Start time and hours 0900 3404.85
End time and hours 1400 3409.91
I slept past 7am
this morning and still got to see the sunrise over the river. We usually take our time in the morning
because we don’t go too far for our day’s cruise. We were the last boat to leave the anchorage
and enter the Alligator River/Pungo River canal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pungo_River
The canal is very
straight and about 20 miles long. Most
of the time is feels wide but on occasion the stumps and snags seem to be just
feet from the boat. (they are not, it just seems that way) We saw several bald eagles while in the canal
but no other wildlife. The scenery is
diverse, forests, marshes, swamps, and canals line the main thoroughfare.
We popped out of
the canal and headed west along the Pungo river to Belhaven NC. http://belhavennc.us/ We had called ahead to the River Forrest Marina http://riverforestmarina.com/ and they were ready for us when we arrived.
Ed, the dockhand, was there to greet us and help us tie up. This was the first time we had tied bow to
just pilings. Ed walked us through the
procedure and with just a few hiccups we managed to get the boat secured. There was a half finger pier to starboard but
without the cleats we are used to. It is
all pilings. It makes it harder to get on
and off the boat sometimes depending on the wind.
There are five
other transients on the dock with us.
They are all boats that we have been seeing along the way. I have heard that this is the case, you see a
lot of the same people and boats while travelling the ICW.
The marina is
very nice. The restrooms/showers are
clean and spacious. There is Wi-Fi and
it WORKS. They sell fuel and pumpout is
available. The washers and dryers are
free. They have golf carts that you can
use to go into town or to the Food Lion.
Belhaven is a golf cart community and you can drive them on the roads
just like cars.
It is only half a
mile walk into town and got our exercise Saturday afternoon. We walked to the town docks that are at the
end of main st. There were three boats
tied up there and we had seen two of them along the way. There was a little impromptu cocktail party
beside the boats. We met two very nice
Canadian couples sailing south. Mike
& Tina, aboard Cheroka, were planning on wintering in the Bahamas and then
continuing on to Greneda.
We then meet a
young couple that were staying at the town free docks up the river a bit. They are on Gypsy Soul, a Delphi 40.3. Captain Brian and Admiral Jacki. They said that they were from Rhode Island
and we said so are we. When we said we
kept our boat in Greenwich Bay they said they did to. They then said that they were at Brewer
Cowesset and we said yup, so are we. The
coincidences ended there as they are from the North yard and we are from the
South. Small world.
Belhaven NC is a
quaint little town with a short little main st.
We checked out some of the shops and looked at some restaurant
menus. The hardware store is the old
kind that sells everything, including hardware.
If they don’t have, you don’t need it.
We will be staying here for a few days so we decided to come
back and check out some more sights.
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