scenic cruising, but if the rest of the cruise stays in the ICW, I'll be happier.
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Friday, November 9, 2018
Charleston, SC
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Bad news is that as we sailed from Wilmington yesterday, the Captain announced that we were headed again to open ocean and not the intracoastal waterway for which this cruise is named. Once again, no excuses or reasons were offered. He warned that last night was 3-4 foot seas and tonight they'd be bigger at 4+ foot swells but pushing the stern and shouldn't feel any rougher. We didn't book this cruise until a week after Hurricane Florence to check that the ICW was open and undamaged. We still can't find any news of closures, so we are concerned about the open ocean sailing. We'd never have booked the southeast coast cruise in hurricane season in this small a ship. In fact, we'd didn't. But, we booked and now we're going where they're going. We'd just really hoped that any alteration like this, would be unavoidable and not just because they can. I don't suppose we'll ever know the justification. Adding that we had lunch with people who had breakfast today with Harold who told them we were sailing in the ocean because the ICW was filled with storm debris and needed dredging. One told me she didn't think I should be disappointed about ocean cruising on a trip titled "East Coast Inland Passage." She ordered a BLT for lunch and came unhinged when it arrived without tomatoes. I guess it is all about managing expectations! She apologized without any irony to the table and the waitress, but said if it has tomatoes in the name, I expect tomatoes. Amen, sister, I feel ya.
We were scheduled to arrive in Charleston at noon today. So, that was an unpleasant morning at sea. The good news is that we arrived 2 hours early! We are docked at Megadock on the starboard side. It is closer to Historic downtown Charleston than we'd been informed. You could walk but it looks about twice as far as Wilmington. Since we'd already ordered lunch onboard, we stayed onboard. We had a 9:15am port briefing for the next week's port talks and tour booking. That was happening as we docked, so when Q&A came, we asked about where the complimentary shuttle would drop & pickup in downtown Charleston. We had the same pushback as in Wilmington, but this time from Harold. He eventually got it, as Anne had, that it was a reasonable expectation to walk in now and avail yourself of the included shuttle to return and if you did not ride over, you needed an address to get the shuttle back. I haven't been down to see if maps with addresses and timetables have appeared yet, but we did bid farewell to some walkers who already left. Editing this afternoon to add that at 1:20pm when we left to meet the 1:30pm first shuttle that a sign was stuck on the wall by the gangway. It said the shuttle point downtown was at 173 Meeting St. That was at Meeting & Market, in front of the historic city market and right where I'd have expected it to be. It was definitely tourist central! Clay bought me 2 Christmas presents there and informed me that I could not expect a new Surface because me keyboard broke! Anyway, maps did not appear at the exit until we returned about 4 pm. Better late than never, I suppose.
We are docked here until 6 pm tomorrow. We booked the free downtown shuttle, the complimentary Magnolia Plantation tour at 9am tomorrow and the $35 each Fort Sumter tour tomorrow afternoon.
We learned at the tour briefing for next week that we have 2 more tender ports in Hilton Head and Fernandina. We will cruise all day Wednesday the 14th from 4:30 am to 6:30 pm. There was no mention if that was going to be "scenic" ocean cruising or if we'd finally get into the ICW. We'll see. I expect that it will be at least another 4 years between ACL cruises for us! The service issues we had in 2014 have been largely fixed on this sailing, but the seemingly indiscriminate route change is unacceptable to us. We would not have booked this itinerary on this size ship as an ocean voyage. Adding here that our lunch companions had said farewell to the ACL trainer that has been onboard with us. The waitress mentioned that all the service staff had been working harder than usual the apst week because the trainer was onboard and she would leave so and they could go back to their own ways. I laughed out loud and told her we weren't looking forward to the staff 's planned backsliding. She said she did not mean it to sound that way. One woman told her that the trainer had in fact already left and the waitress heaved a big sigh and looked around in relief. Good grief!
