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Published: November 6th 2010
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Pasquotank River
A view of the Pasquotank River that connects the southern end of the Dismal Swamp to Elizabeth City NC Elizabeth City, NC to Camp Lejeune , NC (Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2010)
We had heard that Elizabeth City, NC was very friendly to cruisers and we found that they definitely live up to their reputation. They first start off by providing free dockage to cruiser’s for up to 2 nights (and longer if the weather keeps you there as they want you to be safe). They also have quite a bit to offer for a small community - restaurants, a great museum, art center, theatre and they provide a wine and cheese gathering for the cruiser’s when there are at least 5 new boats arriving. We took advantage of being at the dock to do the laundry as well as getting groceries as a local store provides free transportation from the docks so getting those heavy and/or bulky items on your list was much easier to do by car than by bike, walking, and/or dinghy ride. The only downside was then figuring out where you were going to store it all when you got it back to the boat, but somehow we shoe-horned it in! The museum had an excellent permanent exhibit on the history of the area
A welcoming community
As the flags say, Elizabeth City is a welcoming stop for the cruiser and a rotating exhibit on moonshine/white lightening. We also found out that one thing that this area is known for is that they build blimps here (all but the Goodyear one) so as they told us anytime we see one we should think of the people of Elizabeth City.
On Saturday, October 30th we left Elizabeth City to cross the Albemarle Sound which can be rough going in high winds as it is quite shallow and as a result can create quite the waves. Luckily we hit it right and had a pleasant crossing. What was exceptionally nice was that we actually got to put up some sail. As many of the sailors we met said we haven’t been able to do that for awhile so it is nice to get some practice in with handling the sails again. We had a very pleasant trip and made it down to a very isolated anchorage just off the Alligator River before the Pugo/Alligator canal. This part of the trip was very desolate. It appears that there have been fires in the area and that much of the vegetation is slow in recovery. This night at anchor was very clear and as
The last of the Rose Buddys
The rose buddy wine and cheese get together in Elizabeth City â“ a great place for boaters to stop a result the sky was ablaze with stars and we had another spectacular sunset. We keep trying to resist taking photos of sunsets and sunrises, but we haven’t had willpower in this area. When you have a chance to be away from all the city lights the sky is so clear and the stars stand out. The sunsets and sunrises also are indescribable. Janice mentions that some of the colors in the sky reminds her of her Dad in that he used to say his favorite color is “sky blue pink”. Well, we have seen that color many times while on this trip.
On Halloween Bob said we should dress up that day as “cruisers” so we donned our foul weather gear and started out down the canal, the Pugo River and across the Pamlico River. Our “costumes” came in handy as the mornings have been quite cold and the wind definitely goes through you when moving. We had a good 50 mile day and decided to stop and anchor in Bear Creek just off Bay River. We had to inch our way up the creek as the depths along the side were only 2-3 feet, but there was a
The legend of the Rose Buddys
This monument explains the history of the rose buddys of Elizabeth City - they are continuing the tradition “S” shaped channel of 6-10’ so we could anchor. This was quite isolated as well with a beautiful star-filled sky - the only down side of this one was that the mosquitoes seemed to like this creek as well so we didn’t sit out back too long this evening.
The Neuse River was next on the schedule and this one has a reputation for being rough as well. The winds were definitely up with an average of 16-18 knots and gusts to 25. That doesn’t sound too bad, but again this is a shallow area causing quite the chop. The sails definitely were a benefit for this trip, however, Sailor did not seem impressed. Luckily she remembered to move to the low side whenever we tacked. These winds kept us moving and we got up to 7.5 knots of hull speed so we were able to get to Beaufort, NC by early afternoon. We decided to treat ourselves to a marina after these few long days of travel. We have booked this for 2 nights so will have some time to explore the area. We walked into town and explored the historic area as well as stopped in at a
Leaving Elizabeth City
A large group of boats left the docks at Elizabeth City at sunrise coffee shop to just relax as the crossing of the Neuse River was quite tiring with the strong winds. The marina had a courtesy car we could borrow so got to drive into Morehead City to get our “fix” at Lowes, West Marine, Panenas, and pick up a few groceries. This is a real bonus of many of the marinas along the way - they sure know what the traveling mariner needs.
We left Beaufort on November 3rd with some wind, but this time it was in the right direction so we were able to put the sails up to help with our speed as we continued the trek south. The ICW goes through the Bogue Sound which is quite wide, however, only a narrow portion of it is navigatable as there were many partially submerged islands. We did see one or two boats that went aground, but luckily we didn’t even hit as we were traveling through at high tide (and we made sure we were in the middle of the channel). The ICW travels through the US Marine Camp Lejeune where we saw numerous military vehicles and “guys” camped out on various islands along the channel. Luckily for
Follow the leader
Everyone is on the same schedule and we follow the leader out of Elizabeth City those traveling the ICW, the marines dredge a basin (Mile Hammock Bay) for their use, but they allow us to anchor in this area. It is a good stopping point so we joined the crowd that had already put down anchor. By the time we went to bed there were probably about 30 boats in this basin. The next AM we had planned on continuing the trip, but the fog was so thick you needed a knife to cut through it, so we decided to take a day off and so some “nesting” on the boat. We now have lived on the boat for 3 months and are finding that we needed to re-organize some things so we both were busy moving and consolidating things on the boat. This was a good day to do it and still have time to do some reading for pleasure.
The excitement we have had the last few days is seeing quite a few pods of dolphins. We never know where they will show up, but suddenly they either in your bow wave or just crossing over in front or along side of the boat - I don’t think we will ever tire of
The blimp factory
Proof that they do build blimps here seeing them.
Tomorrow we will continue to Wrightsville Beach and stay there for a few days. We ordered quite a few things when we were at the Annapolis Boat Show and sent them to a friend, Sharon (that Janice knew from TCAT 21 and Cornell) , who lives near there. She was kind enough to let us send delivers there so will catch up with her and have “Christmas” opening all that we ordered so Bob can then install the 2 new solar panels that we ordered. Looking forward to staying put for a couple of days there.
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Lyle
non-member comment
Glad to hear
Glad to hear you are having a good trip. Thank you for the nice photo's along the way and in the future we hope to see you along the route.