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| The downtown Beaufort marina - empty! |
We got all our work done: provisioned, did a wash, refilled the water tank, filled up the outboard tank with non-ethanol gasoline, walked into town - time for a rest. Beaufort looks the same as always. Once again, reacting to the news, I expected a lot more damage. It was hard to see any. There was some debris piled in spots along the sidewalk but not that much. Most of the houses showed no damage at all, a few showed a shingle or two missing.
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There was an announcement of the Atlantic Beach Bridge shown above required a 30-minute notice
before passing through due to construction. Nobody yet has seen any signs of a work barge blocking traffic. |
The docks at Homer Smith had no damage at all. So I walked down to docks in town to see how they did. It was the same story, they looked fine except that there were very few boats on the docks. They were 90% empty. All of the stores were open for business except one or two.
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New docks shown at the far right will
be added to Homer Smith in a couple of week. |
Back at the boat, I prepared the route for Tuesday. I integrated all the USACE routes into my overall route and I'll be recording my track as usual. Somebody said it may become the "new" magenta line. All of my tracks can be downloaded at
bobicm.com
Our plan Tuesday is to leave around 7:30 or so and make it to Topsail Island Marina in Surf City, a distance of 52 miles. Then we'll pick up a mooring at South Carolina Beach followed by a stop at St James Plantation on Thursday. It's time to start moving south in earnest.
4 comments:
Flooding does not show damage. You do a disservice to all who suffered loss in the hurricane.
Your view is limited to what you see, but what you say is reflected upon a region. You are elevating a false preconception of a bigger reality. I flew into New Bern from Atlanta today and got an airborne view of boats that had been repositioned well inland and are unrecoverable, seas of blue tarps covering flooded buildings, boats sunk at their docks in New Bern - sitting there for weeks, an entire marina wiped out. All recoverable, but not made up reality on the part of TV news. Please do not disregard or diminish the suffering in this area.
My view is limited to what I can see from the ICW and the anchorages and marinas I stay in. I did not visit New Bern. I am not trying to assess the extent of the damage to an entire region. There was suffering from flooding that I cannot see after the storm has past. Others have covered those areas. I do not mean to imply that damage and suffering did not occur or that it was overblown by the media. I only comment on what I see as I pass through the area now. There are people that are interested in the condition of the ICW and facilities along the way. They can bring needed revenue to businesses that have been impacted by hurricane Florence.
In that light, I showed that Homer Smith Marina was undamaged and open for business. Likewise, the downtown docks appeared in good enough shape for transients, I’m sure the marina and businesses want the customers. I reported on the ICW itself, the depths and buoys are in good shape for the portion I’ve traveled. I think the readers of my blog want to know those things.
The region certainly suffered greatly from hurricane Florence and it will take a long time for the hardest hit areas to recover. As I head farther south, I owe it to my readers to report what I see but it will just be along the ICW and the facilities nearby. I saw first hand the damage by Hurricane Irene to the Aurora, NC area when I stayed with friends there. I was in St James Plantation Marina when the eye of hurricane Matthew went over the top of us. I know of the suffering both caused, I won’t soon forget. My heart goes out to the people who suffered through this terrible storm.
Great read, glad I found this blog since there are far too many issues that make joining Facebook impossible.
Just want to note that you have a link to website http://bobicm.com/ in this post that does not exist at the moment.
My wife and I are nervously looking forward to making our first extended trip along the ICW this year - NYC to however south we dare (via powerboat).
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