In a spot of bright news, based on info gotten this am, we've booked Segways in Savannah. We learned we don't have enough information to book them in Hilton Head or Fernandina yet. Waiting and seeing.
I don't think I've mentioned before and typing is so hard now... dolphins or porpoises! Here and in Beaufort. We've only seen one bald eagle, in Yorktown. We've seen too many herons, egrets and cormorants to count everywhere including in canals at night sailing.
We are docked here overnight, so we'll hope for a calm night! We have no plans except dinner onboard so I'll post this now.
photos
Bad news is that as we sailed from Wilmington yesterday, the Captain announced that we were headed again to open ocean and not the intracoastal waterway for which this cruise is named. Once again, no excuses or reasons were offered. He warned that last night was 3-4 foot seas and tonight they'd be bigger at 4+ foot swells but pushing the stern and shouldn't feel any rougher. We didn't book this cruise until a week after Hurricane Florence to check that the ICW was open and undamaged. We still can't find any news of closures, so we are concerned about the open ocean sailing. We'd never have booked the southeast coast cruise in hurricane season in this small a ship. In fact, we'd didn't. But, we booked and now we're going where they're going. We'd just really hoped that any alteration like this, would be unavoidable and not just because they can. I don't suppose we'll ever know the justification. Adding that we had lunch with people who had breakfast today with Harold who told them we were sailing in the ocean because the ICW was filled with storm debris and needed dredging. One told me she didn't think I should be disappointed about ocean cruising on a trip titled "East Coast Inland Passage." She ordered a BLT for lunch and came unhinged when it arrived without tomatoes. I guess it is all about managing expectations! She apologized without any irony to the table and the waitress, but said if it has tomatoes in the name, I expect tomatoes. Amen, sister, I feel ya.
We were scheduled to arrive in Charleston at noon today. So, that was an unpleasant morning at sea. The good news is that we arrived 2 hours early! We are docked at Megadock on the starboard side. It is closer to Historic downtown Charleston than we'd been informed. You could walk but it looks about twice as far as Wilmington. Since we'd already ordered lunch onboard, we stayed onboard. We had a 9:15am port briefing for the next week's port talks and tour booking. That was happening as we docked, so when Q&A came, we asked about where the complimentary shuttle would drop & pickup in downtown Charleston. We had the same pushback as in Wilmington, but this time from Harold. He eventually got it, as Anne had, that it was a reasonable expectation to walk in now and avail yourself of the included shuttle to return and if you did not ride over, you needed an address to get the shuttle back. I haven't been down to see if maps with addresses and timetables have appeared yet, but we did bid farewell to some walkers who already left. Editing this afternoon to add that at 1:20pm when we left to meet the 1:30pm first shuttle that a sign was stuck on the wall by the gangway. It said the shuttle point downtown was at 173 Meeting St. That was at Meeting & Market, in front of the historic city market and right where I'd have expected it to be. It was definitely tourist central! Clay bought me 2 Christmas presents there and informed me that I could not expect a new Surface because me keyboard broke! Anyway, maps did not appear at the exit until we returned about 4 pm. Better late than never, I suppose.
We are docked here until 6 pm tomorrow. We booked the free downtown shuttle, the complimentary Magnolia Plantation tour at 9am tomorrow and the $35 each Fort Sumter tour tomorrow afternoon.
We learned at the tour briefing for next week that we have 2 more tender ports in Hilton Head and Fernandina. We will cruise all day Wednesday the 14th from 4:30 am to 6:30 pm. There was no mention if that was going to be "scenic" ocean cruising or if we'd finally get into the ICW. We'll see. I expect that it will be at least another 4 years between ACL cruises for us! The service issues we had in 2014 have been largely fixed on this sailing, but the seemingly indiscriminate route change is unacceptable to us. We would not have booked this itinerary on this size ship as an ocean voyage. Adding here that our lunch companions had said farewell to the ACL trainer that has been onboard with us. The waitress mentioned that all the service staff had been working harder than usual the apst week because the trainer was onboard and she would leave so and they could go back to their own ways. I laughed out loud and told her we weren't looking forward to the staff 's planned backsliding. She said she did not mean it to sound that way. One woman told her that the trainer had in fact already left and the waitress heaved a big sigh and looked around in relief. Good grief!
