Alligator River to Belhaven

Sunrise heading back ICW from Alligator River anchorage--that horrifying buzzing sound you hear are all those mayfly looking things that covered us the night before.  Mark said it sounded like a power plant on shore.  Ugh, hate bugs...stink bugs at home musta called ahead to the bugs at our anchorage.

Yesterday was a nice warm day WOOHOO and we commenced with more motoring down the ICW.   Jon hit the highlights including making it under the Wilkerson Bridge just fine as did our new friend Pamalynn who has a higher mast.  Pamlynn also pointed out the bald eagle for us then we saw three more...so distinctive and seeing them in the wild really is a treasure (humming the national anthem to myself now...).

Anywhoooo, so there we were minding our own business in the channel when this big boy came along.  What you can't see is that a crab pot was well into the channel so we had to basically collision course into him then cut back over to starboard.  But, as with the last barge operation, he was very professional and kindly slowed down as we went past.  Got a wave out of him too.  :-)

And we're motoring...and Jon and Mark couldn't wait to change into shorts.  Nice feeling going along in the sun just watchin' the world go by.

When suddenly we saw a marvelous site!  Our first palm tree!! We must be going in the right direction.

AHHHHHHH!!!!  Noooooo!!! We ran out of chips!  Good Lord what will become of us?!?!

Jon and I did a little green fly poop cleaning on the back of the boat...well, Jon actually did most of it.  Of the 647 million bugs we started the day with, maybe only 1 million were left by the time we neared our stopping point for the night.  After the Wilkerson Bridge, the markers switch sides.  Not that it was an issue, just a fun little thing that happens on the ICW.  Around 1530 or so we pulled into Pantego Creek at Belhaven and set our anchor. 

Pamalynn joined us for a pre-dinner cocktail which was nice.  It was great to get to know them and hear about their boat adventures plus get advice from them.  We thanked them again for the lead today but they were again gracious and reminded us that the good boaters look after one another.  I hope one day we can pay it forward for another boat ourselves, following their lead.

We dinghied into town and finally bought a fly swatter.  Then we went to a super place called The Tavern at Jack's Neck.  Yummmmmmmy pizza and I had shrimp and grits.  Mmmmmhmmm...grits!  We enjoyed Pamalynn's company at dinner and the time flew by.  We paid a quick visit to their gorgeous boat on our way back to Stray Cat.  Hopefully I wasn't too irritating after too much wine and two beers...oopsie! 

I'm writing this as we near tonight's anchorage so we'll tell you all about today a little later...let's just say "bumpy" is a good adjective and I may see if I can upload a quick video.  No worries -- Life is Good! XO Suzanne