2025-06-01 Into the Dismal Swamp

The dinghy is patched and still not leaking air, not sure how many times it has been glued but this time, knock on wood, it is holding.

We left Sojourns dock and motored o Belhaven,  Stayed in Belhaven for two days due to winds out of the east and rainy weather.  Did not get off the boat.

Rainy days in Bellhaven

Our view from the Salon windows.

 After Bellhaven we motored up to the south end of Alligator River with light winds and no rain, some long straight stretches.

In the Alligator river - Pungo river canal

It was a cold day, but relaxing

 

 Had a great sail from the south end of Alligator River up to Elizabeth City.   The new main sail did a great job. 

 

Even Dean is wearing a jacket

Took the free dock at Jennette Brothers food distribution.  You can dock for free as long as you dine out locally.

Charm at Jeanette Bros free dock

 

Thursday we did a almost 5 -mile round trip walk, up to the UPS store, Harbor Freight tools and the Food Lion.  The city has some interesting old buildings and a nice brick road.

Nice brick home

Looks like they just put pavement over the brick road

Back at the dock, did some work on the main sail cover and helped a couple of other boaters dock.  The last folks to dock were Paul and Colleen off TrianaMarie.  We had met them a couple of years ago in the Bahamas, and it was nice to get caught up on where they have been and what they are doing.

Usually we will go to Big Boss Burrito for lunch, but they were closed for AC work.  Ended up at Elizabeth City Pizza, ok but not what we had been planning on. 

Elizabeth City Pizza

 

 

Elizabeth City sunrise 

Next morning Kris woke up with bad back pain and breastbone pain.  Then further symptoms that left her system empty of food.  So instead of leaving we decided to stay a bit to let Kris heal up.  

Friday was no better, so she did go see a Chiropractor in town, which seemed to help a bit.   She was able to eat a banana Friday night without it coming back up.  We decided one more day was prudent to stay. Saturday was better, but new symptoms arose, but at least she could eat.

We left Elizabeth City on Sunday, today, and motored with 4 other boats up to the Dismal Swamp.  Usually there is maybe 1 other boat on the trip, but today we had a monohull, two catamarans, and two power boats.  That made docking/staying at the free Dismal Swamp Visitor Center dock not really an option.  Adjusting our plan, we made it a few more miles to the Douglas free dock.  A bit smaller, but we are the only ones here.   We said we motored, but mostly Dean motored and Kris laid on her back inside and groaned a bit off and on.

Douglas Free Dock 

Well, not to be left out, Dean decided to join Kris in misery.  Dean thought that an overhead branch was taller than it was.  After docking tonight had the pleasure of going to the top of the mast and straighten the lighting rod, straighten the windex, taking down the electronic windex, and taking down the tricolor light.  Tomorrow will be ordering some new parts.  You know, we do need some project to keep us busy.  Thank goodness the tree branch took out the two most expensive items to replace, and not those cheap ones. 😄

It is always good to replace parts sometimes just for the heck of it

 

 should be a bit straighter

 

Had a back-up blogger fill in this week, hopefully the "normal" one is back for next week.