In a spot of bright news, based on info gotten this am, we've booked Segways in Savannah. We learned we don't have enough information to book them in Hilton Head or Fernandina yet. Waiting and seeing.
I don't think I've mentioned before and typing is so hard now... dolphins or porpoises! Here and in Beaufort. We've only seen one bald eagle, in Yorktown. We've seen too many herons, egrets and cormorants to count everywhere including in canals at night sailing.
We are docked here overnight, so we'll hope for a calm night! We have no plans except dinner onboard so I'll post this now.
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Thursday, November 8, 2018
Wilmington, NC
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We sailed in the ocean after we left Beaufort last night. The Captain made the announcement, but no reason was given. We left at 9:30pm as originally scheduled. We arrived here in Wilmington a bit over an hour and a half behind schedule. At last night’s overview and in the Ship to Shore, we were told a complimentary trolley bus would be provided.all afternoon. We were told it would drop off and pick up.in downtown at the Tobacco Warehouse, no address. The dock address is 10 Harnett St. The problem is we had never heard of a Tobacco Warehouse here and neither had Google. We wondered if they meant the Cotton Exchange. But it covers a full city block, so you’d still need an address to find it on time. ACL had one tour that left on said trolley just after arrival.
We sailed in the ocean after we left Beaufort last night. The Captain made the announcement, but no reason was given. We left at 9:30pm as originally scheduled. We arrived here in Wilmington a bit over an hour and a half behind schedule. At last night’s overview and in the Ship to Shore, we were told a complimentary trolley bus would be provided.all afternoon. We were told it would drop off and pick up.in downtown at the Tobacco Warehouse, no address. The dock address is 10 Harnett St. The problem is we had never heard of a Tobacco Warehouse here and neither had Google. We wondered if they meant the Cotton Exchange. But it covers a full city block, so you’d still need an address to find it on time. ACL had one tour that left on said trolley just after arrival.
Anne did her morning table touch at breakfast to make sure
everyone is set for the day, provide last minute info and answer questions. We’d
kept quiet last night, but this morning with just our table, we tried to pin
Anne down. She got pretty upset, but bottom line was she didn’t know. Clay pointed out to her that it wasn’t an unreasonable.expectation
to be given a street address or at least an intersection corner as a place to
meet. She disagreed and said if we rode the trolley to town, we’d see where it
dropped. I pointed out that we planned to walk in this am and ride back in the
pm. She finally understood but she all but said if we were on the tour it
wouldn’t be a problem, or not her problem. Then she raised the other discrepancy
from last night. She said it was 2 or 3 miles from our deck to downtown and
Harold said it was about 3 long blocks. Google said it was 14 minute walk from dock to
Cotton Exchange but we couldn’t get confirmation that was the pickup point. Finally
with other passenger support, she agreed to get an address. When we got off the
ship, on a table by the bulletin board was a stack of laser printed maps showing
the dock and giving 121 N. Font St. as the address. That wasn’t so hard.
We walked along the River Walk, so went out of our way and walked
further. We shopped through the Cotton Exchange. We went to lunch at an old
fashioned counter grill place called Pender’s. We had burgers. They served
breakfast and lunch only. After seeing the huge servings of grits, I may have
to try them on board one morning as they are always on the menu. We walked on
to find Kilwin’s for dessert. Clay had ice cream and I had caramel covered
marshmallows. We crossed to the median of the short side street to some benches
and found ourselves at the start point of a horse drawn carriage tour. They
pulled up and unloaded as we were finishing up. We could go next for $12 each for just
us. It was about an hour and went through part of downtown and part of the
historic district. It had finally started misting heavily enough to be cold,
wet and miserable, so we were glad to be under the carriage cover and her wool
blankets. We walked back and caught the
3 pm trolley back to the ship. The last trolley is 5 pm, all aboard is 5:30 pm and we
depart at 6 pm.
