Norfolk to Belhaven

Friday 7^th November
Visibility is a little low but the winds have calmed, so we head out into the Chesapeake Bay for the last time, to go around into the Hampton Roads and pass between Norfolk and Portsmouth, past docks and warships

to anchor for the night – off Hospital Point at the start of the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway). I took buddy across the river to the dock behind the USS Wisconsin which you can tour. The tall ship is a training vessel for young people.

We thought that with leaving the Chesapeake, that would be the end of the scourge of the crab pot.

However, as we are subsequently to find out, this is not the case. Sometimes it`s like negotiating a minefield to avoid running them down.

Saturday 8^th November
An early start and we’re off to enter “The Dismal Swamp”. In actuality, the Dismal Swamp canal is a beautiful waterway that takes you from Virginia to North Carolina.

Part way down is the North Carolina Welcome Centre that has a free dock where you are obliged to ‘raft up’. We were nearly the last of nine boats to arrive and ended up on the outside of two others which meant nobody clambered across our boat but we had to cross two others to get ashore. There was pot luck supper on-shore in the park area and a good time was had by all.

Sunday 9^th November
This is the next morning when most of the other boats had left.

Sunday, we usually have a big breakfast, so we left a little later at the next lock opening. As our destination was only 20-odd miles away at Elizabeth City it didn’t make much difference to the day.

Elizabeth City is a treasure for cruisers. They have free docking and go out of their way to encourage people to come – like a free wine and cheese party and a talk from the mayor. The docking is as we experienced in Norfolk – between pilings.

I suppose if you do it often enough you get use to it – we’re not there yet.

Monday 10^th November
We should have left in the morning but we suddenly realized we were low on diesel and the only place to get it was Lamb’s Marina - 3 miles back up the river under a bridge that doesn’t open for pleasure craft until 9. By the time we had fuelled-up - via a truck that was driven to the dock - and negotiated our way in and out of a marina with water as shallow as 6’, it was 11 am and too late for the trip across Albemarle Sound.

It was no imposition to stay, as we got to go to the wine and cheese

and also have a movie (The Secret Life of Bees) and dinner experience at the Carolina Theatre with Janet and Jeremy aboard the American Tug “Tardis”. It’s like a restaurant with a (full size) movie screen and Dolby sound.

Tuesday 11^th November
Up at 6 and away from the dock by 7 we head down the Pasquotank River and across the Albermarle sound, renowned for unpleasant conditions. It’s ridiculously shallow, no more than 20 feet deep and 10 miles across which causes short sharp waves. We, however, had a good (maybe not for Carol) downwind sail with NO MOTOR into the Alligator River. We almost ran into difficulty there where the buoy positions do not correspond to the charts. Due to shoaling they have been moved. Thanks to another boat’s timely intervention we went the correct way.

After calling at the Alligator Creek Marina for a pumpout, water and cheap diesel for our ‘tank farm’ diesel containers, we anchored in South Lake across the river where we were supposed to be able to take Buddy ashore. Although a beautiful spot with not a soul around – no sounds of human activity all night – the ‘land’ tuned out to be not something Buddy could walk around on.

Wednesday 12^th November
Up at 6 and off by 7 again we passed through the swing bridge across the Alligator River and on down to the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. Just a small note – the Alligator River did have alligators in it until the 1930’s. This is the most deserted place we have passed through, just miles and miles of Cypress swamps and no human habitation.

Here, the increased salinity of the water caused by connecting the Pungo and Alligator rivers by the canal is killing the Bald Cypress which live normally for up to 600 years.

After transiting the canal we headed up the Pungo River a mile, to anchor in a sheltered little spot where Buddy finally did get to ‘walk around’ after 32 hours. We thought we were alone until four other boats showed up.

Thursday 13^th November
An early start again but as went along the weather seriously deteriorated with heavy rain and high winds and even on the relatively small Pungo River, waves quickly build and we decide to pull into Pantego Creek and anchor. As we arrive there a sailboat was being towed out after dragging two anchors and fouling its prop. The river faces SE and that`s the direction from which the wind was coming, so we decided to pull into River Forest Marina for at least one night.