spring, art from the ashes

It's 36 degrees and overcast, a little drizzly.*  Time to think about Spring.  I've got a nine day window, maybe ten if I'm lucky, sometime in May.  My last two sailing trips down there have been fun, but both impacted by remnants of early season tropical storms.  It can't happen three years in a row, can it?  We'll see.

(*It was exactly this kind of day over a decade ago that I was killing time browsing the web when I came across this cool little yawl called a Navigator designed by a guy named John Welsford.  I guess cold rainy days are good for something.)

I've got to check in with Shawn but I'm pretty sure I can launch out of Hobucken and I want to explore the shores of central Pamlico Sound and the Pamlico River.

There are countless little creeks and rivers, like North Creek, above, that I haven't been to in a while.  There's some good fishing at Pamlico Point, Caffee Bay and Wysocking Bay.

Oriental and Belhaven, below, are always fun places to visit with nice town docks, friendly people and fine little restaurants.  And I do want to sail up the Pamlico River to Washington, maybe stopping in Bath on the way.  

I did stop in Bath last spring, but in a heavy rain storm wearing full foul weather gear.... well that doesn't count.

And Ocracoke, with the nice harbor called "the ditch" by the locals and Silver Lake by the tourists.  Yes, heading south in the spring.

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Speaking of Pamlico Sound makes me think of my artist friend Curt.  We met in person there,  first at a ramp off Whorton Creek and then later anchoring for an evening on Swan Creek.  We had been in touch for a while over the internet, Curt planning on trailering up to the Sound and sailing his Drascombe Longboat Annie.  Since then we've become close friends.  He has done some nice sketches of Spartina, below.

Sad news on his blog that his studio/workshop burned down about a week ago.    Inside were his tools, over a hundred paintings, mementoes collected over a life time and, painfully for the sailor, Annie's spars and sails.  Quite a blow.  Curt writes that it will be a long process of getting his creative life back together.  I know he has already tracked down a set of measurements for replacements sails for Annie, but that is just a beginning.  He says he is holding fast.

It will be a struggle, no doubt, and a few of us have offered to help where and when we can.  Curt tells me he looks forward to the day when he can once again paint.  Adversity can lead to creativity.  I wonder what sort of art will rise from the ashes.