We are scheduled to arrive in Charleston, SC tomorrow at
noon. I guess we’ll find out at tonight’s overview if we’ll sail in the ocean
again or not. We’ll be in Charleston overnight. We’ve already been warned that we'll be docked way out of town at Megadock. We’ve signed up for complimentary shuttle
rides on Friday and the free Magnolia Plantation tour Saturday morning and $35 each
Ft. Sumter tours in the afternoon.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Beaufort, NC
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We were out of the canal and in the sound when we woke up. We'd already anchored off Fort Macon State Park. The State Port at Morehead City was the view from our balcony. So much for the most beautiful anchorage you've ever seen promised by Harold as a fair trade for the half-hour tender ride each way to Beaufort. They carry a large open boat hanging off the back of Independence and it is our tender. They say it will carry 40-something. We watched it leave with 20-something at 8:45 am for the day's only excursion. I can't see them getting twice that number on there. I believe there were only excursion participants onboard. Annie had said if they could accommodate non-tour participants they would but I don't think that happened. The next tender to town was scheduled for 10 am departure. We saw it coming back and went down to the dining room hall to wait. A couple of the tender hands we'd talked to earlier asked us to come on through with them. We did not want to sit out there bobbing and waiting 10 minutes but were glad we did. No announcement was made. No one went back to the hallway to see if there were other passengers. A woman we had breakfast with had told us she was going on that tender but she either missed it or changed her mind. Good news is that we spotted 6 wild horses on Carrot Island on the ride in to town!
We started at the National Park Visitor Center almost across the street from the public dinghy dock where we landed. We got a map and the ranger showed us her photos of Florence flooding. Several of the Front St. businesses have not yet reopened. We walked in and through most of the open shops on Front St. though. We had lunch at Clawson's. Clay got fried oysters and I had an exceptionally good grilled cheese sandwich with ranch dip. The highlight of Beaufort for us was the Maritime Museum. It has displayed artifact recovered from the shipwreck of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. We had heard about it but it was closed last time we were here so it was our 1st priority. We walked back to the dinghy dock on the other side of the street. We went in those shops. We stopped for ice cream. We made sure we were early for the 3pm return. There was only 1 other passenger. There were 4 dinghies tied up and no room for our big open boat. They waved and pointed down the street. Clay followed them. I waited with the woman until we saw the boat disembark its 4 passengers. We went a block or so down to meet the tender. The last tender back leaves town at 4:30pm. We are set to depart our anchorage at 9:30pm.
photos
We were out of the canal and in the sound when we woke up. We'd already anchored off Fort Macon State Park. The State Port at Morehead City was the view from our balcony. So much for the most beautiful anchorage you've ever seen promised by Harold as a fair trade for the half-hour tender ride each way to Beaufort. They carry a large open boat hanging off the back of Independence and it is our tender. They say it will carry 40-something. We watched it leave with 20-something at 8:45 am for the day's only excursion. I can't see them getting twice that number on there. I believe there were only excursion participants onboard. Annie had said if they could accommodate non-tour participants they would but I don't think that happened. The next tender to town was scheduled for 10 am departure. We saw it coming back and went down to the dining room hall to wait. A couple of the tender hands we'd talked to earlier asked us to come on through with them. We did not want to sit out there bobbing and waiting 10 minutes but were glad we did. No announcement was made. No one went back to the hallway to see if there were other passengers. A woman we had breakfast with had told us she was going on that tender but she either missed it or changed her mind. Good news is that we spotted 6 wild horses on Carrot Island on the ride in to town!
