surfing

Surfs UP! Oh, Georgia..when will you end

Happy Easter!  We decorated some eggs and ate a bunch of candy.

After our busy social scene in St. Augustine, we headed to an anchorage we like on the Ft. George River in Georgia.  It is by one of America’s oldest plantation homes.  The windy weather ended, making for some good surf (we hoped!)

We took the dinghy Raptor and surf board to an inlet south of Little Talbot State Park, where to our surprise the beach was easily accessible.  The surf was wrapping around the point perfectly.  Grant used his bisecting longboard we keep in the v-berth.  It has two sections that clip together with a rod in the middle for support.

Grant got a few good rides in.  Amelia took a few tries for fun, but still can’t seem to stand up yet!

Grant also had a close call with the authorities this week.  After his surf session, we were back at our anchorage.  We were the only boat in a remote river, so Grant commenced showering in the cockpit.  Minutes later, a Sheriff’s police boat zoomed up.  They started shouting about how Velocir was dragging at anchor.  Then, they realized Grant’s precarious position and yelled, “Hey man, you got pants on?”  Grant replied, “no, you guys have perfect timing”  (Note: extremely effective tactic to keep law enforcement at a distance…also true in this case).

Amelia came up from below and saved Grant.  “You were way over there this morning,” the police boat insisted, pointing up current from Velocir.  “Yes, but we have out some good scope and as the current moves our boat will too,” explained Amelia.  (Just to clarify, we were not dragging). Then, they asked where our boat was registered, where we were going and where we came from.  All simple questions, and soon they were on their way.  Grant finished his shower with no more interruptions.

We headed the next day to Fernandina Beach, a cute beach town.  On the radio we heard someone calling Sandpiper.  It could have been anyone, but sure enough it was our friends from Georgetown!  We walked around town and had dinner with them.  It was fun to catch up on where we had both gone since Georgetown.  They have been ambitious, sailing offshore quite a lot.

The next day we visited Cumberland Island, one of our favorite stops last Fall.  This time the beach had even more shells!

We saw two groups of wild horses for the first time on Cumberland Island!!

Now we are trudging through Georgia.  Six days of motoring, with a little genoa every now and then helping us keep our speed up in the current.  It’s a lot of marshland and curvy rivers.  Every inlet we see at least one US Border Protection boat is zooming around, but they never seem to bother anyone.

Beachy Days in Ocracoke

There is a live webcam for Ocracoke’s Silver Lake Harbor.  We are the white sailboat next to the water tower.

http://www.ocracokeharborinn.com/webcam.html

Ocracoke is a cute beachy town on the Outer Banks.  It is a touristy place in the summer, with car ferries running back and forth constantly from the mainland, a museum on  Blackbeard the Pirate, huge beaches, semi-wild ponies and a lighthouse.  Amelia used to spend Easter here with her family when she was little.

Our first full day we went to the beach with the surfboard.  It was a good walk except for when the mosquitos attacked.  We assembled the two piece surfboard we have been sleeping with in the v-berth, put on our wetsuits and Grant went out to surf for a while and I took pictures.

After a little while, Grant decided the waves were not ideal for surfing, so we body surfed near the shore.  It worked a few times!

Here is the beginning of one successful body surfing attempt.  It was relaxing to sit by the beach.  The wind started to pick up after a while, so we trekked back to the boat.

Today (Tuesday) was a calm sunny day.  We had a late morning and worked on our water catcher on the foredeck.  It is a modified windsurfing sail  that we’ve connected a hose to because tomorrow it may rain.  In the afternoon, we went on a long walk around town through some of the back roads.  This snake bit Grant’s shoe.

Walking down Lighthouse Rd, we found Ocracoke Lighthouse!  It is the second oldest lighthouse still in use.

It is a very cute lighthouse.  We continued our walk through town, checking out the hardware store, tackle shop, pottery stores and book store.  Except for the book store no one was very friendly.  The first tackle shop we went to the guy was so rude we went to another place for our 10-day fishing license.  Not sure if it’s because it’s such a touristy small “local” town, because we’re young or just because Grant’s beard isn’t long enough yet : )

For dinner we went to Amelia’s favorite childhood place; The Pony Island Restaurant.  She has fond memories of coloring the placemats so we got some crayons this time too. (Note: Amelia does not usually color the placemats at restaurants, usually).

After a delicious meal of fried seafood, we took a quiet row around the anchorage.  Once again attacked by mosquitos, we headed back to the boat for the night.  Expecting lots of rain tomorrow!!  A great day for a book.

While writing this we were reminded of something else that happened. When we first got here we could hear a weird noise, like the snap crackle pop of Rice Krispies. We opened up the bilge and it was much louder. We found a bottle of vinegar had leaked and we were worried it was reacting to something in the bilge. We read online, flushed it with fresh water and called Amelia’s Dad.

He laughed and said he had heard it before and that it was just fish or something feeding off the growth on the hull. Sure enough we had seen little shrimp swimming around another boat and it seems our hull magnifies the sound. We had a good laugh at ourselves and have been listening to our little bottom scrubbers since.