"2003 Trip South from the Alligator to the Pungo" Leechville Travelogue by grandmaR

The 2003 Narrative goes from Elizabeth City to Weeksville for the trip down the Pasquotank, and then the Alligator Pungo Section is under Leechville because we went to Dowry Creek Marina at the end of it, which is much closer to Leechville than it is to Belhaven. Besides I have too many narratives under the Alligator River and Belhaven - so I've gotten a bit creative.

FIre and lighthouse at Alligator Marina

I woke up before dawn and looked out the stern ports and saw a big bonfire on shore. Never did figure out why.

We got underway before 7. The GPS with the Toshiba isn't keeping satellites very well. We may have rain today or tomorrow.

West side of Fairfield Bridge

We go cross the Fairfield canal and go under the new fixed Fairfield Bridge. When we came south in 2000 this bridge was being completed, and when we came north in 2001, they were taking down the old swing bridge.

CONTESSA passes and is ahead of us under the bridge. They disappear around the bend, and go to the new marina in Belhaven.

A power boat names UH OH II passed.

About noon we went by three dredging barges in channel. We have been 35.4 sm at an average speed of 6.6 mph.

End of pipes with warning sign

My feet have started to swell and look pretty bad. I also have a big bruise across the joint of my left big toe in a cross shape. I don't know why.

We pass a camp and I take a picture of it, but I can find nothing about it on the internet. Maybe it is a part of the Alligator River Refuge.

Red bumper in the canal

We see a red bumper like power boaters use. Maybe someone lost it off their boat. Or maybe it is marking a snag inthe canal. We don't investigate.

A little yellow and green tug named TAR HEEL passes pushing a crane and towing his own yellow mooring ball. (Picture in Intro)

Pipes along canal bank

Down near the Wilkerson bridge, two big power boats passed - 2 Carvers TOTALLY WASTED and SPIDER WEB from Maryland and also GET AWAY. Hear them on the radio going into Dowry Creek as we leave the canal and enter the Pungo River.

We get to Dowry Creek after 49.4 sm and 7.25 hours.

The office/marina people were up on the third floor deck. No one was down in the office. I finally yelled up at them and someone came down so I could register.

I talked to the TOTALLY WASTED people about the best way to pass (most power boaters think they are doing us a favor if they go far away to pass, but there is much less wake if they pass close to us - unfortunately, I don't think they believed me), and we also met the folks from LADY LINAKA who were on the radio so much on the Great Bahama Banks in 2002.

They run the SSB net in the morning at 0800. They are going to the Bahamas anyway in spite of the new fees.

There is a lot of conversation about the courtesy van. The guy that took it got back to the marina and he'd forgotten to pick up his 'O' ring, and had to go back for it.

We can get DirecTV without putting the dish on the Follow Me. I tried pocketmail at the pay phone but none of the numbers worked. I found later that I had two of the numbers reversed.

We took the courtesy van with the the folks from LADY LINAKA and went to eat at the Helmsman and
then went to the grocery store.

Bob at Dowry Creek on the porch

We woke about 5 and Bob ran the refrigeration. It's too foggy to see the marks coming into the marina. By the time the sun burns the fog off, it's 0900 and too late to leave to get to Swansboro tonight. So we stay.

LADY LINAKA and the catamaran traveling with her left in spite of the fog.

EMMA LOU (the trawler we saw briefly in Elizabeth City) is here too - she's waiting for a part to be sent to her. It started to rain and we had thundershowers so I'm glad we didn't leave. Bob spent the rainstorm up on the porch.

I discovered that the RW drive for the black Dell is defective and
won't work. I did figure out how to use the data port on the pay phone (with the aid of the directions on the phone) in order to log onto the interenet via the 800#. Don't think I could do it with a local number though because I don't know how to pay for a local call.

I took the silver Dell up to get it's virus definitions updated. I even managed to get Diane of EMMA LOU's AOL mail. She normally does it via cell phone, and she gets no signal here. She gave me $5 to pay for it because the 800# costs by the minute.

I uploaded some photos and also looked at my VT page and I now have 5 top 5 destinations - Key West, St. Augustine, Norfolk, Daytona and Bermuda. .

Next - Oriental