mile 132 to mile 182
It was a beautiful morning so we went for a walk. We headed out shortly after Nautilus.
There was a good wind and we raised the sails in the Pungo River and sailed for several hours across the Pamlico River. It was quite downwind but there was enough wind such that our genoa behaved for the most part. We made good time on the sail.
We have been wanting to go to the seafood company R.E. Mayo on the Goose Creek portion of the waterway in Hobucken. We always see the shrimp fleet parked out there. Today seemed right for a stop. Some boats stay overnight at the dock there. I think it is by permission only and there are no amenities. There was a beautiful boat S/V Jo Beth there.
We called ahead and they told us to pull up on the south end of the dock. We made our way slowly. The wind was very light in the creek behind us so we did not turn around to dock and had no issues.
We walked the docks to the store entrance, looking more closely at the shrimp boats. The store was great, a basic marine store with lots of parts. In the middle of the store were three rocking chairs occupied by some older gentlemen. There was a large crockpot of Jambalaya on the checkout counter and the men were eating bowls of food and topping it off with cake. It reminded me of the old Shore hardware stores, Jaxon’s in Cheriton, where people tended to just hang out. The rocking chairs were kind of in front of the fishing gear shelf so we had to look around them to see the merchandise.
The seafood was vacuum sealed and frozen. The boats had come in 2 days prior. We bought some shrimp and some fishing lures. The people were very nice and asked us where we were going and wished us well.
We headed on down Goose Creek to the wider Bay River and then to the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound. As we entered Bay River, we saw the Helen Louise returning.
In the Neuse River, we were able to sail again. the winds were lighter but on our beam. It was a beautiful sail up the river, reaching Oriental around sunset. We anchored as the winds dropped and cooked some Jambalaya.
