June 25, 2009, Calabash, NC

We are finally on our home stretch and returned today to the waters of North Carolina. We have long loved the seafood available at the many down-home water front restaurants in the tiny village of Calabash. We entered Calabash Creek and dropped anchor between two sailboats barely out of the channel in 5 feet of water at low tide. Taking the dinghy down the creek, we saw the long familiar high dock lined with fishing vessels along the leftmost bank and sliding between two larger boats tied up perpendicular to the dock in order to find space.

We put our name on the list at the Dockside restaurant and then watched a little boy playing in the large old twisted live oak at the edge of the porch. The Dockside Restaurant old fishing boat logo was deeply carved in the gable end of the roof overlooking the hungry crowd. It was interesting to hear the conversations around us as various people got news on their cell phones and PDAs about Michael Jackson's death. Obviously, we are a connected people. Our wait was about an hour for a table for two after several parties of 22 were seated. We were served a basket of hot hushpuppies while we waited for our plates of small hot fried shrimp, the definition of Calabash shrimp. Our walk back down the dock to the boat wound through a crowd of people watching the chartered fishing boat unload their catch. There was a line of fishermen waiting on a couple of hardworking guys cleaning fish on a counter on the dock. There was a sizeable catch including some very large groupers, maybe 3 feet long.

Returning to the boat, I made a very sad mistake. I had been taking pictures of the huge red sun setting over the water, watching the clouds as they turned silvery pink. Then as I scrambled out of the dinghy onto the swim platform, my camera slipped out of my pocket into a watery grave. I am suffering great remorse for the loss of both the camera and the irreplaceable pictures from the last two days of our trip. Oh well, we’ll all have to use our imaginations.

The good news is that Julie Anna is meeting us in Southport for the weekend.