Well, we've had a busy couple of days. On Wednesday morning, we left Coinjock, NC at 0730 and we still weren't the first ones to leave. We crossed Albermarle sound and entered the Alligator River where we originally planned to anchor for the night.

We made such good time that we arrvived at the Alligator River - Pungo River canal in the early afternoon and decided to try to press on to Bellhaven. Why waste a beautiul travel day by stopping early?
Turns out we cut it pretty close but we made it into the River Forrest Marina just after sundown. Fortunately it was well marked and the sunset had a lot of "hang time" on it.

We got tied up and settled in just as twilight faded away. We enjoyed a fine dinner of baloney and cheese sandwiches and watched a movie. We covered over 80 statute miles in one day so we rewarded ourselves by sleeping in.

Thursday morning we were off at 0900 and headed for Oriental, NC. We crossed the Pamlico River and entered Goose Creek. (That certainly sounds less menacing than "Alligator River" doesn't it?) We transited the creek as well as a man-made canal before entering the Bay River and proceeding out into Pamlico Sound. Here we passed famed Ocracoke Island and inlet, a few miles to our east. Legend has it that it was one of Black Beard's old hangouts.

As we entered the Neuss River, we saw some navy fighter jets doing some bombing practice to our south. Pretty impressive! Anyway, we made it into our slip at Oriental at about 4:00 in the afternoon. Ken is leaving from here to head home this weekend and I'm going to stay put for a few days and wait out another group of storms passing through.

For those of you keeping track, Ken and I put 180 statute miles behind us since leaving Norfolk on Monday. It's been great having Ken along. He is a very skilled sailor and good company besides.

Here's a picture of Norma Fay in her slip and the famous Oriental Marina.

As a personal aside, cell service is very sketchy here. I literally have to walk several blocks to a park overlooking the water to get a signal. It also seems to help if I stand on top of a picnic table on one foot but I'm getting some funny looks from the locals!