We started at the National Park Visitor Center almost across the street from the public dinghy dock where we landed. We got a map and the ranger showed us her photos of Florence flooding. Several of the Front St. businesses have not yet reopened. We walked in and through most of the open shops on Front St. though. We had lunch at Clawson's. Clay got fried oysters and I had an exceptionally good grilled cheese sandwich with ranch dip. The highlight of Beaufort for us was the Maritime Museum. It has displayed artifact recovered from the shipwreck of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. We had heard about it but it was closed last time we were here so it was our 1st priority. We walked back to the dinghy dock on the other side of the street. We went in those shops. We stopped for ice cream. We made sure we were early for the 3pm return. There was only 1 other passenger. There were 4 dinghies tied up and no room for our big open boat. They waved and pointed down the street. Clay followed them. I waited with the woman until we saw the boat disembark its 4 passengers. We went a block or so down to meet the tender. The last tender back leaves town at 4:30pm. We are set to depart our anchorage at 9:30pm.
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Coinjack, NC
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November 6, 2018
This is a day late because we were without Internet and cell signal almost all day and night. When it came back this morning, we found my Surface keyboard is broken. I'm trying to type this with the touchscreen but Parkinson's makes that really hard. All to say from here on out for this trip it may be mostly Clay's photos instead of my comments. Sorry!
So, Coinjock had a load of yachts! The marina shop had an extensive selection of t-shirts. But, you wouldn't want to spend all day there! We didn't because we'd signed up for the excursion to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother's National Memorial. It was $65 each for a narrated ride there and back, one hour or so each way, plus a ranger-guided tour. We learned on arrival that there was no ranger on duty today. No alternate plan was offered since people were already scattered to restrooms etc. When we left the bus, we were told to be back onboard by 11:30. Harold stopped my plan to buy a 1903 Wright Flyer replica kite and fly it in the 45 minutes we had remaining. He said if everybody'd go get on the bus now then we could leave early and go see something else. Of course, everyone couldn't be found and rounded up. So while the majority of us sat on the bus and waited, a minority arrived back at the appointed time happy and wondered why everyone else was so grumpy. It was badly done.
We were back onboard by 12:30 for lunch. We sailed as planned right after 1pm. We went up top to see some canal cruising. Very quickly we were in the very broad North River and there was nothing to see. The wind also drove us off the top deck. Later that night we'd enter the Alligator River and sail the Alligator-Pungo Canal. We went up again after dinner to find they were using the front spotlights and the sky was flashing with heat lightning with no thunder. Shortly, rain arrived.
These Intracoastal Waterway canals are the reason we booked this very expensive cruise and never did it occur to us that these hard to access areas would be cruised during meals and in the dark. We have high hopes there are other areas like this to come that we'll be able to see and enjoy. Harold however keeps bringing up hurricane damage may force us out into the ocean. We'll see. We're going where and when the ship is going, so it will be whatever comes.
There was a lecture this afternoon. We won't do that again. We skipped the future cruise sales talk after it. We skipped the Not-so-newlywed game. Since we didn't spend much time up top, we returned to the cabin for a long afternoon nap. It was smooth sailing and we had a great nap.
After part of cocktail hour and dinner, we attended the evening overview for tomorrow's schedule and ducked out of entertainment. I don't think I've described cocktail hour. It is heavy hors d'oeuvre and a big bar of most kinds of liquor for mixed drinks plus beer and wine. At the evening entertainment, right after dinner, they served popcorn, root beer floats and sundaes. You could eat and drink solidly from 5:30 pm to 9 pm.
I'm using a public terminal in deck 3's mid-ship lounge for this and it is a bit better. But I'm not too happy about the public logging in and neither is Clay, but it will have to do until we get home and figure out what to do about my Surface.
photos
November 6, 2018
This is a day late because we were without Internet and cell signal almost all day and night. When it came back this morning, we found my Surface keyboard is broken. I'm trying to type this with the touchscreen but Parkinson's makes that really hard. All to say from here on out for this trip it may be mostly Clay's photos instead of my comments. Sorry!
