United States
Topsail Township

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    • Day 9

      Day 10

      November 3, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

      Filled with propane then moved on to Wilmington and walked the water front. We noticed on the way out of town a sign for the Battleship North Carolina, we toured the ship for 2 hours. Because of the late time we stay at Wal-Mart in North Myrtle Beach SC.Read more

    • Day 18

      Srfin Surfin Surfcity

      May 20, 2007 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

      Vandaag een lange ruk van Charlotte naar Surfcity gemaakt (200 mijl). Dwars door het Amerika van alledag. Grotendeels zonder snelwegen en dus over plaatselijke weggetjes door nietszeggende dorpjes. En dan zie je wat het echte Amerika is op een zaterdag:

      - Uiteraard de garagesale/yardsale: Op allerlei plekken hebben mensen hun overtollige waar in de tuin gelegd en bieden het te koop aan. Een soort koninginnendag-markt in je eigen tuin.
      - Carwash: Dames staan langs de weg met grote stukken karton met daarop geschilderd “Carwash”. Uiteraard met de bedoeling dat ze voor een habbekrats de auto wassen. We hebben maar niet gevraagd wat het kost om een SRV-wagen te wassen
      - Car-sale: Hoewel je soms door schier oneindig landschap rijdt en er af en toe iets van bewoning lijkt (een paar omgebouwde sta-caravans, een Antebellum villa, een paar bungalowtjes) heeft een klein dorp dan ineens een flink aantal tweedehandsautohandels met elk een grote parkeerplaats met honderden tweedehands auto’s, trucks, campers en grasmaaiers. Uiteraard alles uitbundig versierd met vlaggen en rood-wit-blauwe glimmende slingers (en ongetwijfeld een slikkie verkoper, met vies hemd met puntkraag, vet haar, mondgeur, van opzij gekamt nattig haar, iets hoog-water-pantalon, pens, witte sportsokken, colbert met glimmende ellebogen en een peuk...maar dat fantaseer ik er bij).
      - Pre-loved house: oftewel tweedehands huis te koop. Dan staan er op een veldje enkele tientallen volledige opgebouwde houten huizen. Die zijn dan van hun oorspronkelijke plek afgehaald en staan nu te wachten op een nieuwe eigenaar. Geeft het woord huizenmarkt gelijk weer een nieuwe betekenis.
      - de meest vreemde ondernemingen: fabriek voor grote stenen dieren (giraffes, herten, beren, struisvogels, zebra’s), kaarsenfabriek, fabriek voor toupetten, lieveheersbeestjes kwekerij, kappers voor military-haircuts.
      - Commercial strips: in groter plaatsen is aan de ingang van het stadje een bijjna eindeloze strip van lelijke handel in van alles. Maar toch voornamelijk: Wendy’s, BurgerKing, Holiday-Inn, Macdonalds, Wafflehouse, House of Omlettes, Tacobell, Dollargrand, BP, all-you-can-eat-chinese, sleezy motels, Foodlion, Subway, Walmart, Donutshop, Dairy Queen, Piggly Wiggly, Hardy’s, Ardy’s, iHop, Applebee’s, Sears, JC Peny, Bestbuy, Shell, Kentuky-fried chicken, Motel6, Pappa luigi’s, Pizzahut, etc, etc. En dat is geen verzameling van allerlei zaken gedurende 200 mijl, maar een opsomming van wat er op 1 enkele strip te vinden is.

      We hebben nog wel een lange tussensop gemaakt in Wilmington. Een mooi zuidelijk stadje met een prachtige houten havenboulevard, veel winkeltjes in oude industriepanden, veel cafe’s en restaurantjes en mooi North-South-huizen (je kent ze wel, houten huizen met een puntdak, in zachte kleuren geschilderd met aan de voorkant zo’n porch met een schommelbank en in de tuin een grote hangende boom).

      Nu zitten we in Surf City. Of althans, daar vlak bij. ‘T is niet de mooiste camping waarop we staan (niet meer dan een veld met campers), maar het strand ligt op nog geen 50 meter van onze camper. Een prachtig strand, de zee is al lauw, miljoenen schelpen en je kunt eindeloos ver kijken, zowel over de stranden als over het water. En in de duinen staan echt jaloersmakende houten huizen. Hoog op palen gebouwd, zodat er maximaal uitzicht is over de Oceaan.

      We staan met onze campers wel een beetje dicht bij de enige weg van het eiland. Dus tot nu toe voelt het nog niet heel erg rustig. Maar dat kan de zaterdagavond-drukte zijn.

      En Robbie wil maar 1 ding......de zee in en zandkastelen bouwen. Vanmiddag is ze met broek en al de zee ingerend, zo mooi vond ze het.
      Dus morgen gaan we STRAND doen.
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    • Day 46

      A birthday on the channel

      November 15, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

      So our plan to skip part of the ICW by taking a shortcut to sea was short lived. We woke up to temperature below zero Celsius, effectively convincing us to stay where it's possible to get out of the cold for the night (in our bed!). It was also easier to cook a nice meal to celebrate Matt's 15th birthday that way!Read more

    • Day 40

      Fleeing the Floods!

