We spent the night at Jeremy Creek which is also where the town of McCellanville is located.  Jeremy Creek marina is a shrimping harbor and filled with shrimp boats that can get out into the Atlantic through Five Fathom Creek.

We asked the dockmaster if there was a supermarket nearby and he told us there was one a few miles up the road.

“We don’t got a courtesy car for y’all to use, but if y’all need to go shopping you can borrow my truck. It’s the white one up by the house – key’s in the ashtray.  Go out turn right, turn at first left and follow Purvis ‘til y’all get to the main road. Turn left and it’s right thar.”

Well now – how much friendlier could things get? So we borrowed the truck and drove through a truly rural Americana town. It doesn’t get more real than this. The “supermarket” was more of a hardware store that also carried some food – but we got the bread and milk we needed.

McCellanville is a true American rual town with white clapboard houses hidden behind blooming magnolia trees. It was a fine little town, sleepy but very nice. There was one restaurant, which we didn’t visit, unfortunately, because we later heard from others that it makes fantastic seafood at ridiculously low prices.  Oh well – in our next lives – sigh.

Nothing much happening in Jeremy Creek, but after dinner, some wine we turned in and slept like babies. Next morning we could feel we were standing on our keel since it was low tide. So we waited an hour or so and then we were afloat and could leave again.

I simply cannot describe the sheer beauty of this waterway. Vinni and I kept looking at each other and exclaiming that this is one of the best kept secrets in the European sailing world. Certainly almost no Danes have ever heard of it. We sailed through one incomprehensibly beautiful landscape to the next. The old swingbridges that open when you call them on the radio are true Americana in themselves. Unfortunately they are disappearing, albeit slowly here on the ICW.

“Long Creek Bridge, Long Creek Bridge, this is Capri, Capri, over.” We call and right back comes the bridge:

“Capri – this is Long Creek Bridge”

“Long Creek, we’re northbound about 1 mile out and would like to come through on your next opening”

“Capri – just keep coming and I’ll open for you”

As we approach we hear the bells and whistles signaling the traffic that the bridge was opening and coming through we’d call and say:

“Long Creek Bridge, Capri here – we’re through and thank you for the opening – have a good day in there”

“Capri – same to you – have a safe trip”

Mostly they ask what our hailing port is and we do get a pregnant pause from them when we say Copenhagen, Denmark.

Look at the video and see the amazing scenery and the sequence of the swing bridge. Finally there is a bit of video from our mooring ball at Carolina Beach of a pelican swooping and diving for a fish.

 

 

Most of the ICW is protected, federal or state lands so while there is some development – it is concentrated and the rest is empty nature and wildlife preserves. Someday we’d like to come back here and do this trip again in a motorboat, where our 7 foot keel isn’t a problem.

And then we were mooching off Debbie and Marshall again (THANK YOU, DEBBIE and MARSHALL!!!!). Now their beach house is just a modest little (ha, ha, ha,) beach house with 3 stories, 5 bedrooms and a load of bathrooms, just a short walk across protected sand dunes and marshlands.

There was also an outdoor shower which was simply great to use. Their house had everything, and I do mean everything you can imagine. So we borrowed a couple of the bicycles, which needed air in their tires.

Now Vinni is a old-fashioned Dane and she thought I was going to use a bicycle pump. But I’m half American and I’d noticed that there was a small compressor which I plugged in and started filling the tires. Vinni was just floored!

Your own compressor – just to fill bicycles tires??????

Yup – this is America – nothing manual if you can do it with a machine.  I laughed my ass off. And I called Marshall and he laughed his ass off.  So did Debbie when he told her.

We had 4-5 fantastic days at the beach house, just a short walk to a miles long white sand beach. The house is everything you could possibly want (including a fully stocked bar which we helped Marshall restock by emptying it (THANK YOU Marshall and Debbie!)

Lars and Bente showed up, two of our friends from Denmark who are going to sail with us the next couple of weeks, so after a couple of days we locked the house and set sail up the Intracoastal waterway (ICW) towards Norfolk and eventually New York.

But more about that in our next posting.  Hope you guys are all enjoying the pictures from the ICW.