Since it was only about 50 miles to Belhaven we still arrived at Dowry Marina early enough to borrow the car and get ourselves thoroughly lost before stopping and asking for directions to the Food Lion. The options at Food Lion were slim, but we were able to pick up a few things, including some salad ingredients for the 5 pm pot luck at the marina. Advice to cruisers - have a few good recipes, and ingredients on hand so you are always ready for an impromptu pot luck - they are always a blast. Most of the people at the marina had been there for a while, and were in various stages of their cruises. Although everyone knew each other, they were all very welcoming and inclusive and it was great to hear everyone's stories. Even though two stories were about running a ground in the section of the ICW we were going through the next day. (We ended up being fine.)
Tuesday morning was first morning that we both woke up COLD! Part of that might be because we woke up earlier than usual, but it's also gotten cold as we've come north!
We were up early because if we could make it a little over 80 miles we could make it to Coinjock, otherwise we'd have to stop at just under 50 ICW miles - there was no where in between. We were making great time in the morning, sadly, once we hit Aligator River we slowed down a lot and unless we picked up about a knot (not likely since we'd be headed right into the wind and waves as we crossed the Palmico) we wouldn't make it to Coinjock before 8 pm. We decided to call it an early day and stopped at 2 pm at the Alligator River Marina. We were exhausted but we enjoyed the free wifi from and I did some birthday shopping for Ben online (The Jungle by Clive Cussler). Since we had been so cold the night before we zipped apart the sleeping bag (which has finally dried) and added 1/2 of it as an extra blanket. It made a big difference!
This morning we woke up early again and headed back into the wind and waves to cross the Albemarle Sound. The direction to Elizabeth City allowed us to bring out our jib and fight the waves less, which had our speed around 6.5 - 7 knots (fast!). So this time we will be on the Great Dismal Swamp route. We made it to Elizabeth City (The Harbor of Hospitality) in time for lunch, so decided to tie up to the free town dock. We were a little confused about where we could go because there was a no docking sign on a pier connected to the sea wall and we couldn't fit into the slips (18 ft beam). We called the number and they assured us we could tie up to the sea wall but we got a little nervous because as we were tying up a police officer walked up to us. We were ok though, she was actually the welcome wagon. She also gave us the ok to tie up to a smaller wooden dock just south of where we were. It was a little more protected from the wind generated wake and there were more places to attach fenders and lines.
Whisper has three water tanks: one on each side which run to the "cold" water tap in the galley and head respectively, and one in the middle which runs to the "hot" water tap on each side (the water is not actually hot, but it comes out the "hot" tap). Only the cold water in the galley is really sutible for drinking (once run through a brita filter). The other tanks just taste a little bit funky, but are fine for washing dishes and hands. In general we use the "hot" water for washing dishes, the cold water in the galley for drinking and cooking and the cold water in the head for washing hands and the occasional deck shower. We also have a large (10 liter) dromedary bag, which we fill up with water suitable for drinking, so we have something if the cold water tank on the galley side runs out. While in the Bahamas we also had a solar shower for the occasional post snorkel rinse. While docked at the Alligator River Marina our hot water tank ran out of water. Since we are coming north pretty early, and it's cold, the water at the marina was turned off and we couldn't fill up our tanks. Then, as we were coming into Elizabeth City, our galley cold water also ran out. We ferried some water from the starboard side over to finish washing dishes, but sadly the free docks in Elizabeth City did not have water. We thought we'd be ok since we were planning on eating out for Ben's birthday, but we knew we'd need to fill up soon.
After lunch in Elizabeth City, the boat was moving quite a bit, even on our protected dock. We decided between the water issue, not having power (and therefore heat), and the opening bridge just north of the city that maybe we should move a few miles north to Lamb's Marina for the evening. It was the right call, despite getting here and realizing the slip they had planned for us was only 18 ft wide (exactly our width), they quickly found us another spot to dock. We were also able to fill up our propane tank in addition to gas and water. There is only a very small restaurant nearby, so instead of eating out we took advantage of the seafood store at the marina and purchased fresh clams for a clam spaghetti birthday dinner. We did go across the "highway" to Track One for an appetizer and a drink. We were a little confused by the menu though. We did not realize that a $7 carafe of wine was going to be an entire liter!
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