      October 1, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

      Oh holy cow! Hurricane Joaquin is hot on our tails. Will we make it to Charleston before being swept out to sea? We figure we have today to enjoy Charleston and then we need to hightail it inland. WHEEEEEEEEE!Read more

    • Day 39

      Wilmington

      September 30, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

      Before heading for camp, we stopped at the Blue Surf Cafe in Wilmington for lunch. Or dinner ... it was about 3:00. Though it looked inauspicious sitting in a small strip mall, our meal was stupendous. Baja shrimp tacos with spicy greens and chipotle mayonnaise on the most amazing fresh-made corn tortillas. On the side was a chili-mango and radish salsa on mizuma greens which has to be tasted to be believed. It was worth the wait.

      We weighed going off and doing tourist things, but decided just to set up camp and relax. Thunderstorms are promised (in fact we are listening to some distant thunder right now), and we were VERY hot and tired. Heather was so hot, she spilled apple cider all over, and GORDON was so hot he didn't know whether he wanted a beer or not. Heather RAN to the trunk and grabbed and emergency IPA.

      The campground is about 5 miles from Wrightsville Beach, and we have a lovely private spot nestled in sand and gnarly coastal pines. It is finally cooling off and the thunder has grown to occasionally shake the entire trailer.

      MORHING UPDATE: We awoke at 6:00 to a veritable concert of barnyard bellows. A VERY active and persistent rooster who sounded unlike any rooster I've ever heard. Being a North Carolina rooster, perhaps he was doing a rebel yell. Not to be outdone a very agitated dog was shouting counterpoint machine gun style. A poor beleaguered turkey, obviously straining for any space in the serenade, filled any silence with a soft gobble. Gordon is sure he heard a pig adding his disapproving grunts but i must have missed those when i plugged my ears. We finally gave it up and got out of bed. We soon realized it must have been our angels alerting us to get up and LOOK AT THE WEATHER!
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    • Day 293

      Then It All Went Black … ICW In Summer

      July 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      Along our passage we saw temperatures reach well into the hundreds. The person off duty would sit under a fan in the salon (on the couches) and read, write, or, if you’re Mike, code. Every once in a while it was polite (aka humane) to pop your head up and ask if the helmsman needed a drink with an ice cube in it.

      One morning after breakfast and coffee, I had the first watch starting at 9:30 AM. I felt fine and was steering by hand. We had just made the umpteenth turn of the morning and were set for a wide-open straight away (finally! I could put on Otto VonPilot and relax).

      But it happened all very suddenly.

      I felt something I had never felt before… my knee gave a slight involuntary jerk. It was very subtle but felt awkward enough for me to glance down. In the time it took to look back up, the blue water in front and yellow grass horizon to the side no longer existed, instead I saw nothing but blurry stars. My vision had completely given way. And that’s when my knees felt like jelly. It was unsettling to feel your body simply fail you. I saw nothing but blackness and felt myself begin to drop against my will. A second later I was crumbled on top of the seat cushions to my left. Half of my body on the floor of the cockpit and my upper torso neatly folded on top of the cushions; my right hand was still precariously on the helm. I yelled for Mike immediately and instantaneously he appeared at my side. My vision was still blurry and I was dizzy. I felt weak. Not tired or sweaty or achey just weak as if I had been fighting a cold for weeks on end. I knew enough to put my head between my knees and breathe deeply. Meanwhile Mike throttled back and took over steering.

      This experience brought to attention the need of safety in a form I had never considered; the importance and responsibility to keep yourself healthy. So often, captains focus on safety of passengers & crew, weather, the performance of the boat, safety features… What about keeping yourself hydrated and well fed? If the captain fails to be lucid, is there another person on board? Are they trained well enough to perform simple operations (like throttling back and hailing help)? Thankfully Mike knew what to do. Thankfully Mike heard me when I yelled for him. I don’t know what would have happened if he had his noise canceling head phones on and was unable to hear my call for help. Maybe I would have risen to the challenge by standing up and throttling back… maybe… but maybe… I wouldn’t have been able to regain my composure…

      Along our travels Mike and I learned a nonverbal communication for various situations, the most important being that look of when to leave a boring party. No, not really, (we still stink at that signal) more like anchoring. One of our tools, if motoring, is to throttle back. The sound of the engine is a bit loud on Gaia and if I were to throttle back it would signal to Mike, I wanted his attention on deck. Most of the time, it was to slow down for some motor vessels wake or to allow someone to pass… but that was infrequent.

      After I regained composure I went down below. Once I was awake enough, I did what any sane kid does… I googled ‘fainting’. And the first thing that popped up on the google search was something called ‘fainting goats’ which ended up being a set of youtube videos of, you guessed it, goats keeling over and fainting… it was oddly adorable. But after I learned of fainting goats, I learned what happened to me was called Vasovagal syncope – Fainting due to lack of blood flow to the brain; usually brought on by standing for long periods of time, heat, or standing up too quickly. Once you experience fainting, you become more susceptible to it. If you’re fit and in good health and you faint more than twice in a month… you should see a doctor… it might indicate a larger risk at hand. Just to be clear I am in no way a doctor. This is simple information gained from googling ‘fainting’.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Township of Topsail, Topsail Township

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