Blog #6 May 6 - May 13, 2015

From Beaufort to Oriental where we stayed at the town free dock, they are most accommodating for cruisers here.  Quiet and laid back, friendly, nothing fancy. I went to my first Yoga class, very welcome, good instructor.

Oriental has a dragon thing going on, they are everywhere, but you have to look

I try yoga on the boat, but this was a real treat. sign says Sailing Capiatl of NC

First rough weather day. Although the sun was shining, the winds were definitely above predicted, around 30 knots, as we headed up the Neuse River - more of a sound really. My first sea sick day! Fortunately we were in a canal after a few hours where all was calm, and when we came into Pamlico Sound the winds had come down and it wasn’t too bad.

We were happy to arrive at the cozy and homely Belhaven Marina, warmly welcomed by Brenda and Les. Joel had access to Les’s workshop and was finally able to fix a windless that was causing concern.

Most marina bathrooms don't look like Belhaven's. Towels and a scale!

Belhaven is a pleasant town, with a lot of poverty. But they are working on it. We ate dinner at a very high end and delicious restaurant, next to the ACE hardware store and a lot of empty store fronts. We ate with a very nice British couple from the boat behind us, who live in Scotland, keep the boat on the US east coast where they spend a few weeks each year, when they aren’t living in their house in South Africa or France.

Next day through miles of desolate and beautiful swamp land to the Alligator River Marina. An anally mowed and cleaned place ( dogs here- NO dogs here), 18 miles from the nearest town.

You can just see our boat behind the gas station

We didn't see any


The next we crossed the Albermarle Sound, which has quite a reputation for choppy seas, but we lucked out on that bit. Where we had had our adventure was at the Marina. I had rather cavalierly chosen the Pelican Marina in Elizabeth City to have some mail sent to, so in spite of the angled piers posts and rough and wobbly docks, and very short finger piers, and considerable chop coming in from the bay, we pulled in. The marina owner helped us, but as he was also running the store he couldn’t stick around for the considerable adjustments that were required, nor was he to be found Sunday morning when we left, our biggest challenge yet!. We never could get close enough to the pier to get off on it, and had to go over the bow sprite, a challenge for most, and especially the PD impaired. And a rocky rollie night on board.

Elizabeth City- another interesting mix of decay and hope. A really splendid museum  of the Albemarle, high end apartments being developed downtown, and lots of empty store fronts.

We were happy to enter the beginning of the Dismal swamp area, wandering river, calm and serene.  We were afraid we were going to miss the 11:00 AM lock opening at South Mills because our leaving had taken so long, but we just made it, last boat behind four sailboats, up the narrow and straight Dismal Swamp Canal. It’s the oldest continually operating canal in the Americas.

Mustard field right off the canal

These are the boats in front of the Visitors Center, we are the one in back. This is the canal, for many miles

So glad Joel can fix bikes as well as boats! They take a beating on the bow

We all stopped at the free dock at the Dismal Swamp Visitors Center for the night. This is a traffic rest spot for people on the highway, so they use the restrooms and come down to look, longingly, at the canal and the boats. One gentleman, a decade or two further along, with a wistful smile “we waited too long…”

I am glad we didn’t wait!

There is a great state park and lovely biking and hiking along the canal, we biked. Cocktails on Snow Goose with a couple of the other boats, great fun, Brits and Canadians, and  Bahamian cruisers returning New Bedford.

Left the Dismal Swamp the next day in a gentle rain. A few miles past the Deep Creek Lock ( The lock keeper, gregarious and with a passion for the swamp and its history) we are back on the Elizabeth River heading into Norfolk and it looks like this.

entering Norfolk

We pulled into the Rebel Marina, north Norfolk,  on the recommendation of Mike Herz, and so glad we did. Warmly greeted by David, the owner, and invited to their weekly Monday night pot luck dinner ( theme was ”breakfast”). Very communal atmosphere, nice open kitchen and deck space many live aboards. No sign of warships, but plenty of helicopters in training into the night.

Took off to Cape Charles, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake despite the fact we are trying to meet up with Kate and Mike on the Western Shore. We are still going north, toward them. Cape Charles was booming from the 18880’s until the 1950’s,  railroad came here and loaded freight and people on boats to Norfolk, but highways put an end to that and it now is in ascendence with tourism.

Great beach, nice houses that don’t look our of reach.

Where the rails used to meet the boats, Cape Charles

This flower shop opened last week, owner used to keep her boat in Rockland

Cape Charles public beach, with a nod to Robert Indiana

We are waiting for small craft advisory warning to go away and then we will tack across the bay to find Mike and Kate