So, Coinjock had a load of yachts! The marina shop had an extensive selection of t-shirts. But, you wouldn't want to spend all day there! We didn't because we'd signed up for the excursion to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother's National Memorial. It was $65 each for a narrated ride there and back, one hour or so each way, plus a ranger-guided tour. We learned on arrival that there was no ranger on duty today. No alternate plan was offered since people were already scattered to restrooms etc. When we left the bus, we were told to be back onboard by 11:30. Harold stopped my plan to buy a 1903 Wright Flyer replica kite and fly it in the 45 minutes we had remaining. He said if everybody'd go get on the bus now then we could leave early and go see something else. Of course, everyone couldn't be found and rounded up. So while the majority of us sat on the bus and waited, a minority arrived back at the appointed time happy and wondered why everyone else was so grumpy. It was badly done.
We were back onboard by 12:30 for lunch. We sailed as planned right after 1pm. We went up top to see some canal cruising. Very quickly we were in the very broad North River and there was nothing to see. The wind also drove us off the top deck. Later that night we'd enter the Alligator River and sail the Alligator-Pungo Canal. We went up again after dinner to find they were using the front spotlights and the sky was flashing with heat lightning with no thunder. Shortly, rain arrived.
These Intracoastal Waterway canals are the reason we booked this very expensive cruise and never did it occur to us that these hard to access areas would be cruised during meals and in the dark. We have high hopes there are other areas like this to come that we'll be able to see and enjoy. Harold however keeps bringing up hurricane damage may force us out into the ocean. We'll see. We're going where and when the ship is going, so it will be whatever comes.
There was a lecture this afternoon. We won't do that again. We skipped the future cruise sales talk after it. We skipped the Not-so-newlywed game. Since we didn't spend much time up top, we returned to the cabin for a long afternoon nap. It was smooth sailing and we had a great nap.
After part of cocktail hour and dinner, we attended the evening overview for tomorrow's schedule and ducked out of entertainment. I don't think I've described cocktail hour. It is heavy hors d'oeuvre and a big bar of most kinds of liquor for mixed drinks plus beer and wine. At the evening entertainment, right after dinner, they served popcorn, root beer floats and sundaes. You could eat and drink solidly from 5:30 pm to 9 pm.
I'm using a public terminal in deck 3's mid-ship lounge for this and it is a bit better. But I'm not too happy about the public logging in and neither is Clay, but it will have to do until we get home and figure out what to do about my Surface.
photos
Monday, November 5, 2018
Norfolk, VA
photos
Mercifully, we did arrive at Norfolk last night and spent the night rocking at the dock and not rolling and pitching at sail. It is raining again but we're told it should stop by midmorning. We have no plans except to join Harold on his complimentary walking tour. We are docked right beside Nauticus, so a great location especially if we decide to revisit that museum. We'll see if we find something else on the walking tour or not. The other options today were Naval Station & MacArthur Memorial from 8:45am to noon for $50 each and Old Cape Hetry Lighthouse & Botanical Gardens from 1:15pm to 4:45pm for $50 each and includes a boxed lunch from Independence. All aboard is printed on the Ship to Shore today. It is 4:30pm for a 5pm departure.
Tomorrow looks trickier. We are supposed to dock in Coinjock, NC at 11:30am and depart at 1pm. According to Harold Coinjock has a 6" salt lock at the end of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, a gift shop and a steakhouse. Or else nothing. The only thing offered here is the Wright Brothers National Memorial from 8:45 am to ? for $65 each. We signed up for that as it sounded like the only way off Independence for the day and we've not been since its all new and reopened. It is a mystery how it will work though. We'll see.
We had another big breakfast even though it is Monday today because the menu was just too appealing. At breakfast, I asked our tablemates if their cabin clock had the correct time. The answer was yes, that it was wrong on arrival but since it didn't change on Sunday morning now it is correct. I went to the office and requested our clock be reset. I was told it should have happened automatically, then she offered to reset it now. She did, thankfully. The Internet was down most of the morning, but after breakfast it is back. I couldn't look up Nauticus before but now I've learned it is closed on Mondays after Labor Day. We already informed the kitchen that we'd be off the ship for lunch assuming we'd spend the day in Nauticus. Oh well, now we'll spend it somewhere else or eat from the lounge snack bar if we find ourselves back here. I am sure if we showed up in the dining room for lunch now anyway, they'd accommodate us but we'd hate to do that. We'll see what we learn in Harold's 9:30am walk.
