Return to Double Bayou for the Halloween Cruise. No shared meals, and a greater distance between participants at the evening bonfire, but most of the rest of it can I think be done safely! And hey, since Halloween calls for costumes and masks, we can have a prize for the best Halloween/Covid Safe mask!
TMCA Cruisers:
While recently creating and posting the photo album on my Flickr site about my solo cruise over to Marker 17 (Oct. 2-4), I was looking through several other albums on my site, specifically albums about past TMCA Halloween Cruises to The Pasture Anchorage up in the East Fork of Double Bayou. Sadly, we haven’t done this wonderful cruise since 2016, but it was a regular item on our cruising calendar for many years before that.
On my Flickr site there are in fact albums from seven of these cruises going all the way back to 2003, and each of them can be found by scrolling through all my albums at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/with/72157681843376495 .
Just to make it easy on you however, here are links to the two most recent ones, 2016 and 2011: https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157687803594284 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157672933339030
Take a look and see how much fun we had!!!
Now you will see in these two albums things that we can no longer safely do here in the year of Covid (like the shared dinners), but it seems to me that we have had some other cruises this year (like to Moody Gardens), where we typically always have at least one dish-to-share event, but we have given those up, and have also done some other things to make such cruises “safe”.
So…, why then can we not have a Halloween Cruise to Double Bayou this year I am wondering???
No shared meals, and a greater distance between participants at the evening bonfire, but most of the rest of it can I think be done safely! And hey, since Halloween calls for costumes and masks, we can have a prize for the best Halloween/Covid Safe mask!
To the best of my knowledge there has not been a TMCA cruise to The Pasture in well more than a year, and it is really sad that this truly magical place (where TMCA has been cruising to for its entire history!) has been pretty much abandoned. There are in fact probably members who have no idea what I am even talking about with this “Pasture” destination, and if you fall into that category, or just want a reminder of what it is like, check out the following two links:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eq62ut8uxjfi3gi/AAAGaTDyQt_krjBDGbvZ71Iwa/Destinations%2C%20routes%20and%20anchorages?dl=0&preview=Double+Bayou+Navigation+(Pasture+version).pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1 and then click this next one especially for information on tying up at The Pasture, information about gangplanks, firewood, other things to bring, etc.:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eq62ut8uxjfi3gi/AAAGaTDyQt_krjBDGbvZ71Iwa/Destinations%2C%20routes%20and%20anchorages?dl=0&preview=DB+Pasture+mooring.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
So…, weather permitting, I personally would love to head to The Pasture two weekends from now!!! I am willing to help people get there if you have navigation questions, but other than that I am NOT personally really organizing anything!!! I would just like to go there, and have some others join in also!
This cruise has typically been a two-night cruise, and what with dinghy exploring up the bayou, kite flying, and just plain chilling out, there is always plenty to do over there! (But it could also be just a one-night cruise.) The only thing that might be a bit of an issue for some boats is that the tide predictions for that weekend are not entirely the very best for typical arrival and departure times. I am attaching the tidal ranges for Round Point, and as you can see, afternoon arrivals will be on a falling tide. (Sunday departures should be ok as long as you don’t sleep too late!!) But even with these predictions, and assuming that we do not have a “norther” that week, most boats should really be ok. The channel into the Oak Island harbor from markers 11 and 12 is now marked with pvc poles better than it has ever been, and now is the time to give it a try!!! Sailboats with up to 6ft drafts, and big powerboats in excess of 50ft in length, have almost always been able to make it in, so why not you???
I am hoping that maybe a few (or maybe even a lot!) of you might be interested in this cruise, and there is not a single destination that I can think of where one can practice “social distancing” as much as one can at this destination!
