November 4, 2018 - November 10, 2018
Sunday was a restful day. The only things on the agenda - cleaning the boat interior, filling the water tanks, and getting groceries. Right after a mediocre brunch at the Grey Goose Restaurant we took an Uber to the local Food Lion and found everything on our list. After stowing all the groceries I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (sunny and cool) and take a walk. I crossed one of the many bridges in town admiring the changing colors of the leaves. On my way back to the boat I stopped into a gallery which displayed and sold art from 65 local artists. Back on the boat I watched the last quarter of the Ravens vs. Steelers game. The final score was 20-26 with the steelers on top.
On Monday we left for Great Bridge, VA at 9:15. We weren’t in a rush because we thought it would be a short day. We didn’t reach mile 0 of the ICW (intracoastal waterway) until noon and we still had 15 statute miles to go. With waiting for bridges and locks to open we didn’t tie up at the Great Bridge free dock until 3:30. The seas were smooth and Lola spent most of the day out in the cockpit with the rest of us. She was a little restless and needed attention at first, but soon settled down and even took a nap.
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| The cats have an easy time of it while we are underway. |
Next stop - Coinjock Marina which is basically a series of boats tied up at a bulkhead on the ICW. The Coinjock dock hands are experts at getting as many boats tied up as possible leaving no more that 12 inches between boats. We took much needed showers and had a great dinner at the restaurant. We decided to forego their famous prime rib and went with seafood.
We left Coinjock at 7:00 am. The weather was sunny and mild with very little wind. We were moving along so well we decided to go all the way to right outside of the Alligator River/ Pongo River Canal. It was a long day, but very low stress. We anchored along with 11 other boats at around 3:30 pm. The best advantages for anchoring out are; it’s free, we can grill, and the sunsets are amazing.
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| You can see the heavy clouds moving in that brought rain in the morning. |
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| Lola celebrated her first birthday on 11/7. |
We entered the Alligator River/ Pongo River canal at 7:30 am. The 25 mile long canal was an easy trip and we tied up at the Belhaven Marina by lunch time. We walked downtown to the Gingerbread Bakery for lunch. It was a quaint spot with delicious reasonably priced food.
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| The Marina office and facilities are pictured. This marina has the best shower facilities of any marina we have experienced. |
Belhaven (Beautiful Harbor) is a historic town which calls itself the "The Birthplace of the ICW". In 1928 with the completion of the Alligator River/ Pongo River Canal the ICW was complete and was dedicated in Belhaven.
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| One of the historic buildings in the town. |
In the next two days I visited every shop in town. They ranged from antiques to high end clothing stores.
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| The most interesting spot was a shop with individual boutiques. |
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| Every nook was filled with unique merchandise. |
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| Antiques were mixed with new merchandise in this room. |
We will be staying in Belhaven until Monday because of the cold (below freezing) weather that is due on Saturday night.
Thank you for reading my blog.
