Belhaven is another area we visited years ago. The marina we chose was about 7 miles out of town, and it was just an overnite, so we didn't get to see the town. The marina was lovely and secluded. That eve we had a HH get together in the club house and oh, the stories you hear. Could listen to them all night. One couple there was on their way home to Boston from the Bahamas. They have been doing this annually for 17 years!!! We haven't talked to anyone yet who doesn't absolutely LOVE the Bahamas. I guess, at some point in this adventure, we will have to find our way there! The trip up involved some pretty interesting water. Thankfully we are now out of most of the shallow water - it is now a matter of a good weather window for crossing g bigger water, dodging debris/logs in the water and dodging crab pots. MILLIONS OF THEM!!
Our next stop is the Alligator Marina which is a stop off point before crossing the Albermarle sound - another potentially nasty piece of water. We started out going up the Pungo River which then runs into the Alligator River. The scenery has changed to heavily wooded, but lots of stuff in the water as well as narrow areas with stumps above and below the water on the sides. So - it takes two sets of eyes. We were in front of some sailboats, so we would hail them on the VHF radio whenever we saw something in the water - they really appreciated it. Boaters, as a general rule, are very courteous and helpful. Of course there is always the one a--hole! Sometimes you will hear, on the radio, one boater let another one know just what a butt he has been. There is never an response back :). The Alligator River marina is in the middle of NOWHERE but very modern and nice. Wands serves fried checken in the gas station they own. We didn't do that, but did have breakfast there the next am. We are now in crab pot city - every where!!! Watching the weather closely as the Albermarle is about a 3 hour trip across and it can really whip up. We awake in the am to calm winds, but fog. Decide to have breakfast and see if it burns off, which it has pretty much done by the time we are ready to go. We are going to Elizabeth City from here and then the Dismal Swamp. John and Diane don't want to do The Swamp so will cross the Albermale in a different direction to go thru the Virginia Cut. We will end up in Norfolk at the same area. More on the swamp later. Can't begin to tell you how many crab traps we evaded on the trip across the sound. They are not supposed to be placed in the ICW channel, but I guess no one ever told them that. They can range in color from white, to dark geen, to dark blue, black and red. You can imagine how hard it is to see the blue, black and green in rough water, and if you have white caps it is almost impossible to distinguish the white ones until you are almost on top of them!! They are usually set in straight lines, but you run into areas where there can be 3 or 4 different lines all running in different directions. It is like a mine field, or as I chose to call it - video game. Makes it a little more fun, but the consequences of running over one are a little more dire - fouled prop - and you are dead in the water!!
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