Bellatrix

2 October 2015

Oriental, NC

We left Portsmouth on Sunday and into the Dismal Swamp. The Dismal didn’t disappoint, we had some sun and a pleasant cruise. We met our old friend Locktender Robert at the Deep Creek Lock. He is the best known person on the ICW. Robert was ready to retire last spring but apparently was talked into delaying by an “significant bonus” to stay on. We are most pleased and hope to see him again on our return trip. We stayed the night at a lay along just past the lock and met Mark and Scott who are traveling south on a Canadian built Gossard sailboat.

We made a bump and run at the VA/NC Visitors Center and continued on to the South Mills lock and spent the night. We met a very pleasant lady whose house was near and she offered any assistance we might need.

Bella became uncharacteristically nervous, perhaps it was the deadheads that hit the bottom occasionally, Robin thinks she smelled bear, she wanted to hide down below.

We locked through in the morning, the locktender here is not nearly as personable or helpful as Robert. We motored south through Turner’s cut to Elizabeth City, NC. duckweed here was the most we’ve seen, it potentially clogs engine seawater strainers. We stopped for fuel at Lamb’s Marine and met Bill the Dockmaster, very friendly, originally from Dundalk whose wife is a retired Respiratory Therapist at Hopkins. On to Elizabeth City free docks for the night in a drizzle. Gus is probably the second most well known person on the ICW. He is always at the parking lot waiting for boaters to help tie up and share many unbelievable stories. He was a Merchant Marine, Multimillionaire, and FBI agent with Hoover. I don’t know if any is true but he is fun to talk to. After securing the boat I tried to jump from a small finger pier to the boat and missed finding myself deep under water between the stern and the bulkhead. Nothing hurt but my pride and my iPhone. Well, I have really been wanting to replace my iPhone 4 anyway. We dried it, put it in rice for 24 hours then “DampRid” for another 24, the damn thing works!

We left Elizabeth City Wednesday and had a long day trying to get as far south as possible looking for safe harbor if Joaquin hits us. We anchored at the end of the Alligator Pungo canal for the night and moved on to Oriental early.

We are in Oriental for a couple of days, it looks like Joaquin won’t be an issue but lots of rain and coastal flooding are expected. We are staying at Whitaker Pointte Marina, ice and laundry machines are on an honor system, you leave your money in a Tupperware container. They also have a courtesy car we will use to go to town. We did watch the Ravens Steelers game last night. We will try to move on to Beaufort, NC tomorrow, weather permitting.

We are now at ICW Mile Marker 181. Fort Lauderdale is 1088. Mile Marker "0" is at Norfolk which is about 145 miles from Middle River.