Leg 2 - Tuesday, August 2 2016

We had breakfast at a local Belhaven restaurant decorated with Coca-Cola memorabilia and retro styled furniture. Good, stick to your ribs food.

We left Belhaven Town Dock at 0750 and headed up toward the Pungo-Aligator River Canal.  The canal is as strait as an arrow for as far as you can see.  Jeff Jackel remarked that you can almost see the horizon at the end of the canal.  

As we exited the canal a thunderstorms overtook us and the rain and waves began.  We picked our way up the Aligator River to the Aligator River Swing Bridge.  Just before reaching the bridge the storms subsided so the bridge would open for us and a sailboat that had been traveling just in front of us.  We continue up the Aligator River and into Albermarle Sound where additional thunderstorms continued with driving rain and thunder and lightning all around us.  Jeff Jackel was at the wheel and Rich was navigating.  I was very tired so I laid down for a nap and slept through one of the worst storms to hit North Carolina in a long time.  When I awoke we had reached the other side of Albermarle Sound and were heading up the river toward Elizabeth City.  Rich and Jeff filled me in on the storm and said the boat handled very well in the bad weather.  I am glad of that.

As we approached Elizabeth City we decided to stop at a marina for the night and take showers and relax.  However, no one seemed to be at the marina to answer our calls on both my cell phone and the VHF radio.  We finally decided to go to the public dock for the night.  The public dock is free and open to all boaters on a first come, first served basis.  However, there are no bathrooms or showers available.

After tying up we walked around town to find s restaurant for dinner.  Everyone told us that there had been severe thunderstorms that had caused major power outages throughout the city.  We walked by many stores and businesses that had lost electricity earlier in the day and the employees went home without shutting down the lighting.  But now, the electricity came back on and the store lights wrre on, but no one was there to shut them off.

We finally found a bar that served sandwiches and had a few drinks and a sandwich for dinner.  Not very exciting, but filling.  We walked back to the boat to plan our next leg of the journey tomorrow through the Great Dismal Swamp Canal to Norfolk, VA.  After talking with our wives and checking the time for breakfast we went to bed exhausted.  Good night!