Boat Trip: Little River, SC to Plattsburgh, NY – DAY 7: Elizabeth City, NC

Another successful night at anchor. We tracked our position in Navionics all night and we barely moved, just rotating around the anchor with the changes in wind and current. Captain Mark made breakfast, an omelet with artichoke hearts and extra cheese for Sidekick Sue since we were running low on meat sides. After breakfast, we pulled anchor and started across Albermarle Sound.

Albermarle Sound is a vast open crossing. There are times when you can’t even see land in some directions. The guide books warn against attempting it during high winds; one guide book warned that it can be tougher to cross than the Gulf of Mexico. We happened to be here under ideal conditions, warm and very low winds. Because of conditions, it was easier than some of the other open water crossings we have made. Leaving the sound, we went by the shapes that we had thought were large tankers or container ships out in the distance when we saw them on the horizon the night before. It turns out these objects were much closer than we thought, and much smaller than we thought. More investigation revealed that they were actually duck blinds built out in the shallower water. We wanted to get closer to see them, but didn’t want to stray too far into the shallows for a picture. None of them were occupied; duck hunting in NC is in the Fall.

Crossing the Sound was, thankfully, uneventful. Mark did most of the driving, as Sidekick Sue prefers the canals over open water. Sue is still trying to get the hang of holding onto a course when there isn’t any land on both sides; it’s easier to just “stay in the middle” then to try to follow a course using infrequent channel markers and the electronics. Nothing that we can’t fix with more practice. 🙂

Across the Sound, we entered the Pasquotank River to one of the most inland points on the river, Elizabeth City. We had learned of a free dock available, which is always an incentive, but we are slowly learning why many people choose to pay instead of searching out the free docks. This “dock” is a tiny little triangle surrounded by 4 pilings. Because our boat is square in the back and pointed in the front, we had to back in between the pilings to be close enough to the tiny dock to be able to get off the boat. Between that, and our lack of experience with tying up to pilings, we just did the best we could to get into the slip (didn’t hit the pilings), tie up to the cleats behind us and do some makeshift “lassoing” of the pilings until we could research the proper way to tie up (thank God for the internet and Youtube). Even secured properly, the deck is too short to reach the opening on our railing, so we are having to climb over the railing to get off the boat (the things we do to save money). Here is the image from Google Maps, if we are not clearly conveying the dock situation:

We know that once we start getting near the big cities (Norfolk, Baltimore, NYC, etc.) we will have to start paying for dockage, so we’re trying to delay the inevitable.

We walked around Elizabeth City, and a couple miles out to the Food Lion to stock up on some fresh food. It is a beautiful city, with lots of historic old homes, including the The Pond House Inn, that we were inspired to photograph. Notice the Cypress knees, sticking up like little garden gnomes around the base of the tree. We weren’t really familiar with these trees until spending time in North and South Carolina. As we’ve seen in other towns in North Carolina, the people are extremely friendly and inviting.

When we returned to the boat, we had new neighbors, who are travelling the same route as us tomorrow, so we will probably be seeing them on and off for the next few days. One of the best parts about meeting people on the loop is getting advice and suggestions from seasoned “loopers”. We are finding that a lot of knowledge in boating is “local”, meaning, you can’t find all the tricks and tips in the books. The people that have passed through before, have learned all the secrets, and are happy to share.