Colington Harbour Blessing Of The Fleet.

Today I went to the harbor of Colington Harbour for the annual Blessing of the Fleet. About a half hour earlier, we had a delicious downpour. By the time I got to the harbor, the sun was trying to come out. It finally did.

Here's the beach.

My children grew up playing on these old oaks.

Years ago, when Daughter Hawthorne was a baby, we'd take her and our black lab, Rosie, to what used to be a very wide and isolated (in those days) beach here. It's since been bulkheaded and the beach is gone.

Anglers at the entrance to the harbor.

While the boats were assembling in the canals outside the harbor, a member of the Coast Guard talked about boat safety. I believe he said North Carolina was in the top ten states for boating fatalities. Three cardinal rules- 1. Do not drink and boat. 2. Wear a life jacket. If you're not wearing one and you need one, it's probably too late. 3. Wear appropriate clothing. He spoke of the first warm spring days. The air temperature may be in the 70's, but the water temperature is still in the 40's. I kind of lost him here because I'm wondering what the appropriate attire is for 40-degree waters. And once you're wet, it seems a moot point. After the Coast Guard, Reverend Teresa Hollowell of Colington United Methodist Church read scripture and gave a prayer. After the prayer, the boats came into the harbor, single file, to be blessed.

Most boaters had their hands over their hearts.

Rosie has been recognized!

A Coast Guard Jay Hawk flew over. At last year's Blessing of the Fleet, they announced that a Coast Guard C130J would be doing a flyover.

Having not much of a life, I've been looking forward to this event for the entire year. So I'm anxiously awaiting the advent of the low-flying C130. I hear it coming. I turn to the west and face the sound. And the C130 impressively zooms close over the sound, the engines thundering in my chest. But there's a catch: From where everybody's standing harbor-side, on the east, with the dunes looming behind us, sound-side, on the west, and the thick leaves of the oaks obstructing our view, no one could see the plane. I even took a video of it which I thought was pretty funny, since you could hear the roar of the plane but couldn't see anything but oaks. Problem is, Blogger is acting up today and won't upload any videos. Double whammy. Hee! Five days later I was able to upload my videos.

If you're interested, here's the 2009 Blessing of the Fleet.

Dixie is personal friends with that little Springer Spaniel.