Annapolis

The Sea Hawk came into Annapolis during Commissioning Week so we were able to take part in some of the festivities and tour the grounds.  Commissioning Week involves a full week of celebratory events ending with graduation day at the Navy-Marine Memorial Stadium.  Probably the most entertaining event was the climbing of the greased Herndon Monument.  The upper classmen lard up the monument placing a hat at the top for this long standing tradition since the 40’s.  It took 1 hour and 5 minutes to climb the 21 foot height to the top amidst a jumble of limbs to replace the dixie cup hat with a cover officially ending the plebes’s first year.  The class of ’72 had the fastest time at 1 minute and 30 seconds!
We were privileged to once more view the magnificent Blue Angels fly during Commissioning Week.

We took an interesting walking tour of the grounds which provided a lot of background information.  Some of the highlights for us were the Naval Academy Museum, Chapel, and John Paul Jones Crypt.

The Chapel was a beautiful study of stained glass windows depicting Scripture references to the sea.

The museum houses one of the world’s finest collections of warship models from the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries.  Of particular interest was the Bone Model Collection.  The model ships were carved from the bones of the beef rations allowed to French prisoners-of-war during their incarceration.  A fascinating tribute to the skill of prisoners who were kept in horrible conditions for years on end.  Below is an image of one of the bone ship models.  

                       
    

John Paul Jones was found dead in his apartment on July 18,1792 at the age of 45 while waiting for his commission as the United States consul to Algiers.  His remains were returned to Annapolis and interred in the crypt beneath the Chapel on January 26, 1913.   

John Paul Jones Crypt

We had a little hitchhiker, we were quite a way from land when we discovered him.  Hope he made it back.

On to the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal...............

Dismal Swamp

We came close to missing this gem.  We had planned on taking the Virginia Cut but at the last minute decided to take the Dismal Swamp after discussing the routes with Linda and Mehlon on Just Ducky.  They had already traversed the canal and strongly recommended we experience the waterway.  This is a beautiful 22 mile stretch of canal with a controlling depth of 6 feet.  It is narrow and dripping with overhanging trees.  Watch your mast, ours went through the branches and came away with a few hanging at the top after trying to dodge some flotsam in the middle of the channel.  No damage was done but we certainly started paying more attention to what was above as well as below.    

That is Just Ducky ahead of us 

The Dismal Swamp Canal was hand dug by hired enslaved labor and opened to navigation in 1805.  This canal allowed trade between the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina.  The brownish colored water in the canal is preserved by tannic acids from the bark of the juniper, gum, and cypress trees which prohibits the growth of bacteria.  Before refrigeration, water from the swamp was considered a highly prized commodity on sailing ships, put in kegs it would stay fresh for a long time.

Waiting out the weather we were there for 3 days at the free dock which is about 4 miles north of the South Mills Lock.  The lock opens at 0830, 1100, 1330, and 1530.  You will come to a pontoon bridge operated by the State Park just before the Welcome Center docks.  The bridge tender usually watches for boat traffic and will be opening the bridge as you are transiting the lock, if not call on VHF Channel 13.  Just Ducky and our boat went through relatively late at 1:00 which meant we were the last two boats at the free dock.  There is only room for 3-4 boats across the face dock so boaters will raft.  We had seven boats rafted that first day and six the next.  Comments on Active Captain report up to 17 boats rafted at the dock.  Be prepared😊

We are the pickle in the middle 🥒

From the left

Chris, Wes, Linda, Mehlon and Diane

The welcome center is also a rest stop for road traffic and it was a strange feeling as our two worlds converged with just the waterway and a highway amongst all this beauty. 

At the final lock you will meet Robert, a memorable character, who regaled us with conch playing, history, and stories of people passing through.  Apparently Robert was asked not to compete in the conch playing contest in the Keys because he always won, gotta give the other guy a chance.  I could believe his story, he is the first conch player I have heard who could really use this shell as an instrument.  He could change the sound, play a series of notes and vibrato.  It was amazing listening to him.  

On to the Chesapeake Bay............................

Beaufort, North Carolina

We spent 4 days in Beaufort North Carolina at the Town Creek Marina, a family owned business.  The staff was very professional and friendly.  We had a great meal at the City Kitchen right at the marina.  

                                

We sat way down at the end overlooking the bay.

The next day we used the courtesy car to do our provisioning.  The rest of our stay was playing tourist.

For the uninitiated Beaufort is pronounced Bofort, with a long ‘o’ not to be confused with Beaufort, SC (Byufort as in ‘you’).  Beaufort is another one of those picturesque eastern seaboard places with a long history, established in 1709.  They have plenty of old houses on the historic registry to prove it.   The area originally began to grow as British ships used the port to load and unload supplies. Beaufort was once called Fishport because fishing was and still is an important industry for the area.

Beaufort was having a Wooden Boat Show which we were able to enjoy.

Flat Head Drifter

We also came at the right time for the Farmers Market.  I never seem to hit farmers markets at the right time so I was thrilled. 

                                           

Blackbeard himself came back for a day of frolic but I was disappointed not to see the fuses in his hair😊.

Blackbeard is on the left

The rest of the pirate gang

The Queen Anne's Revenge sank near Beaufort, NC believed by many to have been sunk by Blackbeard himself.  It was discovered in 1996 and many artifacts from the sunken vessel can be viewed in the North Carolina Maritime Museum.  

