Mile Hammock Bay
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Fri 10 Jun 2011 22:08
|
To Mile Hammock Bay, Onslow
County, North Carolina
  Very strange waking up
with a fun fair nearby, after the deserted places we have
become accustomed
   Just behind Beez the low tide has
exposed a mud ridge, for just a few birds the noise was
awesome
 No sooner had we left the basin at a
quarter past eight, than I was at zero, sailing on the spot; haven't done it for
a while so I suppose I was overdue. I had taken the correct channel but the mud
had been secretly building a long way in front of the green marker, jumped out
and nabbed me. A bit of wiggling and off I went again, another number on my
tally. The area each side of the ICW was just like any seaside town but we did
see an interesting sign.
    Trotting along happily as ever, still
amazed at the very varied things we get to see; including a man with transport to the end of his
dock
          Of
course I can never forget the odd bridge or two,
always welcoming, always cheerful, breaking and punctuating the
journey
   The odd
meeting with osprey, now so common in our daily
routine but always interesting
  The
houses with their interesting garden
ornaments
   Always
following the map, through skinny shallows and deep seaward
bits
  I gave
the captain a couple of songs to listen to,
thankfully he couldn't hear what he was doing to some of my
favourites
      Loads
of crab restaurants, a set of goal posts - Bear wondered what would happen if the ball
went to far. Beautiful houses, grand houses and some being extended, clearly not big enough
 There
always has to be a favourite, in this case a Berger
special - complete with a parrot.
      We
followed our last skinny bit of the day and pulled into Mile
Hammock Bay, maintained and dredged by the marines and part of Camp
Lejeune. Since September 1941, Camp Lejeune has been the home of “Expeditionary
Forces in Readiness”, and throughout the years, it has become the home base for
the II Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics
Group and other combat units and support commands. Today,
as in the past, Camp Lejeune's mission remains the same - to maintain combat-ready units for
expeditionary deployment. To help
prepare warfighters for combat and humanitarian missions abroad, Camp Lejeune
takes advantage of 156,000 acres, 11 miles of beach capable of supporting
amphibious operations, 32 gun positions, 48 tactical landing zones, three
state-of-the-art training facilities for Military Operations in Urban Terrain
and 80 live fire ranges to include the Greater Sandy Run Training Area.
The
base and surrounding community is home to an active duty, dependent, retiree and
civilian employee population of approximately 180,000 people. The
base generates almost $3 billion in commerce each year, coming from payrolls and
contracts to support the structure required to train and equip the modern US
Marines.
 Safely anchored with only a couple of locals fishing, a smashing
spot
ALL IN ALL A GREAT WAY TO DO 44
MILES
|