Good morning!  A bright sunshiny day to you all!!

Today we are traveling 48 miles from Dowry Creek Marina in Belhaven, NC to Alligator River Marina in Columbus, NC.  We are planning to travel up the Pungo River through the Alligator-Pungo Canal and into the Alligator River.  The most challenging part of the day is the water, wind, and getting to the other side of the Alligator Bridge.  We are expecting  “light chop” on the river and winds <10knots.  A very nice day on the water!

 

Our landscape alternated from very plush green

 

To flat and burned looking

Parts of this area had a bad fire several years back.  Nature is reclaiming and regrowing itself back to health.  We discovered that we were traveling through 3 different Wildlife Preserves.  Very nice to have this land stay natural.  The Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Emily and Richard Preyer Buckridge Reserve and the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.  This explains all the trees and few houses.

We were told to be on the lookout for deer and maybe even black bears swimming across the canal.  Many have seen snakes and an occasional alligator.  We did not see any of these we are sorry to say.  We were hoping for deer at least.  No snakes, thank you.

The water is filled with tannins.  But exceptionally clear.

 

By 10am we were out of the canal and into the Alligator River.  Looks pretty flat and calm to me.  We were still going east and I wasn’t sure what would happen when we turned north into the wind.  The winds were supposed to be coming from the NE.  Does that make the waves higher or shorter when you are traveling north as well?

 

Turning North put us into the wind a bit.  Some rolling water but not uncomfortable.  I guess that would be a light chop.  Alligator River has its own marine forecast.  Really.

 

I lost cell phone access for about a hour.  No close towns or cell phone antennas out in the middle of Alligator River.  No need, really.  We use our Verizon Cell service for our “surfing the web” as well as phone and texting.  I guess we just had to survive … somehow …. alone … on the water …. all by ourselves.

As you can see, absolutely no one on the river with us.  Fascinating!

Since we are out in the middle of a large river, I am sure you wanted to know … just how do you know where you are??  GPS helps.  The chart plotter and charts have “mile markers” on them to give you an idea.  If you look closely, you will notice at the “SM90” near the tip of the pointer ahead of the boat icon.  SM is ‘statue mile’.

Also, believe it or not, there are signs that also tell us.   When I looked out as we approached the channel marker, I saw the 90.  Right on!  I know where I am!

 

We picked a light chop day with low winds because the Alligator Swing Bridge will not open AT ALL if the wind gusts get over 30 knots.  It was built in 1960 and is almost 3 miles long.  If the bridge tender doesn’t open the bridge for wind/weather concerns, we have very little recourse.  We could try to find anchorage OR go back the way we came to the closest marina.  Picking a good day to get through this bridge seems important, don’t you think?

 

The bridge stopped traffic and let us through!  We noticed the car drivers actually get out of their cars and wander about.  As if this whole bridge opening was going to take hours.  We only took 10 minutes going through slowly as all the signs suggested.

 

Our target marina is the Alligator River Marina.  It is at a critical place within the ICW route.  IF you don’t stop here you have to go all the way across the Albemarle Sound to the next marina or anchorages.  That adds an additional  30-35 miles to the day.  That is not just a 30 minute ride by car.  This 30 -35 miles adds another 3-5 hours on the water.  After spending 5 hours already, that additional time seems daunting.  But doable.  Lots of folks elect to continue to the next stop.  We just felt that with the weather possibly turning nasty, why push it.

We went through the bridge and then got confused.  Where is this marina??  Right at the western edge along the bridge.  We had to dodge a bunch of crab pots to find the right channel to get into the marina.  We fueled up and Wayne backed us into our side dock for the night.  Wayne expertly backed us into our slip.  He remarked later… this is only the second time he has ever backed up the boat.  The dock master had no clue since Wayne handled the boat perfectly.  A natural, I say!!

 

I asked the marina owner about the lighthouse that is perched at the front of the marina.  It no longer works.  It used to before a big storm came by and shattered the windows up top.  It was a Christmas gift from her husband.  How about that?!  A lighthouse.

The Alligator River Marina is also a “Truck Stop” or gas station with convenience store and short order grill known locally for their handmade breakfast biscuits.   The sign says “World Acclaimed” so it must be true.

We don’t know.  We stayed on board and fixed a delightful sausage, onion, potato, squash with scramble eggs single skillet dinner.

My evening ended watching a hummingbird feed on the owners water.  The bird darted back and forth between two feeders.  I couldn’t get a picture fast enough.

We were expecting some rain.  The weather forecast evening showers till early morning.  No sunset picture.  We got some rain drops but nothing serious.  Maybe later tonight.