Day 10: Belhaven, NC

Our late night anchorage turned out to be quiet and comfortable, though we did hear a tug and barge passing through the channel about 5:00am, far enough away to be no problem. Soon after starting out we began to hear radio contacts from other boats that had stayed further back overnight in Coinjock as they began to leave the dock and jockey for position. Everybody wanted to get where they were going! Though as previous everybody continues to be incredibly thoughtful and polite. Fortunately we have yet to meet one of true ICW idiots reputed to wake everybody at will as they pass slower boats at maximum speed.

About 8:00am we began to hear one of the boats now in front of us reporting that it had run aground at one of the shoaling bottlenecks in the channel. Right after another vessel followed onto the shoal. We were concerned because both boats had smaller drafts than Auriga! As we approached the scene, we chose to stay at the very edge of the channel where we figured we had a better chance of getting through. Luckily, we chose well!!! We made it though the difficult area with 5ft of water under our keel to spare. We reported this information to following vessels so that they could avoid the shoaled area. The two grounded boats were subsequently pulled off a few hours later by TowBoat US, and being faster boats, they caught up with us again later in the afternoon. The situation was a bit like the fable about the tortoise and the hare – with us as the tortoise!! 

We went through another bottleneck area with shoaling close on each side, then entered a 30 mile long cutting through dense swamp land. Despite looking we did not see any wildlife, though clearly this was a major habitat area, supposedly with many deer and black bears, among other animals. We did see a parcel of land for sale just on the banks of the canal, but the only sign of life was a gaggle of turkeys running around.  Very appropriate as we get close to Thanksgiving.  Also, as we approached the end of the cutting and were getting closer to our intended anchorage we did see several turkey vultures waiting for something (somebody??) to die or for Thanksgiving!!   There is definitely a theme building here….after 2 weeks of eating pre-frozen food, a nice hot cooked turkey dinner sounds really good!!

We anchored in a wide lagoon with 12ft of water by 3:30pm and soon other boats began sailing in. By the time we got to our 3rd drink, we were surrounded by 20 sail and power boats!  Good thing we got here first!!  It is raining and we are now getting another round of drinks. Cheers, everybody.

Leaving the Alligator River Swing Bridge...but no alligators in sight!!

They have big beavers here!!

Waiting for something (or someone...) to die????