 That's all for today, see you next in the Dismal Swamp👀....................................

Lazy Days and the Marines

Wow, I am really behind, my only excuses are bad connections and being Lazy, yes with a capital L.  We are presently going through the Dismal Swamp but gotta stay sequential.

Traveling through South Carolina was a wonderful myriad of rivers, creeks, cuts and sounds, all part of the ACIW.  These creeks are big and deep enough to traverse and anchor in.  They are nothing like the insipid creeks I grew up with in Minnesota.  With the occasional break of a few cities, it is mostly marshes with a few areas of trees.  It feels very open and natural.  The smells were a unique blend of something tangy, sweet, salty and not quite fishy but more shrimpy, maybe even a little alligator.  What do alligators smell like?  I guess I really don’t know.   It was a comfortable feeling and all I really wanted to do was lay back and run my fingers through the water, if I could have reached that far.  Hmmm, I wonder about those alligators, maybe not!  Here are some pictures that hopefully inspire you on a nice warm day on the water somewhere quiet.

On April 30 we pulled into Mile Hammock Bay and dropped anchor.  This bay is on Camp Le Jeune so we were unable to go ashore.  We did have an interesting day watching the helicopters go through their maneuvers.  They flew low, were loud and awe inspiring to watch.  We spent two nights in the bay and although we couldn’t get off the boat we didn’t lack for entertainment. 

                                 


                                       

Surprise!

Nah, it didn't really happen but we wouldn't have been surprised if a marine had popped up next to our boat.

Love the boating life..........................

Kilkenny

We came into Kilkenny Marina on April 15 to take a slip while we waited for an engine part.  We found the marina very interesting, which included an old plantation.  

An old 662 acre pre American Revolutionary property came into the possession of Thomas Young around 1758.  In 1836 the land was sold to Charles Rogers and he built the wooden frame house that still exists today.  The land was used to raise Sea Island cotton.  During the Civil War a union gunboat shelled the property from the Bear River leaving a hole in the side of the house that was later repaired.  Kilkenny has changed hands several times since then and is presently owned by the owners of the Marina who also lived there as children.  A beautiful house with several outbuildings surrounded by very old live oak trees, you can see where they lined the original driveway which is now a road.  The locals claim the live oak trees are as much or more than 300 years old which is easy to believe looking at the massive size of their trunks. 

An interesting feature of the marina is the boat ramp/lift.  Because the banks are so steep boat ramps are not feasible so the marina opted for a lift.  The best way I can explain it is to show you, so here is a series of pictures that hopefully will explain this system  to those not familiar with this kind of boat lift.

And there you have it , from water to parking lot.

We met an alligator hunter at the marina named Tony.  He shared some interesting stories that confirmed that I will never swim in these waters.  He takes people out alligator hunting and claims there are some 10-11 foot alligators in the area.  He also explained how you can tell the length of an alligator by just seeing the snout.  If you can estimate the distance in inches from the eyes to the end of his snout and then convert to feet you will have the length.  For example an alligator with 10 inches from eyes to end of snout will be 10 feet.  Although we couldn’t prove it, we got to put it to practice when we saw an alligator swimming onto shore and estimated it was 3-4 feet. 

We really enjoyed our stay at this fisherman’s marina. 

Movin' on to South Carolina ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cumberland Island and Wild Horses

Hoping to see wild horses turned out to be sweet reality as we were practically within touching distance.  Nope, we didn’t creep up on them, we were sitting at a table watching as they grazed closer and closer.  Beautiful, healthy looking horses it was hard to believe they were wild as they showed no fear of us.  Technically these horses are considered feral as they were once domesticated and then turned wild, they are also a non-native species that have an impact on the island ecology.  The National Park Service conducts population surveys that return counts ranging from 120 to 148 horses.  The first horses were probably left behind by the Spanish Missions established in the 1500’s. 

They have the right of way!

Next was the settlement history of the island which began with Catharine Greene, widow of Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Green.  She built Dungeness, a four-story ‘tabby’ mansion near the southern end of the island.  A century later Thomas Carengie and his wife Lucy built their own mansion which they called Dungeness, in the same location.  Several more homes for their children including Plum Orchard were built for their children.  In 1959 the mansion was destroyed by fire, alleged to be the work of an arson.  In the 1890’s a small group of African American freedmen purchased property on the northern end of the island and built the First African Baptist Church in 1893.

Dungeness ruins

We also stopped by the Greene-Miller Cemetery near Dungeness.  On March 25,1818 Henry Lee aka Lighthorse Harry died and was buried in the Greene Cemetery on the island.  He was the father of Robert E. Lee.  In 1913 his remains were removed and interred in the Lee family crypt at Lee Chapel. While researching the cemetery, I learned a bit of trivia. The above ground markers do not hold bodies.  This was a style of tombstone that allowed families to come to the cemetery and have a surface on which to have a picnic. 

Greene-Miller Cemetery

We hiked through a forest of live oaks forming cool shade to a saltwater marsh ending up in the openness of the beach with its windblown sand dunes.  We often saw horses in the distance.  If you visit the island be sure to empty your shoes before entering your boat.  I must have brought back a couple of pounds of sand in my shoes.

The forest

Salt Marshes

Beach

Heading North.............