April 28-30

We waited and watched Cat Daddy leave and make the 11:00 opening of the bridge.

The window showed up at 11:15, and what would have been an easy  installation, took over 2   hours, as it was 1/16 to big for the opening.  The first solution was to grind down some of the glass, no success after 2 attempts.  Then they tried to pull up  the aluminum frame with a clamp, this also failed.  Finally they filed off some of the aluminum frame and  they had it in.

By 2:15 we  were able to go to the gas dock and fill up with Diesel at $1.80 per gallon.  We made the 3:15 opening of he great bridge

and were through the lock by 4:00.  We went under several other bridges and  were at mile 0 of the AICW by 5:00.  We docked at a free dock in Portsmouth for the night, Rafe helped us tie up, as  that’s where he was as well.

There is a Portsmouth- Norfolk ferry (paddle boat) that ties up at this dock.

Rafe had supper with us and then we went for a walk  down High street in search of Ice cream.

 

On Friday morning we left at 6:45, and proceeded through the port of Norfolk, where we saw many boats, many of which were military.

Weather  included some heavy mist, and light winds, we followed a large container ship out of the harbor for several miles.  The waves were 1-2 feet, but as we got further out into open water they increased.  It was cold, damp, rainy  typical Maritime weather—not fun!  Waves hitting the bow, were filling the gunwales with water.  Many items in the cabin got tossed around.    After an hour or two we got protection from the Eastern shore, and it seemed a little better, but we were both chilled.  We proceeded up the bay to marker 2 and turned in to Onancock Creek, and took the  marked channel.

 We had originally planned to anchor out, but decided we needed hot showers.  We had been to Onancock back in the spring of 2014 on our scouting mission- so knew it was a fairly new facility

We docked shortly after 4:00 at the Onancock Town Wharf, we cleaned up the cabin and then went for Hot showers to warm up.  In the evening we walked into town and had beers at the Blarney stone pub.

Today we hope to get to the Wicomico River.

April 25-28

Since we are located next to the Great Bridge bridge, I thought I should investigate why it is called Great Bridge- because it doesn’t look like anything special to me.  I have learned that the Battle of Great Bridge occurred here on December 9^th of 1775, as part of the American Revolution.    The victory by the continental army led to the departure of the British from the area, back to Norfolk

We’ve been tied up to the face dock at Atlantic Yacht Basin since Sunday afternoon, and not a lot has been happening.

  On Monday morning, Andy informed the Customer Service rep that we were here for our window replacement, which we had booked the previous week when the window cracked.     We then proceeded to spend our time cleaning the inside and outside of the boat, as we had some potential buyers coming to see it on Tuesday. By noon we hadn’t seen the service manager yet so we walked a couple blocks to the mall and had lunch and did some shopping. We waited until 4:15 for the service manager to make an appearance at our boat.  Frustrating! He told us he’d put a call in to his window people in the morning—a sub contractor—we were led to believe that windows were done by AYB people.    He also said it may be 4-5 days to get it fixed, because it is tinted tempered glass.

On Monday night I made vindaloo, and Rafe came for dinner, we later walked to the Dairy Queen,  crossing Battlefield Boulevard, was a bit of a challenge, as the road was quite busy,  a sheriff finally put on his blue flashers and let us cross.  He did remark that it was quite dark out and to be safe!

Here’s  the sunset Monday night.

Tuesday morning, the waiting and cleaning continued.   The couple from France came to see the boat at 2 pm—they are hoping to do the loop in the near future and wanted to find out what type of boat options are out there.  Late Tuesday afternoon  the service manager said we could try another supplier for the glass. It had  been a hot day mid 80’s so we went to Dairy Queen again for ice cream.

Andy removed the window early (6:30) Wednesday morning, so that it could be shipped out.  I spent the better part of the next three-hours removing the caulking from the window frame and track.

 

The captain worked on waxing and polishing the gel coat on the boat.

In the afternoon we went for walk to get groceries, on our way we toured one of the storage sheds at AYB and saw this beauty.

