Sunday, October 28 - Alligator River to Belhaven.

The wind came up at about 2am. We were up and set the anchor drag alarm on the GPS and went back to bed. The alarm went off at 4am and were up for good. The wind was at 25 knots gusting to thirty with about three foot waves. I don't think we actually dragged much at all, but we were not taking any chances. As soon as we could see well enough to avoid the crab pots that were sharing our anchorage, we were up and gone.

We motored to the end of the Alligator River and entered the Alligator - Pungo Canal which had one turn in 18 miles. Most of the terrain was cypress swamp with a few grassy marsh type areas. Today's trip was only about 35 miles and much of it reminded me on the dead stream swamp up by Houghton Lake. In fact, most of the area inland from Cape Hatteras seems to be virtually uninhabited. ...The canal took us to the Pungo River which we followed to our current anchorage off the town of Belhaven. There are 12 boats here this evening and most, if not all, will be gone in the morning. There is a Bayfield 36 next to us for the second night in a row but we haven't met them yet....it has been so windy the last two days that all trips in the dinghy mean getting wet.

Today I put on long pants for the third time since we left and, for a time this morning, had on two layers of fleece. The temperature got up to about 69 this afternoon, but it was cloudy and windy enough that it felt cool for the first time. The sunset was beautiful this evening.