Yesterday Adam and I took a morning jaunt to a favorite spot: Whittaker Creek Marina in Oriental. We used to ride our bikes there often and walk the docks, looking at boats.
Look carefully at the large photo above. See anything strange? Yep -- those are two masts sticking out of the water. A sunken boat!
Here's a closer view. It's an old wooden boat in horrible repair that used to have hoses pumping out water constantly. Well, clearly, they were no match for its rotten hull.
What a sad sight! It belongs to a local man who will (hopefully) get it out of there. I imagine he'll have to get a diver to put big inflatables inside the cabin to bring her to the surface.
At one time, someone bought her new, sailed her proudly, tended her woodwork and packed her sails neatly away. Now her stern juts above the murky water and her wheel cover hangs limp.
This particular marina dock is a somewhat sad, vaguely derelict place, although I do love it.
Bushes grow through the boardwalk.
The slats are wobbly and a little dangerous.
The dock below is damaged, and being sailors of course they used lots of line to make is more secure.
Across the creek is another boat quite submerged. The companionway hatch is open.
But the very end of the dilapidated dock has a killer view -- look at that!
Out to the Neuse!
If anyone is interested, the Blue Bayou is still afloat although the damage to the side of her hull is worse than ever.
Today we walked down our road (a 2-lane highway) to our nearest water here in Bayboro: the north prong of the Bay River.
The shrimp boats are strapped in, three deep, for the upcoming stormy weather. We'll be on the tip edge of Hurricane Matthew's "cone."
Remember the Outlaw, Josey Wales?
The little lane next to this boatyard is a Very Wet Spot, especially with the rising waters from many days of steady Northeast winds.
All the old fishery buildings are under water or very close to it.
The town built a nice (but small) park next to the water.
I wish they could buy up all the property nearby and expand the park to make a real, big public water access area -- what a boon that would be to the town! But it's all wetlands, and I bet they aren't allowed to lay a finger on it.
The lovely new bridge that spans the prong of the river took them many months to build.
But as we walked across it, I noticed some of the cement bases for the lanterns are cracking already. That's not good.
The water is rising, and the rains are coming. We will get between 7" and 15" this weekend. We are already soggy and the rivers, creeks and ditches are full. It'll be a muddy mess before we're done.
5 comments:
I love your new blog colours. They make the end of summer seem more acceptable until next year. You certainly get a lot more weather in your part of the world. We would actually love some rain here. The gardens are suffering and my water barrel is nearly empty with all the watering I still have to do.
NIfty photos. I like the way you described this as a "jaunt," a lovely word and one I don't see often! We're having rain here in Oxford and no wind of any consequence. All the critters are asleep, waiting for it to stop so they can play outdoors again! Stay safe.
Thank you for sharing the neighborhood. I am a little anxious about your upcoming deluge, and sad about the boat neglect and decay.
What great photos of a different lifestyle.
Wow, you have a lot of rain coming your way. We only got .49 inches here.
Hope you don't flood or have any damages there at the farm.
Love, hugs & prayers ~ FlowerLady
It just amazes me that in October, while awaiting a hurricane, you are in short sleeves!
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