Elizabeth City, NC

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

We wanted to get this posted before we leave Elizabeth City on Sunday morning as we expect to be without Internet access for a couple days as we head south through the Albernarle Sound and the Alligator River into areas that we expect will be somewhat more remote.

We arrived at Elizabeth City, North Carolina on Thursday afternoon following a night spent behind Goat Island on the Pasquotank River.   We headed for Mariner’s Wharf in the downtown area which are free slips the city provides boaters and the home of the “Rose Buddies” - more about this later. 

We found the dockage somewhat challenging because in reality there is not much of a dock.  There are triangle shaped finger piers that stick out maybe four feet from a headwall.  The slips have pilings on the outside and this is what you tie to.  We were able to get situated but it took some doing and some help from some other boaters.  Since then, we’ve seen just about everyone else who arrives having the same problem, so we don’t feel so bad.   The facilities are odd and require a little more effort to tie up and then get off and on the boat but in the end it is all worth it as this is the “Harbor of Hospitality”.

Fred Fearing, a local retiree decided one day in 1983 that it would be a good idea to go down to the docks and welcome visiting cruisers to Elizabeth City by throwing a wine and cheese party for them.  In addition,  roses from a friend’s garden were presented to the ladies.  After a while the idea caught on and Fred was able to recruit others and thus was born the Rose Buddies.  The Rose Buddies began throwing wine and cheese parties every night when there were five or more new arrivals at the dock.  Fearing continued to welcome boaters well into his 90’s, until his death in  2007.  Today, the tradition continues now sponsored by the Visitor’s Bureau and we attended the wine and cheese party Friday evening just steps away from where Sweet Escape was docked.  Judy did receive her rose.  Brian was happy with a Bud Light.

Thursday afternoon we walked downtown and stopped at the Cypress Grill, a great but inexpensive restaurant that features all manner of culinary happiness.  Judy had Lemon Crusted Flounder and Brian had the Texas Style BBQ beef brisket.  The food was very good.  The other must stop place to eat in Elizabeth City for seafood lovers is Quality Seafood, a nondescript painted white cinderblock building with a blue roof and awning about a block west of the docks.  Nothing fancy here but you will recognize the building by the line of people waiting to order their fabulously fresh fish, scallop, shrimp, crab and oyster dinners.

Friday afternoon we changed our primary and secondary fuel filters on the engine and cleaned out our sea strainers.

Elizabeth City is the home of Elizabeth City State University and Saturday was homecoming which meant that at 9:00 AM there would be a parade that would go past where Sweet Escape was docked.  We both went out and watched part of the parade before walking to an auto parts store to procure a lightbulb for our refrigerator.  We took some video of the parade and uploaded it to YouTube.  The link is at right.

Directly across the street from Mariner’s Wharf where the boat is docked is the Museum of the Albemarle, a beautiful museum that was built in 2006.  We spent a couple hours there Saturday afternoon and found it very well done.  Admission is free by the way but would be worth a charge if there was one. 

Farm Fresh, a local supermarket operates a free shuttle for cruisers from the wharf to their store and back so we called them and arranged for a pickup at 3:00 PM.  Brian and Judy, along with Patty from Nautical Dreamer went shopping and were able to get stocked up before Sweet Escape heads south Sunday morning.