We’ve seen lots of boats come down the Cheseapeake canal and wait for the bridge.  Here’s a few that passed by today.  There is also a free dock just across the channel so the boats change there every few hours or days as well.

Rafe came over in the evening and we played cards the work on his boat was finally finished today so he’ll be leaving in the morning.  No Dairy Queen tonight, instead I had baked chocolate chip cookies.  At about 9:00 it started raining, we had covered up the window  hole with plastic to keep the boat dry.  At 10:00 we saw a  3 level cruise ship go through the Great Bridge.

It’s now Thursday morning, there is still light intermittent rain falling.  We hope the window gets installed today, as this stay is cutting in to the number or days we have to spend on  Chesapeake Bay

Our plan is to make our way   north and visit with some friends of Andy’s that live in Salisbury  early next week.

April 23,24

We left Lamb’s marina  at 9:05 and continued up the Pasquotank River for over ten miles and then took  Turner Cut.  The scenery was amazing,

and because the water was so calm, I got some neat pictures of waves from our wake, combined with reflections from the sky and trees.

We reached mile marker 35 at 10:41.    We had to hustle a bit at the end in order to make South Mills lock for it’s 11:00 opening.    We followed  Glorious Dei into the lock and were through  by 11:30.

After the lock, the channel became narrower.

We passed through the West Channel pedestrian  swing bridge at 12:15, and tied up to the dock at the Dismal Swamp Visitor’s Centre.

 

We went and registered at the Welcome centre and then crossed on the pedestrian bridge to the dismal swamp state park.    We toured the display building and watched the video on the park.  Here’s some of what we saw…

There was information on the animals, birds  and ecology of the swamp and how it has evolved– Andy made friends with this fellow 🙂  There was also information on the slaves that built the canal and the underground railway.  In the beginning  George Washington  played a part in the  dismal swamp.

We then took one of the trails and found an old still in the bush.  We returned to the boat as it looked like rain clouds were approaching.

Sunday  morning, we went back to the state park to walk down some of the other trails and saw this sign. We saw this tree that looked dead but had more than a dozen  branches that  looked like trees.

Also  saw this blue butterfly.

We left the visitors centre at 9:55, and entered the state of Virginia after passing mile  marker 25 at 10:24.

We saw a number of branches, logs  “snags”, coming out of the water, some of them had turtles  on them  sunning themselves.

There were also branches with these nest/ cocoons – not sure what will emerge from them.

We continued down the canal going about 5-6 miles per hour and the captain seemed quite content at this pace.

 

We arrived at the Deep Creek bridge 12:50 and had to wait until 1:30 for it to open

and then proceeded to the Deep Creek Lock.

We departed the lock at 2:05 and then continued for a few miles before turning south into the Chesapeake canal.

We made  the 3:20 opening of the Great Bridge lock and the 4:00 opening of the Great Bridge bridge.

 This bridge opens extremely quickly because of the suspended  counterweights.  We arrived at Atlantic Yacht Basin at 4:10, as it is located by the bridge.  We will be staying here in Chesapeake Virginia for a couple of days in order to get some window repairs done.  We encountered  Rafe in the marina, who we had first met in Belhaven.  He came for a visit and later took us shopping in his rental car.  Across the canal, we saw another boat that we had met in Belhaven as well.

We spent over 3 weeks in North Carolina, and met some of the nicest people in small towns, and the two days just spent going through the wilderness of the dismal swamp was so peaceful and enjoyable.  We’ll miss the south!    Greatest Hospitality in NC !

 

 

 

 

April 21,22

We cast off from the marina on the Yeopim River at 6:45, and headed back into the Albemarle Sound.  The winds were much better than the previous day and we only had about 1 foot waves.

We reached the entrance marker for the Pasquotank River at 09:55, which is also near mile marker 70 on the ICW. Our  3 day Western side trip on the Albemarle had concluded and we were going North again.   Between mile 60 and 55 we saw this strange building we later learned it is a Blimp Hangar.

At mile 51- we reached Elizabeth City—and here are some  of the sites.

