8 boats left the Welcome Center on the Dismal Swamp Canal. It was calm when they left. 8 boats locked through the last lock. 7 boats stopped for the day at the free dock at Elizabeth City after going 22 miles. Bud, Rick and Fuzzy on Earendil kept going south. They froze the night before, no power, no heat and they woke to frost on the boat and ice on the dock. They were definitely going south.

The wind was picking up as the water opened up into the Pasquotank River Inlet past Elizabeth City. The water was only 8 to 10 feet deep the whole way out to Albemarle Sound. The entire sound was only around 15 feet deep. The notes for the Intracoastal Waterway say some folks lay up several days waiting for calm weather to cross the shallow sound. Since Earendil is a sailboat again, there would be no waiting for our intrepid crew. The waves were about 4 feet as they entered the sound, by the time they got across the wind was up to 21 knots and the water was "pretty agitated".

At the other side of the sound they entered the Alligator River Inlet. There's a swing bridge over the inlet and a marina just before the bridge. That's where they were headed. The channel is shallow. Rick was at the helm and Bud was trying to contact the marina. They saw another sailboat ahead that was aground and being pulled out by TowBoatUS. When Bud finally got the marina on the VHF radio, he noticed the folks on TowBoatUS gesturing vigorously. He told the marina he had to switch back to channel 16 to see what they needed, he thought they might need some assistance with the other sailboat. When he got them on the radio they said, "Turn to port, turn to port!" So Rick did. It seems the channel was miss marked. Rick was a bit shaken up, but they didn't go aground.

Active Captain (a website where cruisers offer advice, updates and reviews on conditions and marinas) said that the entrance to the marina was shoaled to 5'. Bud found out that the Corps of Engineers had just dredged it that morning! Bud had the helm as they made the turn into the marina. He had to make a 90-degree turn at the swing bridge and parallel the highway to the edge of the inlet. He was trying not to go too fast, so if he went aground it would be a soft grounding, but he had 21 knots of wind on the beam. He had to go at least 4.5 knots to maintain steerage. As it was, he was angled at about 20 degrees from the direction of travel because of the wind. But they made it in without incident. The sailboat that went aground is now 2 slips down from them, so they ended up OK, also.

Bud says it is a beautiful marina, clean, well kept and inexpensive. Oddly enough, this is another marina and highway rest stop combination. Must be a North Carolina thing. But this one has power. I asked Bud if the heat was working again. He said the pump was working now and he intended to run it all night or until it started smoking. The crew wanted heat!