Left Belhaven anchorage at 9 am. No wind yet--that means no smoke coming our way yet. Air quality alert has been issued for this area. Although the smoke wasn't too bad last night, we still shut everything up. Apparantly the smoke isn't as bad during the day because it rises; but at night it settles down to earth and makes it difficult.

12 noon we are still plugging along the Alligator Pungo Canal at 6 knots. We can see plumes of smoke up ahead but can't smell it yet because the wind is light from the east. We have dust masks to wear if the smoke gets too bad. At 1 pm we saw a black bear on the shoulder of the Alligator Pungo Canal and took a picture. Didn't see any alligators or pungos, however.

Decided to continue up the Alligator River to either Milltail Creek or further north to the lakes above the bridge. The wind is expected to switch from the NE ro E 5-10 so those places would be OK and further from the wild fire. However, the wind seemed to stay more northward so the Milltail Creek anchorage is a no-go. So far, the smoke from the fire has been further from us, many miles, than we expected.

At 4 pm the wind started to settle down a it NNE 6-7 knots. After a tricky entry depth-wise and crab pot-wise, we anchored at 6:15 pm at the entrance to East and South Lakes, near Abermarle Sound. New anchorage for Troubadour.

Picked up anchor in Long Creek in Bonner Bay around 8:30 am. Very pleasant anchorage--quiet and peaceful. We saw several boats when approaching the ICW north of Bonner Bay this morning all going north. They probably spent the night in Oriental. It's sunny and no wind.

We put up the jib sail when we exited Goose Creek and continued on to the Pamlico River. NW winds around 8 knots so the engine is still on.

Anchored at 1:15 pm in Belhaven near the bridge. We decided to wait the next few days of north winds here. We can at least go to shore and take walks. The anchorage further on in Alligator River would restrict us to the boat. Interesting twist here, however: two barges are anchored near the bridge during the construction. Hope they stay put.

We woke up that night to a smoke filled harbor. There is a 20,000 acre wild fire burning out of control on the Alligator River near Stumpy point, approximately 40 miles away. The wind is NE so the smoke as made it's way to us in Belhaven. Had to close up the boat and plug the dorades; everything smells like a campfire.

Happy Mother's Day! Left the Coast Guard/Ft. Macon anchorage at 8:30 am to catch the current up the ICW. Cloudy, gray skies. Bumpy anchorage last night with big fishing boats going out with the tide at 4 am this morning. Rock and roll.....


So far, it's been kind of a wet trip to the Neuse River with showers off and on. Tried to put up the headsail but didn't do much good. Headed to Bonner Bay.

At 2:30 we had a little indecision whether or not to go to Bonner Bay or continue another 25 miles to Slade Creek, getting there around 6 or 7 this evening. The wind seems a little fluky and unpredictable this afternoon, so we don't trust it entirely. Decided to give it a go and turned toward Bonner Bay at 3 pm.

Our passage on the Neuse River today was the calmest and most benign we have ever experienced there. Usuallywe have high winds and big waves on the nose.

Ed inched our way into Bonner Bay and Long Creek and we dropped the hook at 3:30 pm in 10 feet of water. The wind is starting to turn to the NE. yeah.