 

 

We passed  through the swing bridge at 12:10

and  continued up river through a  rickety looking railway bridge and then on  to Lamb’s Marina at mile 47.2, arriving at 12:35.

Once we were settled and docked, we borrowed the car and  Andy, myself and Ann of Morningstar II went into Elizabeth City for some provisions.  We later joined Ann and Mel for docktails.

Friday morning, Andy made pancakes, Ann and Mel came over for breakfast we continued visiting and Andy showed some of the highlights of Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

 Following breakfast, Andy caught the cleaning “bug” after watching Mel dinghy around his boat cleaning the hull of their 45 foot Carver Voyager, which reminds us  of our other boat at home but this one is 8  feet longer.

We had to do the same—Andy in our dinghy and me holding the lines, so he could clean the bow & starboard side- he was able to clean the port side from the dock.

For dinner we went up to the Dockside Grill at the marina and had the Friday night special-  Prime Rib.  It was outstanding, and they had horseradish- just the way I like it—Hot!

Here’s our group Mel & Ann from Morning Star II, and  gold loopers Marian & Mike, from Midas Touch. 

Following dinner we went  back to Morning Star II for docktails and more boat talk.  It started to rain at about 9:00 and it is still raining.

Earlier today we decided to spend a second night at Lambs,  and I’m glad we did our dinner was fantastic.  We plan to leave  by  9:00 in the  morning  so we can make the  second  opening (11:00 a.m) of the South Mills Lock.

April 18

We left Belhaven at 06:03  in the dark

and continued down the Pungo River, here’s the sun coming up..

we  traveled for about 6 miles before turning up into the 20 mile long  Pungo-Alligator River Canal.    We reached  mile 125 on the the alligator river  canal at 7:30.

We continue up it for many miles and reached the Alligator River at 9:30

and passed through the Swing bridge at mile 84.6 at 11:47.   The Swing bridge was quite busy and we heard some of our boating friends Summertime, Emma Jane,  Remember when  pass through it 30 minutes before we reached it.   We had to traverse another 5 miles or so before reaching the Albermarle sound.

We had heard from Larry and Shannon that there was another loop called  the Albemarle Loop and we had decided back in March that it should be something we check out. This past Friday, April 15^th, on the AGLCA  radio show- it was the featured topic.  There are 9 marina participating in the program 7 are located in the Albemarle sound and 1 on the outer banks, and 1 in the dismal swamp. These marinas will give free dockage for 48 hours, electricity is extra  We knew we wouldn’t be able to hit them all up, but had decided that if we went west  when we reached the Sound we could visit about 5 of them before  reaching Norfolk.

Our first stop was Columbia Municipal Marina.

We had tried calling them over the weekend to book—but didn’t get an answer and finally on Monday got a voice mail message.   We proceeded westward along the southern shore, there was about an 9 mile span, which was marked as a danger zone which we had to avoid,  there was also several hundred crab pot- surprise, surprise!  It took us about 3 ½ hour to reach the Scuppernong River, and we proceeded  up another mile or two to the marina.  Once we were docked at 4:00 we went into the municipal office and signed in and paid the $3 for electricity for the night. 

We found out that they hadn’t got our message about coming as we were calling the Columbia marina, not the Columbia municipal marina—but there was no problem as we were the only ones there.  We were also there first Albemarle Loop visitors in 2016.

We walked around town, saw this mural and store, and water level  from Hurricane Irene.

 

We found a place for supper and returned to the boat and called it an early night once it was dark, as it had been a long day.

On Tuesday morning, we got up and went for a walk to the edge of town,  and saw this church– with Andy’s name on it. 

We continued looking for a place for breakfast, but many of the places didn’t open until after 9:00.  We went to the visitors centre ( saw these tapestry there and took these pictures)

and to the wildlife centre.

We were told the Winery cross the street did coffee and breakfast so we went there.

