Coming into Manteo, South Carolina was an adventure. The channel wasn’t very deep and wasn’t very wide either. We kids sat downstairs doing our homework as our parents sat nervous and cold in the cockpit. When it was time to dock, all of us went up on deck and helped out. Once we docked and settled down, we looked around and watched a beautiful sunset.
One of the major attractions at Manteo is the historical park where people dress in period costume, which we went to over a two-day period. The site of the park is one of the places the Roanoke colony could have been. This interested Annika especially because she’s been learning about that in her U.S. history class. On the first day we toured the Queen Elizabeth, a replica of a ship that came to America in the 1600. Once we got to the ship we met John, one the “colonists.” He showed us around the boat and told us about her. One interesting fact that got our attention was that the beds were either made of straw or feathers, and surprisingly the hay bed was not that uncomfortable.
After we toured the ship we made our way to the English settlement, where we met James. James played the part of a turner, he turned spindles from wood at an old-fashioned lathe. All of us got a turn at the lathe to turn something in the wood. Mimi, Mom, and Annika were more interested in the turner than the blacksmith, where Schuyler and dad spent most of the time asking questions. The blacksmith made them a nail. When we were done looking at the turner and blacksmith we all played a game of old-school nine pins, or bowling.
When we went back to the historical site the next day we went to the Indian Town and looked at the long houses. Inside of them they had facts about how they lived and what they ate. There was a game inside one of them that didn’t look very fun but it actually was. The game showed what it was like for the Indians and the settlers to communicate without words. All of us had a go at it.
Once we were done with the Indian town we moved on to the museum. The museum took you through the years between 1580 and the present day. We got to try on different clothes that would have been the style back in like 1645. After trying on clothe we moved to the part aboit the Roanoke colony and read some of the clues that helped us try to figure out where they went. One of the last parts was the funnest by far. this was the game were you got to take a fake gun and pretend to shoot ducks. Schuyler was especially intrigued by it.
After the park we headed back to the boat. Mom really was sick of being cold so she wanted to go somewhere inside and sit down and eat. We found a bar/sandwich shop and went inside. This was quite fun because we got to eat something good and we were finally warm. The people in the bar were very nice and seemed worried that we did not have heat on the boat. We finally headed back to the boat and got into our freezing cold beds.
Finally it was time to leave. We got stuff done and we had a fun time but it was time to move down south and get warm. We got up at a reasonable hour and were ready to shove off. We untied the boat and dad hit the throttle but we did not move. All of us were scared that something had gone terribly wrong when we realized the boat was stuck. We only had a few inches when we came in, and the tide had set us in the mud on the bottom. We took some ropes and pulled the boat forward until she slid off.
On our way again!
Sailing Perseverance 