To the Chesapeake Bay

 North Carolina is truly a beautiful state.  We enjoyed the bays, rivers, canals, and finally the beaches!  There are few towns in this rural area and Elizabeth City is probably one of the biggest.  We were able to walk around downtown, and drove out to the supermarket. In Elizabeth City we met up with Ken and Barbara Hyman.  Their boat wintered in a nearby marina.  We invited them on board for dinner and Barbara brought a great homemade key lime pie as well as tomato salad and a bag of goodies. 

On Saturday they took us for a land cruise to the outer banks.  We walked the beach, stopped for lunch, and then continued along driving past swamps, woods and farm land.  We stopped to see Edentown and their town park and docks. 

GoodTidings on Elizabeth City  FREE town docks

Outside our lunch stop

Ken and Barbara Hyman on the Outer Banks beach

Sand dunes held down by the fences

Jeff on the dunes

Restored lighthouse was recently moved into the harbor to be a museum - Edentown, NC (Check out the "out house" hanging over the edge

Sunday AM we left early to be sure to get through the dismal swamp locks on schedule.  This ride is beautiful. The day was calm, and the water was like a mirror.  The dark water - stained with tannic acid by the cypress swamps and rotting vegetation  - increases the depth of the reflections (and the "Beard" on the bow of the boat).  The natural river winds around, and then you enter the straight man-made cut.  After the lock it narrows, and goes on for 20 miles to the northern lock at Deep Creek.  The lock master there is an expert "trumpet" player with conch shells.  He has a large collection of them displayed by the door of his house.
 

What a beautiful river

Check out Nessie on the lawn

The Great Dismal Swamp

Waiting for the lock to open

Looking back along the narrow waterway

The water rushes in

Straight and narrow!

Some of the conch shells

The lock master blowing his conch shell horn

After clearing the lock it was a short ride to the Top Rack Marina for fuel, dinner and a good night sleep.  It was raining and windy in the morning, but we set out to get through the last stretch of the ICW and into Chesapeake Bay.  It was a busy morning in Norfolk including many barges, tugs and working ships as well as a tall ship from Mexico with all the sailors up in the rigging in their full yellow rain suits.  Further along we passed a large navy ship that came out to be security for an aircraft carrier that arrived as we passed, and was heading into dock. 

 

Tugs

Paddle wheeler

Mexican tall ship - Those are the sailors up on the spars!

These cranes run on tracks around the top and sides of an enormous warehouse.

Aircraft carrier in the distance

closer

and from the stern

The navy escort ship

 

The first lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay - just outside Norfolk entrance

After a couple of hours in some bumpy (not quite lumpy) beam seas, we dropped the hook in the peaceful Severn River, a finger of Mobjack Bay, for the night. 

Mobjack Bay

We have finally arrived in the Chesapeake Bay.  It feels like home since we have been here 3 times before.  We love it and plan to spend a few days enjoying some new anchorages and some of our favorite spots.  We should be home around May 15.

River Dunes, NC and north toward Elizabeth City, NC

We made the trip north from Morehead City to River Dunes Marina - near Oriental, NC - in some heavy weather, but before the gale winds arrived.  We knew it could be a couple of days, but it ended up being 5 days waiting for the weather to break.  River Dunes is a lovely stop with a courtesy car to take to Oriental for provisioning.  We found a farmers market and fish market, hardware store and groceries as well as West Marine.  The marina is in a lovely hurricane hole with beautiful homes, a pool (not yet open - too cold) and places to take walks.  The club house is great with a fire place and pool table, library and restaurant.  They are very welcoming and had a Monday night buffet for all the cruisers who were stuck there with us.  I didn't take any pictures on the rainy days ...
 
On the way to River Dunes:

Love the "sunshine" on this dock

This seahorse in great fun!

 River Dunes resort and marina:

Launch

Pool Cabanas

The "Gas Station" for the electric golf carts

The Garage for one of the houses

Sunset

A house and the chapel

A fountain in someone's yard

Deer in the woods/marsh land

 After 5 days we were ready to move on, and headed out to the Pungo river to anchor.  Today we went throught the Pungo - Alligator River canal, 20 miles of straight man made canal with swamps, forests and marshes along either side.  After passing north up the Alligator River we anchored just south of the Albermarle Sound, ready to get up and go in the morning.  We plan to see Barbara and Ken Hyman in Elizabeth City tomorrow.

Pungo River

Commercial fishingoperation

Pungo River anchorage

Sunset on Pungo River

Moon rise

Cyprus stumps - these are the culprits that turn the water brown and give boats a mustache.

Sunset on Alligator River

Check out the jet streaks above the sunset

On to Morehead City and Beaufort, North Carolina

We went from North Myrtle Beach across the border into North Carolina.  Bill and Marilyn Feigle gave us a send off and took pictures of us passing near their house on the ICW. 

photo by Bill Feigle

photo by Marilyn Feigle

We arrived in Southport at Cape Fear and stayed at the Provision Company docks - free if you eat dinner there.  Good shrimp in Old Bay seasoning - Yummy.  In the night there was a lot of thunder and lightning and wind.  It stopped in the morning, but we waited for the seas to calm down to go the 10 miles up the Cape Fear River. It was worth the wait and we easily made it to Wrightsville Beach to anchor.

Southport - Azaleas in bloom

Southport Provision Company

Cool truck, but why not Tow Boat US red?

Along the way we saw many interesting sights, birds, boats, houses, docks and shoreline.

Fisherman with pelicans for company

It is mating season and all the Osprey nests are occupied

Shoreline

Some docks are in good shape ...

... and some docks are not

Lots of houses on stilts

 We continued along and spent the night in Wrightsville Beach at anchor.  It is a convenient and pretty spot with deep water and good holding.  We took off in the morning to time the first of 3 bridges that only open once and hour.  We were OK on the first two, but had to wait almost an hour as we just missed the last one.  We still had plenty of time to reach the anchorage at Mile Hammond Bay.  It is in Camp LeJeune.  The marines were busy with all kinds of practices including take off and landing of the "Osprey" which has helicopter props that allow vertical takeoff and landing.  Then the props rotate forward and it flies like a plane. We heard trucks and sirens and saw the tent camp the next morning ready to launch into some kind of maneuvers.

Military patrol - the Marines were doing maneuvers

Sunset in Mile Hammock Bay

Now these are the marines - why not warnings on VHF 16???

 In the morning we took off in calm quiet weather to make the run past Swansboro to Morehead City.  We did housekeeping chores and provisioned. Today we went across the river to Beaufort, NC (pronounced BOfort, not like BUfort, SC) and went to their Maritime Museum and wooden boat building demonstration space.

Swansboro waterfront

Swansboro fishing fleet

Morehead City is a big commercial port - and cheap diesel fuel

Beaufort, NC boat building museum

One of their wooden boats

Downtown Beaufort waterfront and marina

I am looking forward to the next section of the trip that goes trough some gorgeous scenery and the sounds and rivers further inland that lead to Norfolk, VA and the Chesapeake Bay.