We returned to the boat and cast off at 10:05.  Next stop was historic Edenton.  We arrived at 1:30 after passing under a fixed bridge and through a line of power poles.  Since the dock master is not allowed to help with tying up the boat, we were helped by Mel and Ann from Morningstar II, fellow loopers from the next slip.  Once we were tied up to the captain’s satisfaction, we went and checked in.  The dock master gave us a welcome package with information about the town, as well as bottled water and peanuts.  Our next stop was the Penelope Barker Welcome Centre.

Here we learned about the Edenton Tea party, which occurred October 25, 1774—this was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in the USA.  In downtown Edenton, a cannon with a teapot on top- marks the yard where the tea party had been held at the Elizabeth King home.

We also learned some of the history surrounding the Edenton Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was originally on the Roanoke river, when it was decommissioned,  it was  sold and moved so a  family could inhabit it.  In 2007 it was purchased by the Edenton historical society and moved to its present site in the Edenton harbor.

The lighthouse at night.

Once we were done at the welcome centre, we walked downtown, and stopped at a used book store—I’m running out of reading material, hardware store and the Edenton Beer Garden, where we sampled some craft brew.

We returned to the boat in time for docktails on  Morningstar II with Mel and Ann , as well as John and Marsha from End Game.  We had a great time and found out that Morningstar II knew  many of the people we had met on the loop, as well as Pat and Becky, who are apparently still in Osprey.  Mel is also a great story teller!

April 16, 17,18

Friday night, Linda and Ralph drove up from New Bern and we went for supper with them along with other boaters at River Manor.  We again went to the Tavern at Jack’s neck,   there were 7 of us, Mike & Sandy from Chinook,  Rafe from Cat Daddy, Linda& Ralph and the two of us.   Great food and fellowship—Mike & Sandy had actually met Ralph earlier this winter in Florida.

The waiting continues, the winds have not subsided as yet, so we remain in Belhaven—this is a great town!  Several boats have come and gone- mainly big power boats or those with sails.  We plan to leave early Monday morning when the winds are forecasted to be below 10 kts.

Late Saturday  afternoon, we had  ice cream & docktails  by the dockmaster’s office.  His ice cooler, kept the ice cream and wine chilled.  The captain enjoyed his red wine and slept well.

Eli enjoyed the  visiting as well.

Sunday morning, I took down all the curtains in the boat and put them in the wash, as laundry is free at this marina– the scotch blood of my husband must be rubbing off.  I then washed all the inside windows and the window frames.   In the afternoon, I laundered the remainder of the clothes that needed washing.

Several boats joined us at the dock, one person claimed they had encountered over 40 mile an hour winds on the water.  I’m really glad we’re still here.

I met the women who will be managing River Forest Manor rentals, so they gave me a tour of the house.  It has a huge catering kitchen, and bar on the main floor, and a front parlour with the original wallpaper, the woodwork has been restored, as have the fireplaces. On the 2^nd floor there are 6 bedrooms with ensuites—several have claw foot tubs.   Carpet layers were still installing flooring in many of the rooms so I didn’t get to see them all.  The first wedding rental of the house is slated for late June.

In the evening Sandra and Nelson came by, we visited and talked about boating and the  difference between Canadians and Americans.

It is now 5:30 on Monday, we will be leaving soon.

April 14, 15

Thursday morning Nebula left to face the winds, they are a sailboat, we aren’t as brave, so decided to stay put for another day or two.

We borrowed the golf cart and drove the 1.5 miles to the Food Lion to reprovision.   We stopped by the chamber of commerce building on the way back, and picked up some information on the town. We later walked downtown and stopped by Steve and Marianne’s boat, who we had met the previous night at Spoon River, to suggest we meet at the Tavern in the evening for drinks.  Sandra and Nelson from Destinées, who are Gold Loopers and docked behind us, were invited as well.

On our way downtown, a vehicle stopped and asked if we were boaters, Diana, from the Chamber of Commerce gave us one of the town’s welcome packages- she was out of the office when we had been there earlier.  We did some shopping at the hardware store and checked out some of the other gift stores.   Andy liked these signs,

and I bought these napkins- which is so true these days.

I also liked these pieces.

