Anegada da Vida: Visiting Belhaven NC

The winds and rain came into Belhaven NC on Sunday as expected. We were tucked in safe and secure in our slip. Today would be a day of rest, we had no choice as everything is closed during the day on Sunday in North Carolina.

We splurged on breakfast this morning, we had BACON and pancakes with real maple syrup. I even heard someone on the dock say “I think I smell bacon” in a very envious tone. After breakfast we settled in to watch the rain and listen to the Patriots beat the Chargers. We were able to get WEEI sports radio from Boston on the internet.

After the game the rain stopped and the sun came out for the late afternoon. We were able to get out and walk around a little and stretch our legs and meet our dock neighbors.

For dinner I finally figured out the recipe for pressure cooker lasagna. It came out great, probably one of the best meals we have had on the boat. I was a little surprised at how good it was.

Just at the end of dinner the wind picked up considerably and started howling out of the west. The boat was rockin and rollin and pulling on all of the lines. The power went out at about 8pm and was out all night and into Monday morning. It finally came back on about 2pm on Monday. We slept well considering the rough weather.

Monday morning dawned COLD and windy. It was in the 40s outside and only about 50 inside. With no power at the dock we were forced to turn on the generator and turn on the heat. With the heater on and the sun out the boat did warm up quickly and it was a comfortable morning.

Our marina has free golf cart use and we used it to go to the Food Lion and provision. We did not need too much but we never pass up a chance to go to a real grocery store. While at the store we ran into Mike and Tina from Cheroka. They were on the town dock. We told them about our golf cart and offered them a ride. They said they needed the exercise but asked if we would take their groceries and drop them off at their boat. We said yes and then Mike decided he could buy a case of beer because he did not have to carry it back to the boat. We loaded up all of our groceries and drove back to the marina with a stop at Cheroka.

Now that the power was back on at the marina we could get a pump out and do laundry. I took another golf cart ride into town to check out the town free docks. There are no services there, but they are free. I ran into Brian and Jacki again and talked about how badly Cowessett was damaged in the storm that went through New England. He also said that the west wind blew about 3 feet of water out of the bay and his 6 foot draft was now in about 5.5 feet of water. He said it got down to about 4.5 feet during the blow. He would wait until tomorrow for the water to come back up so he could leave.

Going back through town I stopped at Farm Boy and got some popcorn shrimp, took it back to the boat and had an afternoon snack along with some local IPA we found at the Food Lion.

For dinner on monday we went to the Spoon River Artworks & Market. http://spoonrivernc.com/ Josh, the dockmaster at the marina, told that this was the best restaurant on the east coast. Arguably, it is in the running.

Everything is local and fresh, the menu is hand written for whatever that are serving that day. I started with local clams in a broth and Elaine had coconut shrimp. For entrees I had Black Drum and Elaine had the filet. Both entrees were amazingly good. They don't have a regular wine list at this restaurant. They have a wine room. You go to the wine room and pick your bottle off the shelf or cooler. They had a very wide selection. We were too full for desert but the owner told us that her husband had made an amazing apple cake with ice cream and gave us one to split for free. She then came over with a special cocktail that she was experimenting with to ask our opinion. Both were spectacular. The dinner was a great value and an unexpected treat to find such a place in a tiny little North Carolina town. We got a couple of bottles of wine to go and hopped in our golf cart for the short ride home.

We came back to a peaceful night on the boat and slept well before heading off to Oriental NC in the morning.