Call Captain Gary
Call Captain Gary
We just spent the past four days in one of our very favorite places: Bald Head Island. But thanks to a huge oversight by me, the trip almost didn’t happen at all.
Several months ago, we booked a house. We made sure Bensten could miss his cross country meet. We scheduled our dog sitters. But I completely forgot to book ferry tickets.
Bald Head is a little island off the coast of North Carolina where there are no cars, beautiful beaches and plenty of Southern hospitality—but it is only accessible by ferry or private boat.
We were scheduled to leave Virginia on Friday morning, and I made this realization on Wednesday.
I was a bit of a disaster.
I kept refreshing the ferry website, convinced something would open up. Thankfully, Liliana swooped in and started researching. She found a private boat company that runs shuttles to and from the island and immediately called.
Also booked solid.
But they said, “Call Captain Gary,” and gave her a phone number.
Captain Gary said sure and agreed to pick us up on the mainland at 1 p.m. on Friday.
We all breathed a huge sigh of relief.
And then it hit me.
Who the heck is Captain Gary?!
Does he even have a boater’s license? Suddenly I’m picturing some dude with an eye patch and a hook greeting us from a dilapidated boat. I spent the entire six-hour drive from Virginia to Deep Point Marina in Southport, NC, imagining every possible worst-case scenario.
Well, Captain Gary is my new favorite person.
He is retired from the military, his wife is a professor at UNC, and he runs a boat shuttle business as a side hustle—or, as he says, “when he isn’t busy being a house husband.”
He was an incredible boat captain. Hid boat was gorgeous and pristine. He was so nice and reassuring, and he got our mini-vacation off to a great start.
For the return trip, the seas were incredibly rough. Captain Gary told us a man had fallen overboard earlier that morning (NOT OFF HIS BOAT!) and made us all wear life jackets. He warned us that we were probably going to get wet.
But he maneuvered through those crazy seas with such precision that we barely got wet—although the kids did bounce around quite a bit!
Anyway, we are now on the road back home, feeling completely revived after four amazing days together on Bald Head.
And once again, I wasted a whole lot of energy worrying about something that turned out to be not just fine—but better than fine.
Maybe someday I’ll learn. Probably not.
And if you’ve never been to Bald Head Island, check it out! I’ll attach a few pictures from our weekend.
Now, back to reality…and this week’s menu! Hop on our site to order. And remember, we are back to baking on Fridays!!
xo,
Heather
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