Passage - Oriental - Belhaven Marina, NC
47 SM 7.8 Engine Hours
7:43 AM Underway
2:17 PM Docked starboard side to face dock

Rough ride today. It wasn’t supposed to be bad until the afternoon. But the wind got here early and we took a beating. We were worried about the Neuse river as it had beat us up bad in the past. We got an early enough start and the Neuse was choppy but not bad. We had occasional spa on the windshield and the decks were getting soaked. However, as we turned out of the Neuse into the Bay River, (yes, Bay River is really the name of this river ) the wind started picking up out of the Northeast. We were getting 15-20 knots of wind and the ride wasn’t good. The wind was supposed to be out of the Southeast. The gusts were higher than I ever got a wind reading on with my hand held wind speed meter. I told Susan we would be in Gale Creek in 5 miles and it would be calm along the creek no matter the wind.
We certainly glad to reach the creek and Liquid Therapy quit galloping along along this creek. As we passed the Hobucken Coast Guard station we saw them launching a small vessel. A few minutes later the Coast Guard went flying by us. I wondered if there was a boat in trouble ahead in the Pamlico River or Pamlico Sound. I never saw the Coast Guard boat go back and heard no distress calls on the VHF radio. At the end of this creek we would have to cross 3 miles of open water of the Pamlico River. I wasn’t looking forward to that and warned Susan we were going have a very rough 30 minutes. Susan takes care of everything being tossed about during rough stretches. It is amazing what stays in place and what falls over, slides around, and doors that close and open during hard rolls. The wine glasses start clinking in their overhead rack at some degree of roughness. I’ve been meaning to take note of the conditions when the wine glasses start tinkling and use that as a some roughness weather forecast factor.

Anyhow, just as I am departing the creek into the Pamlico River I notice a tug pushing a barge down the Pamlico River. It is bouncy and I turn to go behind the tug-barge. I am being hit broadside with waves. I’ll be turning back into the swells as soon as I get passed the stern of the tug. Just how bad can a river that is 15-18 feet deep get anyway? I mean the waves can’t get 15 - 18 feet tall. Well we certainly had a steady diet of 3-4 footers tossing us about for the 30 minutes heading diagonally into the waves. That is actually a pretty safe ride. After crossing the Pamlico river we turned about 90º into the Pungo River and now had the waves coming up behind Liquid Therapy. This was a much better ride. The wind had certainly been switching all morning and was now blowing 25 knots out of the Southeast. Liquid Therapy surfed with the waves and we had a very good ride all the way to the Belhaven Marina.

Greg, the dock master, got us tied up to the face dock. But with the wind and swells coming into the face dock Liquid Therapy was bouncing and rolling like we were still underway. I spoke with the boat that was behind us at the marina and he said they had been bouncing since their early morning arrival. There would the a 55’ boat scheduled to dock ahead of us and we were hoping that would knock down some of the bouncing.

Susan and I walked around Belhaven to the find the hardware store and Spoon River Restaurant. We had heard nothing but rave reviews about Spoon River and fortunately had made reservations for a later dinner!

I don’t usually write about food, but Spoon River was the best meal we have had our entire trip. The restaurant features local produce, seafood and beef. We tried a flight of wine, the first we had ever seen! The bartender came over to see what drink we ordered and set us up with 4 different wines, in our flight, to go with our meal. They had run out of several entree items, so we both opted for filet mignon. I ordered an appetizer of local shrimp egg roll. When the flight of wine came, it had cheese, crackers, peanuts, gherkins and queen olives. I should not have ordered the appetizer as the flight came with so much food and wine. The appetizer consisted of two huge shrimp egg rolls and was loaded with all kinds of decorative edibles. We boxed much of the wine flight food and half of the shrimp egg roll appetizer and garnishes. Susan no longer needs to go to the store for parsley, just limes. She said she is going to make slaw out of the cabbage, carrots and parsley! We were definitely wowed and almost full when our steaks arrived. Local cold crop veggies had been grilled and tossed with a reduction sauce over red bliss potatoes, with the filet served on top! I may have enjoyed the grilled Brussel sprouts more than the steak. Again, too much to eat and we will have steak for dinner aboard on this very rainy, windy night. On our way out, the bartender rushed up with a big slice of apple spice coffee cake, made by her husband. You would not believe the weight of the boxed food we took home. I actually checked how far it is from our house to come here to eat, a mere three and a half hours. We may actually come down to Belhaven for a long weekend sometime in the future. Or, it’s only a four day boat trip from the Chesapeake. We will be back!

Today’s picture is the shrimp egg roll appetizer from Spoon River. Like I said before, Susan will be making cole slaw out of the garnishes of purple and green cabbage! There is rarely a lack fun and good food aboard Liquid Therapy!