Our Odyssey: Thanksgiving in Little Washington

We are under way downbound on the Pamlico River, after just over a week at the Waterfront Docks in the charming town of Washington, North Carolina, colloquially known as "Little Washington" or also "the Original Washington" (the town adopted the name in 1776, making it the first town in the nation to do so). It's been a pleasant but very, very cold week, with last night's temperature setting a record for Vector at 24°F.

Market Street, Washington, festively lit for the holidays. The city lighting ceremony was the day before we arrived.

Monday morning of Thanksgiving week we weighed anchor at Tuckahoe Point and made the slog through the Alligator-Pungo Canal. We arrived to Belhaven Harbor and dropped anchor (map) by 1pm, making it an early day, but we had time to kill before Thanksgiving. Stinkpot was already anchored when we arrived. I splashed the tender and picked up Stacey and Dave to get in a bit of an afternoon walk. At dinner time we all headed ashore and walked to El Mariachi for dinner, our current favorite in town. Decent Mexican food, and Negra Modelo on draft.

I think I am the sidekick in this painting. At least I'm not the ass.

Dave-the-chef, who would be hosting us for Thanksgiving, made the determination that Washington would be his preferred choice for cooking the feast and also riding out the coming cold snap with power. With an easy cruise and an extra day, we all decided to make the stop at Bath, NC on our way up the Pamlico, and that's where we headed Tuesday. We did have just a foot under keel in parts of Bath Creek, and, unwilling to risk getting stuck in the mud at the free State Dock, we dropped the hook in a wide spot in the creek (map).

Stinkpot and Vector crews at an otherwise empty Quarterdeck, awaiting our food.

We splashed the tender and headed over to the State Dock, where Stinkpot was already tied up. Sounding the dock suggested we could just make it to the short T-head with a few inches under keel (at this water level), which we noted for the future. The lone sit-down restaurant in town was dark Tuesday, and so we all hoofed it over to the only other option, an order-at-the-counter Tiki-deck affair called the Quarterdeck, attached to a minuscule marina. Surprisingly, they had draft beer, and we all sat on the upstairs deck in our winter coats eating burgers and fries.

In case you were wondering why we were all lined up at a counter on the edge of the tiki hut, this is what the rest of the deck looks like,

This Pomeranian goose has taken up residence at the Quarterdeck and was looking for handouts.

Wednesday we weighed anchor and continued up the Pamlico to Washington. We planned to take our two free nights at the dock that lacks services, and then move to the dock with power and water when the cold hit in earnest on Friday. Instead, the marina just told us to tie up at that dock on arrival, and they would give us the two free days until we plugged in, so that's where we landed, just in front of fellow steel trawler Vahevala (map). Her stalwart crew, friends Linda and Brian, were off in Buffalo for the holiday.

Just two steelies staring each other down at sunset. Vahevala and Vector.

After getting secured I took a stroll around town to refresh my memory, stopping in at Two Rivers Ale House to have my growler filled with their excellent Oktoberfest for our holiday meal. I also picked up a peach pie for Thanksgiving at local bakery Val's. Lastly, I deployed the e-bike to go pick up some packages at the UPS Access Point in the nearby CVS, and pick up some pre-holiday provisions at Food Lion, including the requisite pumpkin pie. We met up with Stacey and Dave at Ribeyes for a casual dinner; Dave had already been ramping up in the galley for the feast.

Washington goes all out with the holiday lights. This is the visitor center.

Thursday morning we had to run the generator first thing for heat, and by mid-day we decided to just plug in right then and pay for an extra day. Helping that decision was the fact that we were being pinned to the dock by winds gusting up to 35mph, and we crammed some extra fenders in place. Sailboats were dragging in the anchorage. By 2pm we were headed over to Stinkpot carrying a growler of beer, a case of sparkling water, and two pies. Dave outdid himself, and we had an excellent feast of roast turkey with all the fixin's. That same meal fed all four of us twice more over the course of the week (I did have to refill the growler), and I think it fed Stacey and Dave beyond that.

Dave is a master. Impressive bird coming from a tiny galley on a tiny boat.

In addition to Dave's excellent cooking, which included a lovely pasta al forno when the leftovers ran out, we enjoyed dinners at Ribeye's, Down on Main Street, Mulberry House Brewery, 1906 Bistro, and Havens Mill Pizza, a carry-out stand adjacent to the Pitt Street Brewing Company, which serves no food of its own but where you can enjoy your pizza with a nice draft. We also did a date night at one of the fancier joints, the Bank Bistro, where we happened into prime rib night and split an enormous slab of it (excellent). My two glasses of red blend were overpriced but all else, including Louise's beer, was quite reasonable. You walk through one of the two vaults in this historic bank building to get to the restrooms; the other is behind the bar.

More holiday lights on Main Street, along with the sign on the historic Turnage theater.

Facing the prospect of being pinned down by weather for the better part of a week or more, Friday we lowered both scooters to the dock so we could exercise them, even if there was no place we really needed to go. Over the course of the week I did end up making two runs to Goodwill, two to Walmart, one to Autozone, and one to Lowes, and Louise went out for a haircut. A lot of rust fell from Louise's Genuine Buddy when we lifted it; this one was not aging well, especially with steel wheels. I could not get the Buddy to start.

Soup, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, roasted Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, and fresh baked bread rounded out the feast.

Saturday we got a notice from the marina that they would be shutting the water off overnight due to a hard freeze, and so we topped up the tank. I spent most of the day working on making trim pieces for the flybridge hatch, the final element of that project, from a piece of base molding I brought home from Lowes on Friday. Those pieces are now all cut and have received three coats of cherry stain over the same number of days, but are still not dark enough to blend in with the existing woodwork. We'll see if I can get it there or will need to start over with cherry trim.

