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!

April 7, 8

Shannon had sent me the picture she took of us the previous day  so I’ve included it here.

In the morning at our Cedar Creek anchorage, a cold front along with rain, thunder and high winds passed through.  We were playing canasta at the time, and didn’t notice at first, but the wind had moved us about 50 feet further into the crab pot field.

We waited until the rain quit, and then slowly pulled up the anchor, so as not to catch on any of the pots that were surrounding us.  We decided it wasn’t safe to be here and since it was clearing we decided to move to a better anchorage closer to New Bern.  We entered the Neuse river at about 11:30, and traveled  north-west for about 2 hours,  the river was choppy due to the wind and shallowness of the river.

  At one point the GPS screen went blank—not sure if it was because of bad reception or jammed, as we saw 3 jets fly by. Once we got into the marked channel we turned east after marker 15 and sounded our way into Goose Creek, around several shoals.  At times we were in 7-8 feet of water, but were protected from the winds and waves.  We proceeded up the creek, past a house and dock to where it turned north and weighed anchor in 9 feet of water.

The GPS showed this as uncharted water.

We hardly moved, unlike the previous night’s anchorage.

In the morning we pulled up the anchor at 9:45, and reversed our route back to the marked channel, reaching it at 10:30.  We continue in a north-west direction to the city of New Bern.  We tied up at the Galley Marina at 11:30.

In the afternoon we ventured downtown.  Andy found a barbershop and made a 3:00 appointment, while we waited we went for ice cream.  Andy  went back for his appointment  and I went walking   farther  down  the street and found this church,

with amazing stained glass windows, as well as a  bell choir—took this picture for Susan  S.

I walked back to the barbershop and waited for Andy and talked to a couple of locals. Here’s the barbers- very  professional looking.

We then went over to the drugstore where Pepsi Cola was created, I’ve included the original formulation that was written on the wall.

We checked out some other stores  and saw several bears around town, with different painted costumes- similar to the polar bear exhibit in Winnipeg a few years ago—I’ve included a few…

Even a Pirate Bear standing with Andy.

We walked by the waterfront, where people were catching sea mullet.

At 5:30 we went up to the Galley store for wine and beer tasting.;  There were 5 wines ( 2 whites and 3 reds) and 3 beers as well as snacks that you could  try for $5, but because we were guests at the marina it was free.  We returned to the boat shortly after 7:00 and met Denise and Paul who are from Petoskey MI  loopers on Zephyr.

We saw ducks a few times today, this first  one was near our anchorage this morning and the second one  swam by the boat after we were tied up in New Bern

&  later  we saw this pair  in downtown New Bern disrupting traffic.

We plan to go to the Farmer’s Market in the morning and then borrow the courtesy car to go to pick up some groceries and do laundry.

April 4-6 update

We borrowed the courtesy car and did some grocery shopping and went out for lunch.  Later that afternoon Emma-Jean docked beside us, we had met them last week at Osprey.

At about 4:20, Betsy Rhew arrived from Timberlake NC, which was over 3 hours away.   She was Andy’s Grand Representative counterpart in 2012, and is currently Grand Adah for the state of North Carolina.  We had met Betsy at North Carolina’s Grand Chapter in 2012 at Raleigh.

We went to  an Eastern Star meeting at Stump Sound Chapter #338, and enjoyed a delicious supper and a great meeting- their 1st of the year, as installation was only a couple of days ago.

Here’s Betsy and Andy.

We met some very nice people, who asked Andy to speak about our boat trip.There is  no shortage of men in this chapter- 7 of the officers were men.

Betsy stayed the night and she and Andy had a good visit chatting and looking at pictures.

In the morning, the winds started to gust at about 6:00 and there were whitecaps.  After Andy made breakfast, Betsy left to drive home.  We conferred with Larry and Shannon on Emma Jean, and learned that the Swing bridge 7 miles up the ICW, was not opening because of the winds.  So we stayed an additional night in Sneads Ferry, as there was no place to go.  On Tuesday afternoon, we once again borrowed the courtesy car and drove into Jacksonville.  Our mission was to go to the Verizon store and determine why our Mifi had not been loaded with the Gigabytes that we had purchased in Myrtle Beach.  We had called the Verizon call centre several times over the last 2 days and had not been successful in having our jetpack credited.  Finally at the second Verizon, Kimberley, with the aid of someone on the phone was able to get us our data.

On our return we had Shannon, Larry and Brian, another boater who tied up to stay out of the wind over for docktails.

We had an early night,  the forecast was for temperatures close to freezing, so extra blankets came out.

On Wednesday, we departed at 7:50 and headed for the cut through Camp Lejeune.  We made the 9:00 opening of the swing bridge and continued on through the base.  Here’s a picture of military vehicle along the waterway.

Here’s the view of the Atlantic near Bogue inlet,

by the village of Swansboro, which we passed through at about 10:30.    We continued up Bogue Sound for many miles and reached  Moorehead City just before 13:00.     Here Beaufort inlet flows into the ICW.  The water flow from the Atlantic ocean affected our progress– at times we were going almost 11 miles per hour and at other times less than 6.  At 13:30 we entered the Adams Creek canal.  We caught up with Emma Jean, and passed them, as they were going to a marina along the cut whereas we had opted for anchoring out about 5 miles farther along the canal.

Here’s their boat and then Shannon and I taking pictures of each other’s boats.

Also saw this house along Adam’s creek that caught my eye.

At 15:15, we set our anchor in Cedar Creek, where one other boat, Otter, was already anchored, along with about 30 crab pots.

Here’s the sunrise from our anchorage at 7:00, I was up as I had very little sleep because of the winds gusting most of the night causing us to swing.

We left our anchorage at 7:35, and proceeded north on the ICW.  At about 9:30, we came across this marker- which would have confused me but the captain knew it was a bifurcation marker, stating you could go on either side but the top colour is preferred.

We arrived at the Surf City swing bridge at about 9: 45, and had to wait  with another boat until the 10:00 opening, as the clearance was only 14 feet and we draw just over 17

Here’s a view of the bridge closing behind us and one of the Surf City water tower.

I’ve noticed the last couple days that the crabbers around here use very small boats- here’s one of their crab pot stockpiles on this  island.

 I also saw this house with its own  light house somewhere near Alligator Bay—it’s not purple but it is memorable there seems to be some type of bird painted on one of the sides.

We arrived at Swan Point marina  in Sneads Ferry at about Noon, mile 246.9—this is more of a working yard than marina,  We’ve noticed already  that we get rocked a bit as boats go by on the ICW.

The marina has a courtesy car which we plan to use tomorrow to go for groceries and then in the evening to go to an Eastern Star meeting.

Sneads Ferry is located very near  to Camp Lejeune, a US  Marine Corp base, once we leave here  the ICW will take us through the base.  At times the ICW is closed while they are conducting military exercises.  I think they are currently doing something as every few minutes we hear big booming noises  which may be guns going off.