Dream Catcher

Wednesday was a lay day due to rain and a much needed "office day" to catch up on work. Thursday we departed on a gorgeous sunny morning for Elizabeth City, NC. Negotiating the exit lock from the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, we swept out of the lock and into the Pasquotank River. What a gorgeous little river. It was beautiful and with the morning sun shining brightly on the water and trees, it was a delightful ride. Saw lots and lots of turtles. With the binoculars, we could count them as they enjoyed sunning on logs near the riverbanks. On one long log, we counted eleven! Big ones, little ones - so fun! We went past a log where we spotted two and just as we went by they both jumped off into the water to escape peril! It was a riot!

All of us in the South Mills Lock, Great Dismal Swamp Canal.
The boat on the left is another Island Packet that was tied up behind us.

After wending our way along a few miles of Dismal Swamp Canal and ten miles of river we finally went under the drawbridge at Elizabeth City around noon and settled into a free dock at Mariner's Wharf. This city boasts the largest US Coast Guard Station with airport and is extremely boater friendly. These free docks are provided for up to 48 hours, plus land showers and nearby restaurants, laundry and drugstores - all important to transient boaters. They even have volunteers who help you tie up.

Today we traveled 80 miles down the Pasquotank, across a small piece of the Albemarle Sound, into the Alligator River and then entered the Alligator River/Pongo River Canal. This is a 23 mile canal as straight as an arrow. At one point we could see one bridge 12 miles behind us and another ten miles ahead of us....in a 100 foot wide canal surrounded by trees! By 5:30PM we anchored in a beautiful tributary just off the Pongo River. There are at least 15 other sailboats here on their way south. Who knew! Courtney says it sounds like we are living in a fantasy world with all these names - Pongo, Alligator! (It is definitely outside most people's realities!)

Tomorrow morning we expect to reach Beaufort, NC, a well-known sailing stop-over for transient sailors going north and south through the ICW or off-shore. Years ago this was our jumping off location when we helped friends sail their Island Packet 40 to St Thomas, USVI. That "jump off" brought us out of Beaufort through the Pamlico Sound and 300 miles east before turning south. This time we'll have land very close by.

A few pictures below from our day.