We waited out the windy and rainy day at R. E. Mayo in Hobucken. It was a delightful stop, a place that caters exclusively to commercial fishermen although they let cruisers use the dock for $0.42 a foot and are as friendly as you could ask for. The marine and convenience store has everything a hard working fisherman could want but, if you find something you need as a yachtsman, it’s a coincidence.
The next day’s weather report was for wind on the nose with brisk following winds the next. The Neuse River will be our last chance for a good sail before entering the ditch so we decided to layover. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss R. E. Mayo but a second day with the limited places to walk and mosquitoes much worse than the Little Alligator River would have been just too much of a good thing.
I found a promising little town up the next creek which looked like the kind of place seldom visited by cruisers rushing north and south. It also had a post office with Lee and Lynn needed so we made the 10 mile run around and anchored.
When we landed in the little town of Vandemere, we started making jokes about the Andromeda strain, thinking it was just a small and sleepy place. There wasn’t a person or car in sight. When we got to the post office, we found it closed with piles of insulation and drywall out front. Then, we realized that it wasn’t trash days and those piles in front of every house going up the street were the same stuff. We saw the FEMA trailers and blue tarps next and realized that we were looking at the damage from Irene.
A resident saw us walking around and drove over to talk with us. The eye passed directly over the down. There wasn’t a lot of wind damage but the low pressure sucked up a ten foot storm surge. It was predicted to be six and the additional four feed caught a lot of people unprepared. Many have now moved to Oriental or other nearby places.
This was, and will be again, a very nice little corner of the world but our small town exploration turned into a sobering day.
The next day’s weather report was for wind on the nose with brisk following winds the next. The Neuse River will be our last chance for a good sail before entering the ditch so we decided to layover. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss R. E. Mayo but a second day with the limited places to walk and mosquitoes much worse than the Little Alligator River would have been just too much of a good thing.
I found a promising little town up the next creek which looked like the kind of place seldom visited by cruisers rushing north and south. It also had a post office with Lee and Lynn needed so we made the 10 mile run around and anchored.
When we landed in the little town of Vandemere, we started making jokes about the Andromeda strain, thinking it was just a small and sleepy place. There wasn’t a person or car in sight. When we got to the post office, we found it closed with piles of insulation and drywall out front. Then, we realized that it wasn’t trash days and those piles in front of every house going up the street were the same stuff. We saw the FEMA trailers and blue tarps next and realized that we were looking at the damage from Irene.
A resident saw us walking around and drove over to talk with us. The eye passed directly over the down. There wasn’t a lot of wind damage but the low pressure sucked up a ten foot storm surge. It was predicted to be six and the additional four feed caught a lot of people unprepared. Many have now moved to Oriental or other nearby places.
This was, and will be again, a very nice little corner of the world but our small town exploration turned into a sobering day.
