Sailing Elizabeth City to Belhaven

We woke up early for some reason, so we decided to go on and shove off a little before 6am.

Another grey day - the sun trying to peek through!

We were able to pull the jib out - nice to be sailing even if motor assisted.

We stopped off at Alligator River Marina for some diesel and a snack from their grill.  Nothing fancy but a great "convenience" store/marina.

They are on the main highway over to Manteo/Outer Banks....and they have a replica Hatteras Lighthouse.  Pretty authentic looking!

Next up was the only bridge that we had to have opened on this trip.  It's the Alligator River swing bridge.  We called the helpful attendant on VHF channel 13 requesting the opening.  He cheerfully said "no problem".

So, as we got closer, we could hear the warning bells ringing  and could see the barricades drop to stop the traffic.  The bridge started pivoting in the center.

And slowly swings open.

Allowing us to quickly motor thru the opening.

The poor cars that are eagerly waiting for us to get thru so they can be on their way.

And in just a few minutes, the bridge is back in place and we're on the other side!

Pulled the sail back out for a great run down the straight part of the Aligator River.  The winds were 20+ knots, but not from a great direction.  Since we had a long run ahead of us, we continued to use the motors also.

Next up was the long, straight Alligator/Pungo River canal.  It's about 23 miles and looks mostly like this the entire way.

It's a man-made canal built in the early 1900's for barge traffic.  Pretty shorelines.

And we saw a modern day barge!

He was pushing a platform of unknown use.  Other than one other power-boat, this was the only traffic we saw for hours!

Love going under these Intercoastal Waterway bridges with this boat since we don't have to worry about our mast height!

I was sneaky and stole a shot of my Captain when he wasn't looking!

After a very long day - we stopped for the night at the Dowry Creek Marina just north of Belhaven.  We'd never been there before.  Very nice marina and friendly folks.  They invited us to their daily "Happy Hour" at the clubhouse for some nice boating chatter.

Beautiful sunset!