Sailing Elizabeth City

A little bit of a stormy night - the marina is not well protected from winds, so we rocked and rolled a little at our face-dock.

We had met a family that is spending the weekend on their large power boat on the same dock.   The name of the boat is "4 of Harts", so I'm assuming their name is Hart....

The kids are really sweet.  And they're hams for the camera!

Note the coffee colored water from the Dismal Swamp.

See what I mean?   Cute.

Of course, we went on another long bike ride - all over town and out along the riverside.

Neat old churches were everywhere!

Seemed like more churches than people to fill them!!

Neat old houses - some in good repair, some not so much.

And the water tower - right in town.  Note the "Harbor of Hospitality" slogan.  It's true!  Nice folks.

And a highlight that I was not expecting in Elizabeth City.  Found the Toyama Japanese Restaurant -  sushi for Karen!!

It was delicious!

And we stopped by the Saturday street market - lots of fresh veggies and baked goods.

And I spied these little earrings.  I had bought some similar from a "boat girl" in BVI one time, but I lost one of them.  So, I treated myself to another pair!  Fun day.

Sailing Manteo to Elizabeth City

Off northbound in the morning.  Destination, my Mom's "namesake" city - Elizabeth City.

Another cloudy day - and we could see a big blob of rain coming at us from the west on the radar.

It was pouring rain, although a little hard to see here.  Duane was inside trying to figure out a little autopilot problem.

I had glasses on, not because I needed them to see, but because the rain was hitting my eyes and making it difficult to keep my eyes open!

View of the bridge that we had biked to the day before.

But soon the skies cleared and we were treated to a lovely day, although the wind was strong and right on our nose.


This is the blimp hangar at the Naval Air Station Weeksville.  A huge structure!

And we even got to see a glimpse of a blimp of some nature!

The US Coast Guard has the largest training base in the US at Elizabeth City.  As we approached the town, we saw a couple of Coast Guard planes doing touch-n-goes.

Short video of the plane flying low over us on approach to the airport.  Neat to see.

Closer view of the blimp hangar.

Our destination was Pelican Marina.  We couldn't stay at the free "town docks" because they can't accommodate the catamaran because their slips are not wide enough.  The sign isn't a good introduction - the folks are very nice.

All tied up for the evening.

We met several of the folks on the docks.

And importantly, found their laundry room.  The pile had gotten quite high!

Sailing Manteo

We had a nice visit at Manteo.

Took a nice long bike ride up to the northern end  of Roanoke Island.  Lovely shady, paved walk/bikeway.   We also wandered around the Fort Raleigh National Park, but I failed to take even one photo there!!

Then we biked further south to find Strippers Restaurant - cheap beer and eats!  Worth the ride.

Back to the boat.

Lazy day - wandered around town a bit.  Interesting things just looked out the back of the boat.

A " multiple times per day " sailing cruise went out.

And this jet-ski powered contraption was a big hit with the tourists.   Interesting to see them spin around.

And interesting to see them "wipe out" - it happens in an instant so I never got a shot of it.  They just seem to lose there balance and they get "jet powered" down into the water.  They don't seem to get hurt, just slammed into the water.  They get back up in moments, so it must not hurt!   I'll leave that fun to them, I think!

Sailing Engelhard to Manteo

Leaving Engelhard.....nice folks but the dock was a bit un-tidy!  I hate to fuss, but no one wants green slime from the dock tracked on their white boat!

I called ahead to the Manteo dockmaster to make sure we could get there since the charts show really shallow water.  He reassured me that the charts are not correct.  Approaching Old House channel at the southern tip of the Roanoke Sound.

The Bonner Bridge....we didn't go out that way - just passed by in the distance.

Bodie Island Lighthouse in the distance.

 Approaching the bridge between Manteo and Kill Devil Hills.  This one we had to go under!

But this boat's mast is only 55 feet tall - so not a problem for this 65 foot bridge clearance.  Note the cloudy sky...

By the time we had negotiated the narrow channel into Manteo, a storm had blown in....we got tied up and almost immediately the sky opened up with a steady downpour.

And here we are later at the Manteo Waterfront at the free dock! (No power but the price is right!)

Sailing Ocracoke to Engelhard

Time to head out!  The morning started out nice enough as we exited Silver Lake....

But the skies off shore were ominous!

And appeared to be blowing the storm inland towards us!  Lightning popping all around.  But, the storm passed behind us, luckily!  I think the ferry probably weathered the storm.

Destination was Engelhard and the Big Trout Marina.  We'd never been there - but had read up on the very narrow channel.  No problems - the charts and markers were spot-on.  We're tied up at the dock - a big trawler passing by in the marina.  The town is mainly fishing-industry oriented.

The owners of the marina were extremely friendly!  We had a great lunch at their little diner - a nice, homey feeling and good food!

Island Girl on the dock.

The marina owner gave me some shrimp to use to fish off the boat - I fished for several hours at night trying to catch a flounder.....no luck but fun!

Last day at Ocracoke

Everyone deserted us!  I guess they had to go back to work!

Pat and Buddy shove off shortly after we said goodbye to the girls (who lined up for the ferry ride back).

We just had a nice, lazy day....doing the normal Ocracoke things.  But mostly just relaxing.

Even more Ocracoke

We (all the boat residents) went out for a group bike ride...and ran into the Pony Island crowd. Small island.

So, everyone eventually made it back to the marina.  Some fishing was accomplished off the boat.  A few small fish were caught and released.

Our cockpit was "party central" for a while!

Luke caught a small Atlantic Pufferfish.  The fellow on the dock said they were excellent to eat.  He even told me how to clean it.  So - I have a small amount of this fish that I put in the freezer on the boat and will sample later.  I'll let you know if it's "excellent"!

Strange happenings at the dock - a wedding party showed up for photos.  Pretty girls!

But this was probably the most strange thing I've seen in a while.  Two kids from the boat in front of us got on the dock and were cutting up with these animal heads.

Whatever happens in Ocracoke, stays in Oracoke.  Thank goodness!