It started pouring rain sideways as we set off on Harold's walk. Clay snagged me a blue plastic poncho from Independence and thank goodness because everything that wasn't under that blue bag got soaked. Luckily it was warm today because Clay got wet to the skin from shoulders to heels. Harold turned us loose from his walk between 10:30 and 11am. It was at the Taiwan Friendship Pavilion. We sheltered under there and stripped off layers and tried to dry out a bit and Google our options as it seemed it might stop raining. We decided to head for the MacArthur Memorial as an easy walk. Bad news it is closed on Monday too. I don't know what happened to the ship's excursion people who paid to go there. We wound up at MacArthur Center across the street. It is a full block, 3 story shopping mall. It was dry! We used the restrooms and stripped off wet layers and sat for a while. I was ready to call it a day, eat lunch at Famous Uncle Al's Hot Dogs that Clay had picked and return to Independence in defeat. It wasn't raining as hard when we went to eat. As we finished eating, I decided that we could just cross back to the mall and watch a movie and still have an hour to walk back to the ship. So we did. Bonus was finding 8 Below Ice Cream on the 3rd floor of the mall with Regal Cinema. You may recall our recent discovery of rolled ice cream in Richmond. We had Reeses Cup again, but these guys used 4 full size cups instead of the 1 we had at Narwhal. It was much denser and candier!
So we had a good day in the end and an all-American experience.
I am going to assume that anything else that happens after departure this afternoon will either not be noteworthy or that I'll come back and edit if it is. So, I'll post now before we start sailing.
Clay & I skipped cocktail hour and watched sailaway in the dark from our balcony. We headed south across to Portsmouth and south down the Elizabeth River. We passed lots and lots of big ships in dry dock. Tracking us with Clay's phone's GPS it says we're only 38 miles from Coinjock. Clay says that is land miles since it will be more than 12 hours before we arrive. Too bad it is at night as it looks like little rivers and canals and bays and lakes and it would be something to see all the time, if we could see. Oh well. Hopefully there will be some more sailing like this in the light!
We think we've figured out tomorrow's logisitical quandry. I think it is a typo. I think it is supposed to be 11:30pm tonight that we dock in Coinjock.The time line works that way and makes sense in a context of sloppiness. More later.
So, we were right about the typo. Another correction is that the 6" salt lock occurred during dinner at this end of the canal, not the other end as earlier described. It was at Great Bridge Lock. We are traveling, at night, in the Chesapeake & Albemarle Canal. We left dinner ASAP to go up top outside and see. We'd just gone through a drawbridge that had closed behind us and was full of cars while close on either side of the ship was forest and ahead a black shiny ribbon. They are not even using flood lights or spot lights as headlights. It is still really cloudy so no moon or stars either. It was eerie. I hope there will be a lot more cruising like this but in daytime!
photos
Mercifully, we did arrive at Norfolk last night and spent the night rocking at the dock and not rolling and pitching at sail. It is raining again but we're told it should stop by midmorning. We have no plans except to join Harold on his complimentary walking tour. We are docked right beside Nauticus, so a great location especially if we decide to revisit that museum. We'll see if we find something else on the walking tour or not. The other options today were Naval Station & MacArthur Memorial from 8:45am to noon for $50 each and Old Cape Hetry Lighthouse & Botanical Gardens from 1:15pm to 4:45pm for $50 each and includes a boxed lunch from Independence. All aboard is printed on the Ship to Shore today. It is 4:30pm for a 5pm departure.
