The Rose Buddies

After getting the proper weather window, we left the Alligator river marina to cross the Abermarle Sound into Elizabeth city, NC. As we're pulling up to our slip at the free dock right off of Main St., there's a couple of people standing by to give us a hand. We later find out that one of them was the mayor of the town. Quite impressive indeed. We were also informed that at 4:30pm there was to be free wine and cheese under the tent. Nice, I liked this town already! As we all gathered around the wine, we found out the story of the Rose Buddies.

Fred Fearing started the Rose Buddies almost 50 years ago. They cut fresh roses to give the women on the passing boats. He would also invite them to his place for wine and cheese. (Did I mention the harbour is called the harbor of hospitality.) Well Fred passed away in Dec. but his tradition lives on. The old men that have taken over have quite the sense of humour. There are so many Canadian boats tied up (almost 75%), that the next day they brought out their Canadian flag. One guy, Joe Kramer, also works the bascule bridge that we all need to pass under. Well he hung his Canadian flag under the bridge for all to see. We have felt very welcome here.

FYI- Jehovah witnesses come to your boat as well as your house. Around here when you cross someone on the street you wish them g'day. So it's a little trickier to get rid of the soliciting Jehovah's once you've already asked how their day's going!

We have been "stuck" here for much longer than we wanted. We wanted to leave for sure this morning but decided that it probably wasn't such a good idea with the tornado warnings they'd issued. For some reason there have been and excessive amounts of fronts in the past few months. We really don't want to cross the Chesapeake bay opening in heavy winds. So we'll just stay safely tied tied to this free dock until it looks a little clearer. Hopefully by tomorrow. Then we'll have fun things to report!!

Lots of love
Rox and Josh