W
e have had an interesting week of traveling. We left Elizabeth City and crossed the Albermarle Sound, the wind was a little on the light side but that was fine, we then entered the Alligator River and went into South lake which is part of the Alligator reserve. One of the anchorage books we use said that there would be places to land the dogs in the grasses, all we could find was landings that looked like something out of “The Jungle book”. I found one spot and got out first to make sure there were no snakes or gators, trashed around a little then when I thought it was clear aloud the pups ashore. Sara wanted nothing to do with this over grown place so it did take a bit to get them to go. Jon was on the loo
kout and I was the block just incase…..
This place was so quiet and beautiful, and in the morning there was one of the most breathtaking sunrises, but we all know the old saying about that. We started the journey down Alligator river knowing a storm was coming and had to reach Pungo River or Pantego Creek before it showed it’s face. When we reached the mouth of Pantego creek the winds began to increase to around 20-25 and it was just down pouring. We decided to go to our second choice which was past Belhaven and up a small creek but by now it was down right miserable out. I decided that from the start of our trip we had not stayed at any dock which we had to pay so this seemed like a good one to do. It was quite a site. We were behind three other sailboats that did the same thing and a large trawler behind us. The sailboats went in a few minutes ahead of us and then Jon started in their channel with the wind on our beam. As soon as he could see how narrow it was and the problems the boats in front were having he looked at me and said “this is going to get ugly”, The boats in front of us were getting blown into the pilings and other boats and when Jon started to turn to make an exit he noticed the trawler was right on our ass. I said to Jon we can dock this girl ourselves just pick a spot and we will manage, as Jon started to enter a slip the dock master came over and said “no not that slip over here in this slip”, so Jon backed out and went into the slip with out any issues. About five minutes later another sailboat came in and once again the piling smashing and boat smacking began. I had all our fenders blown up and ready to deploy if necessary. That night I saw 54 a few times on our wind indicator and after midnight it was crazy around there. A few
of the boat anchored up stream pulled anchor because it was bad in the creek and came in with us.
Belhaven was a nice little town and we got to use the marinas golf cart to go cruising into town. Everyone you met ask if everything was OK and if we needed anything, we were even invited into someone’s home to see their Chr
istmas trees.
We left there and headed down some creeks and canals past the RE Mayo Co.(shrimp and fish) and notice a buck crossing a creek just in front of us so we slowed down to watch it, all of a sudden this small very fast boat pulled up between us and the buck and put two bullets into his head…..man oh man, you want to talk about sudden these guy’s killed the deer and had it in the boat and gone in about 30 seconds. Jon and I just looked at each other and said holy shit.
We made it to Oriental NC and anchored in front of the village in a very small field with a few other boats. We really like this place, everyone is very friendly and they like cruisers.
e have had an interesting week of traveling. We left Elizabeth City and crossed the Albermarle Sound, the wind was a little on the light side but that was fine, we then entered the Alligator River and went into South lake which is part of the Alligator reserve. One of the anchorage books we use said that there would be places to land the dogs in the grasses, all we could find was landings that looked like something out of “The Jungle book”. I found one spot and got out first to make sure there were no snakes or gators, trashed around a little then when I thought it was clear aloud the pups ashore. Sara wanted nothing to do with this over grown place so it did take a bit to get them to go. Jon was on the loo
kout and I was the block just incase…..This place was so quiet and beautiful, and in the morning there was one of the most breathtaking sunrises, but we all know the old saying about that. We started the journey down Alligator river knowing a storm was coming and had to reach Pungo River or Pantego Creek before it showed it’s face. When we reached the mouth of Pantego creek the winds began to increase to around 20-25 and it was just down pouring. We decided to go to our second choice which was past Belhaven and up a small creek but by now it was down right miserable out. I decided that from the start of our trip we had not stayed at any dock which we had to pay so this seemed like a good one to do. It was quite a site. We were behind three other sailboats that did the same thing and a large trawler behind us. The sailboats went in a few minutes ahead of us and then Jon started in their channel with the wind on our beam. As soon as he could see how narrow it was and the problems the boats in front were having he looked at me and said “this is going to get ugly”, The boats in front of us were getting blown into the pilings and other boats and when Jon started to turn to make an exit he noticed the trawler was right on our ass. I said to Jon we can dock this girl ourselves just pick a spot and we will manage, as Jon started to enter a slip the dock master came over and said “no not that slip over here in this slip”, so Jon backed out and went into the slip with out any issues. About five minutes later another sailboat came in and once again the piling smashing and boat smacking began. I had all our fenders blown up and ready to deploy if necessary. That night I saw 54 a few times on our wind indicator and after midnight it was crazy around there. A few
of the boat anchored up stream pulled anchor because it was bad in the creek and came in with us.Belhaven was a nice little town and we got to use the marinas golf cart to go cruising into town. Everyone you met ask if everything was OK and if we needed anything, we were even invited into someone’s home to see their Chr
istmas trees.We left there and headed down some creeks and canals past the RE Mayo Co.(shrimp and fish) and notice a buck crossing a creek just in front of us so we slowed down to watch it, all of a sudden this small very fast boat pulled up between us and the buck and put two bullets into his head…..man oh man, you want to talk about sudden these guy’s killed the deer and had it in the boat and gone in about 30 seconds. Jon and I just looked at each other and said holy shit.
We made it to Oriental NC and anchored in front of the village in a very small field with a few other boats. We really like this place, everyone is very friendly and they like cruisers.
Schyler called some friends that we had met years ago on our old boat Agapee who live here now. They came by and lent us a car for the day s
o we could go shopping and stuff. They are such nice people they even let Jim and Erin use their washer and dryer(thanks Art and Lynn that was so nice of you to do for us)). We were telling Art and Lynn about some of the other cruisers we have met and the couple from Australia came up, come to find out the boat they bought is their good friends old boat(very small world out here). We were going to leave in the morning but decided to pull up to the free dock for one more night. Jim needs to repair his roller furl and we have 
a few things to do so we are taking our time.
o we could go shopping and stuff. They are such nice people they even let Jim and Erin use their washer and dryer(thanks Art and Lynn that was so nice of you to do for us)). We were telling Art and Lynn about some of the other cruisers we have met and the couple from Australia came up, come to find out the boat they bought is their good friends old boat(very small world out here). We were going to leave in the morning but decided to pull up to the free dock for one more night. Jim needs to repair his roller furl and we have 
a few things to do so we are taking our time. If you are reading this today the 12/06 look at www.towndock.net and you can seeus at the free town dock
4 comments:
There's a great nautical consignment shop in town that you might want to look through.
Thanks, we hit that the first day in. We are at the dock right now, but will be leaving in the mornng. We are having a fun time here so decided to stay a few days. The weather is right on the edge of being cold so we need to leave.
That is an interesting week!
Hope that the four of you and the
boat are in good shape.
Sounds like you are well prepared for storms. The part about the deer
is downright scary.
Bob Scott
We are held up again in Moorhead city. A storm with 25 to 30 knots will move by tonight and pass later Wednesday. We managed another free dock at a Retsaurant
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