Another view down Main Street.

The other major project I undertook in sub-optimal cold temperatures was to sell the Buddy. It was 17 years old, and the rust being deposited on deck is troublesome. But more importantly, regular readers may recall it stranded Louise in Amsterdam, NY after, we think, taking on a tankful of bad gasoline, and she lost trust in it. I drained the fuel and put fresh in, cleaned the air filter, and jumped it to the boat batteries to spend way too much time cranking it. Eventually I put a new spark plug in, which did the trick, and I listed it on Facebook for $200. It went to a nice young man in the local community Monday, and now we are in the market for something a little newer with less rusty steel.

Louise's Buddy scooter just before sale. Sloth not included.

Sunday morning we learned that Dave, who is a musician by trade, would be performing a few of his original compositions for the Greenwich Village Folk Festival, live streamed at 6pm. We got an invite to be part of the "live studio audience" aboard Stinkpot for his set, and since he was first up, we then got to feast on leftovers while the other artists performed. It was a nice evening.

Dave performing in front of the camera.

I'm not sure how it came up, but somewhere along the line, likely over dinner together, it came out that I had never seen Blazing Saddles start to finish. I know all the key lines and jokes, having grown up in that era, but I was just a bit too young to see it in the theater when it came out, and somehow I've managed to avoid it in the 50 years (!) since. Upon learning this, Dave, who owns a copy, insisted we have a movie night, and that was Tuesday's evening activity, along with more leftovers and Dave's killer popcorn. That, too, was a nice evening.

This bride, in a sleeveless gown, showed up for photos on one of the coldest days. Vector will be in their wedding album.

Our friends Linda and Brian from Vahevala returned from Buffalo early in the week, and all six of us met for dinner at 1906 Bistro on Wednesday. They did the Downeast Loop this season, and it was nice to compare notes and just catch up in general. We also joined them for a beer aboard and a quick tour of Vahevala Thursday, and we returned the tour of Vector yesterday.

During dinner at the Mulberry House, Little Drummer Boy came on the sound system, knocking all four of us out of the #LDBchallenge in one fell swoop.

Thursday morning I walked over to the Water Street Cafe, just a stone's throw from our spot on the dock, and picked up a couple of breakfast sandwiches, which were disappointing. I made a final scooter run to Walmart for provisions and to return the cold-weather window wrap that I had picked up "just in case," and that's the evening we ended up at The Bank Bistro, so perhaps every Thursday is prime rib night.

Because I am an infrastructure junkie, I notice things like this. Here is a carefully integrated ADA curb cut, complete with ADA truncated dome "detectable warning surface," which will get you onto a sidewalk that leads directly to a utility pole blocking your way. Seen all over town.

We've been keeping a close eye on the weather for our earliest opportunity to bolt. We wanted the temperature to hold above freezing overnight, but also needed the right wind conditions both here on the Pamlico and the following day on the Neuse. And we needed depth -- several days the wind blew so much water out of the Pamlico that we dropped over two feet right at the dock, which also trapped us in Washington, as there are a number of eight foot soundings on the approach.

Sunset over the Pamlico, as seen from our deck at the Washington Waterfront Docks.

That magic combination turns out to be today and tomorrow. It will be very cold tonight, but will remain just above freezing, and while tomorrow would be warmer, we'd lose our window on the Neuse. And so yesterday I breezed out our remaining scooter after putting in fresh fuel and stabilizer, and we hoisted it on deck. We settled the bill with the city dockmaster, who gave us a nice discount, and we arranged for a pump-out this morning. We settled on the pizza shack for dinner last night, as it was too cold to want to walk anyplace further.

The historic Atlantic Coast Line passenger and freight depots, now a civic event center.

Stinkpot, of course, has been looking at exactly the same weather, and they also opted to get under way this morning. They left ahead of us, which gave us the opportunity to learn from them that the pump-out would simply not operate in this cold, notwithstanding the herculean efforts of the dockmaster with pots of boiling water. While they were spending more than an hour at the pump-out dock, we, after singling up, strolled through the enormous line-up of floats and vehicles staging for the city's holiday parade, which started at 10. The participants looked cold but of good cheer, as did the assembled spectators lining Main Street.

Last night's low of 24° recorded at lower left. A record for Vector.

They eventually gave up on the pump-out and gave us the bad news on their way out. A short time later the dockmaster called us with the same story, so we started engines, dropped lines, and made our way off the dock just as the parade was wrapping up. It was an enjoyable, if cold, visit to Little Washington, and the city dock staff could not have been more accommodating.

One of the many projects I knocked out during the week: adding 5a thermal breakers and indicator LEDs to the control circuits for the new transfer switch.

Today we will make it through the Hobucken Cut and likely finish at a familiar anchorage just beyond. We'll look to see if there is still a spot with power available at the R.E. Mayo Seafood docks in Hobucken, but we're definitely not counting on it. Tomorrow we should be in Beaufort, NC, and the temperature should come up a bit.

Stinkpot steaming past us on her way out of Little Washington.

Update: We arrived at the R. E. Mayo dock right at 4; Stinkpot had grabbed the last spot on the transient dock with 30a power. But there is a 20a outlet on a longer face dock just a bit further away, and that dock was empty, so we snagged it (map). In order to run the boat on a 20a receptacle without tripping an inaccessible breaker, I have a 10-gauge extension cord running down to the engine room and powering our auxiliary charger, which draws just 14 amps. That ought to be enough to keep us warm overnight without running the gen, and it was a bargain at $21. We always whizz right by this dock, because we seldom need the power, but tonight it will be welcome. Now please enjoy these photos of floats getting ready for the holiday parade: