November 21, 2008 continued

Entrance to Southport, NC

Southport Harbor

First Palm Tree

Looking out from boat at free dock

Underneath the boardwalk in Surf City where the well dressed men in suits were drinking and talking to me last year and Tracy freaked out. Look, it's boarded up now, OK Tracy!

Log: 13596

Trip: 41.09

EH: 2259.5

Arrive: 2;40

Brrrrrrrrr, still cold! This was a really short day because we were going to meet up with our friends Larry and Gale but they are about 3 miles down and it is too darn cold to take the dinghy to meet up with them, there's always tomorrow. The free T-dock was available so we pulled up to it and (of course) the wind is blowing us away from the dock which makes it really hard to tie up but after a lot of pushing and pulling and bow thrusting we finally got tied up. Skipper couldn't wait to get off the boat until he realized how cold it was, he hops everywhere and makes sure he has his sweater or coat on at all times (after all he is getting up there in age and the cold affects him more). We decided to walk up to the marina store in town to see if they had an impeller but as we were walking I noticed a man walking a dog and recognized him as someone we had met on another trip here. At that time he had just gotten his dog and moved to Southport, he was an important swim coach somewhere and guess what, his name is Dick and, wait, his wifes name is Diane, it gets better, his wife is a painter. Well now ain't that something, got my whole family right there. He offered to take us to Boaters World by car so off we went to his house...clear across town, warm now. All the houses in this town are circa 1870's and beautiful. The magnola trees are hugh, our first palm trees and also, this is where I read about the bent trees. The story is that the Indians, to label their way and find the way home bent trees over to mark the way. The trees that you see bent over are the ones that they never got back to let go. Dick introduced us to his wife and then drove us to the store and also to Walmart for some milk. Didn't have the part so back to the little store in town and, yup, they had the part right there. They really need a West Marine in this town also. Dick's dog was a peke-a-poo named Fearless since southport is on the Cape Fear River. House in South River Circa 1873