On our walk back to the boat, another vehicle stopped and asked if we were boaters, and offered to give us a ride back to the marina.  This lady was the  sommelier/owner from the restaurant we had been to yesterday.  This is by far the friendliest town we have been in so far- they really cater to the transients.

I’ve taken pictures of a number of the houses in town,

as well as the scout hall for Jack.

and the grain elevator.

We learned from our welcome package that there is a crab walk,

we were told we just needed to follow these blue crabs and red arrows.   which is 3.6 miles—we’re going to do it Friday, as well as the trivia contest.

 

In the afternoon we were surprised by 4 of our boating friends & Pearl (Wally&Darcy, Shannon & Pearl and Brian) had come to Belhaven from Dowry Creek so Larry could go to the dentist, saw “On Business” tied up at River Forest and knocked on our door.  They are all waiting out the winds at their marina.  We had a good visit and learned that boats which had ventured out into the Alligator River had encountered high waves and winds earlier in the day.  All the more reason to stay put.

That evening we went to the Tavern at Jack’s Neck for drinks and visited with the other 2 boating couples,    Steve&Marianne, Sandra & Nelson, exchanging information and places to go and things to see on the East coast.

The owner of the tavern showed us there expansion plans of an oyster  and bourbon/scotch bar with cigar room.  Their next expansion will be a steak house.  People are proud of this town and so they should be it is being revitalized!  Earlier in the evening she had also brought us some sweet bites to try at our table that she was developing for Sunday brunch.  Very tasty!

River Forest Manor which was built in the early 1900’s, is currently undergoing renovations and should be completed in the next month.  It will have several suites in it once it is complete available for rent.  Here are some pictures from the outside.

When we were here in 2012, on our scouting trip, parts of the manor looked to be in disrepair.  But it looks amazing now.

It’s still quite breezy here, a sailboat left  the dock but a catamaran,  Cat Daddy soon took his spot at the dock.

We walked around Belhaven  Friday morning in order to complete the history and trivia quiz.

Many of the places were located on Main street or Pamlico  streets.   Here’s some of the sites we had to visit to fill in the answers…

This stain glass window is in the library,

This crab is outside the Bellhaven City hall,

And here is there town seal, representing  farming, shrimping, forestry,hunting, boating and  fishing.  We learned from one of the friendly people that we met that there are lots of tulip and daffodil bulb farms in the area, that export to the Netherlands.

 Found another crab outside Fish hooks café– called Crabby the crabber

We  tried the door for the toy trains of Belhaven and found people taking down the Christmas display,

but because we were trespassing- Andy got put in jail.

Actually the former police station was flooded out during several hurricanes, so they have moved to another site, and it is used for the Christmas display. But because of  hurricane threats and flooding  the train display can’t remain up year round .

Since we were focused on the trivia questions, we didn’t do the complete crab walk, as my fit bit only  recorded 2.48 miles.

We also saw another pseudo-Canadian on our way home.

and this   maple tree (Japanese?).  Neither of them made me want to rush  back to Canada.

Ralph and Linda Azersky are driving up from New Bern to go for supper with us.  We mentioned this to boaters from 2 sailboats  and they had crossed paths with Mazel Tug in Florida, so they are going to join us as well.  Love the boating community!   🙂

 

April 11-13

First thing in the morning we walked downtown to Mitchell’s hardware shop.

An amazing place full of antiques and lots of other stuff, including gardening items, buying seeds by the ounce, giftware, sauces and of course hardware items.  Here are some pictures.

who knew there were so many kinds of mustard greens!

We left the marina and New Bern at 10:05 and proceeded down the Neuse River, going back 23 miles to Oriental where we had gone for supper the previous day.  We continued several more hours and entered the Bay River.

I hadn’t realized the Neuse was so wide—you can hardly see the other shore at this point. 

Here’s the marker indicating where the Bay meets the Neuse.

We entered Bonner Bay and went up Long Creek and anchored—but it was breezy in this spot, so we went farther up the creek and tried again.  Our anchor hardly moved through the night.

In the morning, we had this sunrise, but it soon clouded over.

