We ended up spending two nights anchored behind Goat Island. The weather wasn’t so bad but we had some things to take care of and we wanted to be in Elizabeth City for Thanksgiving so the timing worked out. On Sunday we hung out, watched football, and took a nap. One of the boats we were with at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center anchored next to us for a night but we didn’t talk to them at all, we never got off the boat. It wasn’t too cold, but it wasn’t very warm either.

This morning we decided to take showers before going back into civilization so we ran the engine for a while to heat up the water. Bill went first but the water never got hot. Apparently our hot water heater was broken. No showers today and something else to fix! So we headed out to Elizabeth City.

Elizabeth City has free dockage for 48 hours. It is also where the part for our autopilot was waiting for us. The marina we had the part shipped to has weird hours, they are closed Sunday and Monday and don’t open until noon on Tuesday. We considered going right to the marina to dock because they have showers and the free docks don’t but it was before noon and no one answered the phone. So we took one of the free slips which are right next to the downtown area. Our boat is long and the finger piers are short. Unfortunately the easiest way for us to get off the boat is over the bow pulpit as you can see me doing in the picture above. It is kind of challenging but not too bad.

We walked around town, had some fast food for lunch, checked out the local museum, and then walked over to the other marina to pick up our part. It will be much easier for us to do the work we need to do on the boat over at the other marina so we will go there tomorrow. Plus we get to take showers and use their washer and dryer for only $3 a load! When we got back Bill messed around with the hot water heater and now it seems to be working. He also put the new part on the autopilot and that looks like it works too.

We will most likely be staying here in town for the next 3 nights. We found a restaurant that has a $20 Thanksgiving buffet that we will probably go to, then off to cross the Albemarle Sound which they say can be very rough. The weather is supposed to get warmer. We keep waiting.