Weatherwise the last two days have been uneventful. Boatwise too……and that’s always a good thing. We motored on down the Alligator-Pungo Canal, starting in light fog and ending in sunshine. Birding was pretty good through this section with at least 10 eagles spotted both mature and juvies. We experimented with putting the dinghy on davits for this section and it went fine. I think it took longer to get the dinghy up and tied off than just putting it on deck, but I assume that will go more quickly with practice. We had left the dinghy on the foredeck for the Dismal Swamp and Elizabeth City to make sure there were no dinghy disasters. With our canoe stern, the dinghy sticks out quite a bit on each side and sometimes that can make for some heartpounding moments when it comes to close to adjacent pilings and other boats.
We anchored for the evening at a wide spot in the road at the exit of Goose Creek Canal, just before the Neuse. There was a nice breeze, but not enough to keep down the mosquitoes and we were soon chased inside for a lovely dinner of hamburgers and oven fries.
The next day’s motor brought us to Oriental. A whopping 20 miles of motoring. We said that we would take our time since we left home earlier than usual and we are doing that. Murphy was put in charge of the helm for this quiet section. Oriental seemed a little more dried up than before. It proclaims itself the sailing capital of North Carolina, but other than a couple of restaurants and artsy shops there really isn’t much there anymore. We anchored out with the boats that don’t move very often and settled in for the day. By evening we were joined by two more traveling sailboats and, long after dark, a large motoryacht. The motoryacht was greeted by 3 bottlerockets from the marina. Murphy was not amused. The motoryacht was probably not amused either.