We leave early with the rest of the boats at anchor to transit another Canal; this one the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal. Like the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, it is man made and straight. It is no unpleasant but not as pretty as the Dismal. It is 20 miles long and connects to the Pungo River. One bridge we have to pass under is 64 feet; a very small margin of clearance but we pass through fine.

We were intending to go to a place called Bellhaven but there was difficulty getting space so we opt for a small marina in Upper Dowry Creek a bit before Belhaven. It is a nice marina but somewhat lonely spot. The wind is brisk coming in and it is one of those complicated marinas where you have to tie lines around two posts on the way in and also get the bow tied off. Of course, our slip assignment is right next to a very nice boat and while we get in ok, it is hard on the nerves.

They have great facilities despite their somewhat remote location. They offer a guest car which you can book to drive into town (Bellhaven, a few miles away) to do provisioning but we have lots of stuff so we sit tight and have a quiet night.

We have decisions to make for the next day. We have two fairly challenging bodies of water ahead of us and the forecast is for quite strong winds. We'll see.....