There was a swarm of mosquitoes outside the boat, some were caught in our friendly boat spider’s web,

but others were annihilated by the coil we lit in the fly bridge.

 

We left our anchorage at 9:00, and returned to the Bay River. We reached mile marker160, at 9:52 and entered Goose Creek.

We followed this boats for most of the morning, and met 2 tows.

There was a light rain falling.  We reached these fishing boats near the Hobucken Bridge and the coast guard station at 10:16.

At 11: 20 we left Goose Creek for our 5 mile crossing of the Pamlico River.  There was some wind and wave action as we crossed that tossed us around a bit.

At 11:55 we entered the Pungo River and went down it about 5 miles before turning off into Slade Creek where we were going to anchor.  The creek had many crab pots, but the captain darted around them and we anchored a mile or two up the creek sheltered between Neal and Becky creek at 12:55.  The rain continued to fall. With an early quit, the captain had time to dipped the tanks and catch up on paperwork.  He figured we are getting about  2.6 miles per gallon, and  have gone 4860 statute miles which converts to 4227 nautical miles on this trip.

On Wednesday morning, we got up and the wind was blowing.  We left our anchorage at 10:00, and went back out to the Pungo River.    We had about a 7 mile trip to the River Forest Marina in Belhaven—short day!  However with the winds, current and crab pots it made it stressful for the Captain.  We were tied up to the dock by 11:30.  In the afternoon, I did laundry and visited with other boaters.    Tonight we went  out for dinner with Doug and Norann from Nebula to the Spoon River restaurant.  Amazing food!!

Here’s the dessert we shared.

According to the waterway guide Belhaven means Beautiful harbour, the town was established in 1868 and was originally called Jack’s neck.    Belhaven considers  itself  to be “the birthplace of the ICW” .   This is because in  September of 1928,   when the Alligator River -Pungo River canal was completed it  was the last remaining link in the ICW between Norfolk and Miami.  Something like the last spike in the Transcanada railway!

 

April 9-10

On Saturday we woke up early, the wind was blowing and the river looked rough. We were at the Farmer’s market shortly after 8:00 when it opened.    We bought some baking, soap and jewelery   We then walked over to the North Carolina History Centre, to learn about the Tyron Palace; North Carolina’s first state capitol, built in the 1770’s.  We watched a short video about the Palace, and decided to go over and check out the grounds, stables and gardens.  I’ve included a number of pictures of the grounds, flowers and canons.

 

In the afternoon we went and did laundry and some shopping.   I now know what puzzle I will be doing over Christmas 2016—the lighthouses of North Carolina.

That evening we went out for seafood in downtown New Bern.

On Sunday morning we followed the Gold medal curling game on the internet.  We washed the outside of the boat once it warmed up- the temperature had gone down to close to freezing overnight. After noon we went downtown in search of the hardware store, but soon found it was closed- so we went for lunch.  I took a few pictures of huge old houses on our way back to the boat.   Both of these houses were for sale-  they were asking 499,000 for this one.

 

Saw this old car- it was for rent for special functions.

Ralph came and picked us up at 3:30 and took us over to his place, as we were meeting up with  Paul and Denise from Zephyr and another couple for supper.

Here’s Mazel tug tied up in their  back yard.

Here’s Andy and Ralph talking boating-Nice  touch to wear a shirt  with a Canadian flag  Ralph!.

it was great seeing Linda and Chewy again.

Ralph drove us to Oriental, about a 35 minute drive, where we met the other couples at M & M’s restaurant- there were 9 of us.

The food was very good- I ordered Shrimp and Grits.   Mike, who was sitting at another table, overheard parts of our conversations—He works for Waterway Guide, which we all know well.

After dinner we said our goodbyes to Paul and Denise and Michael and Tonya—we will cross paths with them again, as we are all headed north.  Ralph and Linda as Gold Loopers will not be rushing to put in the miles like the rest of us.

Tomorrow we plan to take our boat past Oriental, about a 4 hour trip.  We will also be celebrating the Captain’s birthday!