Fourth of July

7/4/07 – I woke up this morning and went for a swim off the dock. The water was very nice so I stayed out in the channel for about a half hour. I then went back to the boat to dry off and eat breakfast. Gary and Tonie had woken up and were preparing to cast off. I chatted with them for a few minutes and they took me on a tour of their boat. After living on Erica J. for over a month, their boat, Bear With Me, seemed like the Taj Mahal. I said farewell and helped them cast off. I walked into town and got a newspaper and brought it back to the restaurant to read it on the porch. When that was done, I walked over to a place nearby and got a cheeseburger for lunch and then came back to take a nap, my first of the trip. I took another swim when I woke up and talked to one of the waitresses who was sitting on the dock. She left to start her shift and I got out and walked up to grab a table.

I started talking to some guys who invited me over to their table on the porch and bought me a beer. Their names were both Mike and they were moving to Morehead City to begin some construction work. They were friendly and very interested in my trip but didn’t seem like the brightest fellows in the world. One of the Mikes kept talking about the dumbest things and I just smiled politely and was looking for some way to get away from their table without insulting them. They finally decided to leave and they both said farewell and took off.

I went back out and had a few drinks before ordering dinner. I got barbecued shrimp which was delicious. I watched the sun set over the water as the restaurant began to fill with people waiting to see the fireworks. I was sitting there as I heard my name called; I looked around and there were Gary and Tonie again. They had moved their boat to the city marina on the other side of the island and had walked over to see the fireworks. My table had the best view of the fireworks staging area in Morehead City so I invited them back to sit with me again. We were able to see fireworks from other nearby shows for a few minutes before the Morehead City ones began. They were shot off from a barge on the other side of an uninhabited island called Sugarloaf. The show began but before long we began to see flames coming from the trees on Sugarloaf Island. They only continued to grow as the show progressed and soon firefighting boats were rushing to the scene. One of the locals shook his head and said, “Geez, this is the third time in seven years that they’ve started the island on fire. Last year they sank the barge as well!” I thought that perhaps they should hire a new crew to light them off in the future. Most people left after the show was over so I sat and enjoyed the cool evening on the porch. They restaurant had a classical guitar player that night who played everything from Bach to Led Zeppelin. We started chatting and he came and sat at my table for a few minutes. I offered to buy him a drink but he said that one perk of his job was that he gets all the free drinks he wants. He was from Grenada and works during the day as a carpenter and at night as a musician. I asked him all about the Caribbean and he had a few good stories to tell. He left and I went down to the boat to go to sleep.