Tomorrow looks trickier. We are supposed to dock in Coinjock, NC at 11:30am and depart at 1pm. According to Harold Coinjock has a 6" salt lock at the end of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, a gift shop and a steakhouse. Or else nothing. The only thing offered here is the Wright Brothers National Memorial from 8:45 am to ? for $65 each. We signed up for that as it sounded like the only way off Independence for the day and we've not been since its all new and reopened. It is a mystery how it will work though. We'll see.
We had another big breakfast even though it is Monday today because the menu was just too appealing. At breakfast, I asked our tablemates if their cabin clock had the correct time. The answer was yes, that it was wrong on arrival but since it didn't change on Sunday morning now it is correct. I went to the office and requested our clock be reset. I was told it should have happened automatically, then she offered to reset it now. She did, thankfully. The Internet was down most of the morning, but after breakfast it is back. I couldn't look up Nauticus before but now I've learned it is closed on Mondays after Labor Day. We already informed the kitchen that we'd be off the ship for lunch assuming we'd spend the day in Nauticus. Oh well, now we'll spend it somewhere else or eat from the lounge snack bar if we find ourselves back here. I am sure if we showed up in the dining room for lunch now anyway, they'd accommodate us but we'd hate to do that. We'll see what we learn in Harold's 9:30am walk.
It started pouring rain sideways as we set off on Harold's walk. Clay snagged me a blue plastic poncho from Independence and thank goodness because everything that wasn't under that blue bag got soaked. Luckily it was warm today because Clay got wet to the skin from shoulders to heels. Harold turned us loose from his walk between 10:30 and 11am. It was at the Taiwan Friendship Pavilion. We sheltered under there and stripped off layers and tried to dry out a bit and Google our options as it seemed it might stop raining. We decided to head for the MacArthur Memorial as an easy walk. Bad news it is closed on Monday too. I don't know what happened to the ship's excursion people who paid to go there. We wound up at MacArthur Center across the street. It is a full block, 3 story shopping mall. It was dry! We used the restrooms and stripped off wet layers and sat for a while. I was ready to call it a day, eat lunch at Famous Uncle Al's Hot Dogs that Clay had picked and return to Independence in defeat. It wasn't raining as hard when we went to eat. As we finished eating, I decided that we could just cross back to the mall and watch a movie and still have an hour to walk back to the ship. So we did. Bonus was finding 8 Below Ice Cream on the 3rd floor of the mall with Regal Cinema. You may recall our recent discovery of rolled ice cream in Richmond. We had Reeses Cup again, but these guys used 4 full size cups instead of the 1 we had at Narwhal. It was much denser and candier!
So we had a good day in the end and an all-American experience.
I am going to assume that anything else that happens after departure this afternoon will either not be noteworthy or that I'll come back and edit if it is. So, I'll post now before we start sailing.
Clay & I skipped cocktail hour and watched sailaway in the dark from our balcony. We headed south across to Portsmouth and south down the Elizabeth River. We passed lots and lots of big ships in dry dock. Tracking us with Clay's phone's GPS it says we're only 38 miles from Coinjock. Clay says that is land miles since it will be more than 12 hours before we arrive. Too bad it is at night as it looks like little rivers and canals and bays and lakes and it would be something to see all the time, if we could see. Oh well. Hopefully there will be some more sailing like this in the light!
We think we've figured out tomorrow's logisitical quandry. I think it is a typo. I think it is supposed to be 11:30pm tonight that we dock in Coinjock.The time line works that way and makes sense in a context of sloppiness. More later.
So, we were right about the typo. Another correction is that the 6" salt lock occurred during dinner at this end of the canal, not the other end as earlier described. It was at Great Bridge Lock. We are traveling, at night, in the Chesapeake & Albemarle Canal. We left dinner ASAP to go up top outside and see. We'd just gone through a drawbridge that had closed behind us and was full of cars while close on either side of the ship was forest and ahead a black shiny ribbon. They are not even using flood lights or spot lights as headlights. It is still really cloudy so no moon or stars either. It was eerie. I hope there will be a lot more cruising like this but in daytime!
photos
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