Bellatrix

Belhaven, NC

26 September 2014

Well, no surprise… there is a tradition in Elizabeth City that the local townspeople present cruisers with a rose and a glass of wine, apparently except on rainy days. We were greeted by “Gus” who helped us tie up at the free City Docks, told us jokes, sang to us, and directed us to a good seafood lunch. We attended a free concert in the evening by a very good local rock band then went to dinner. Wednesday we woke to a rainy day so we spent the day wondering the town and stopping at pubs. The first we stopped at was “Thumpers” there was a person sitting outside smoking a cigarette, I couldn’t tell the gender and thought perhaps homeless. We went inside and ordered a couple of beers and some wings. We found the person outside was the cook, she had a oversized wife beater shirt, not covering a gray or maybe dirty purple semi-see through bra and many tattoos. She later came into the bar section to pull the shirt to her waist to show a couple of other diners (sic) her many tattoos. Needless to say we moved on to another bar.

Thursday morning we left in a fog (it was foggy not us) and motored down the Pasquotank, crossed Albemarle Sound into the Alligator River. We anchored for the night at Tuckahoe Point at the beginning of the Alligator/Pungo River Canal.

This morning we woke to wind and clouds. We made our way through the canal arriving at Belhaven early afternoon. This is Mile Marker 136 of the ICW. Most of the 32 mile trip was in fog and drizzling rain. There is no cellphone service for 40 miles, this is the least populated area in North Carolina.

The Alligator/Pungo River Canal is wider, deeper and more boring than the Dismal Swamp Canal. Of course it was raining and cloudy, but most of it has been purposefully burned recently so it was not very picturesque.

We chose to stay at Riverforest Marina for it’s many listed amenities. We need a pump out, laundry and Internet. The washing machine is broken (will be fixed next week), the pump out is broken (will be fixed by 1700), and the Internet service doesn’t work. We were pleased there was a golf cart available. We went to the market and will go to town for dinner and music tonight.