6.4.08

I crossed Pamlico where the jelly fish were still crazy! I will update tonight so look for new pictures tomorrow. It was a beautiful morning; I had a bad camping spot the night before so I was on the water very early saw the sunrise. It felt like a big stretch the water was still and looked like it was frozen. , came up the middle of the Pungo river, could see a mile an a half to either side, I was out there all by myself, it was gorgeous. I pulled right into Bell Haven, was trying to get some supplies. I got some local advice which I am glad I did because I have a tough stretch coming up. Got a great lunch at this place called farm boys it was the most hoppin place in town. I met a guy named Mike and his juvenile Macaw Einstein. He let me borrow his bike. I used it to go down to the town and get some groceries. It started to get really blow so I ended up staying in Bell Haven, moved my boat around to Riverside Marina and ended up staying there in their dock house. There I met Keith who is coincidently he was on the second day of a bicycle trip, you can find out more about the trip on his website: (link to site) Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page! It was cool because I actually felt like I had advice to give him because he was just starting.

Got a pretty good start the next day after some Sunday breakfast, went further down the Pungo there was a huge Redneck Riviera. I talked to them and I wanted to get out and have a beer but I kept going because I knew camping spots are sparse through the area. Low and behold I got a killer camping spot, so much better then I had anticipated. I will upload a picture, it was gorgeous. It was right on the shore, tons of pine needles. Supposedly there are brown bears in the area but I didn’t meet any. Met a huge deer, climbed a huge deer stand and had a great evening.

The next day I didn’t want to leave (Monday) so I made breakfast and slow start and took my time packing up. I finally got going around 9:30am. I immediately wished I had got an earlier start because the weather report was dead wrong. The wind was flowing north not southwest as the report had predicted, NOAA seems to be wrong a lot of the time. I got up to the Alligator River; somehow the wind was still right in my face… it made for some of the worst paddling conditions. 1-2 foot chop coming straight at you in open water. My boat comes up and over the first hard into the second wave. It totally kills your speed and its draining to do that all day long for 5 or 6 hours, the up and down, you get soaked (event though I have my skirt on) it’s very tiring and if you stop paddling, the water pushes you back. The banks are impenetrable in this area. The cypress trees make cypress swamps. The old cypress trees that used to grow on the shore, so although the trees have died, the stumps and knees (roots) are still there. You can’t see them but if you get too close to shore, my paddle hits them or my boat hits them and some are very sharp. That have died and fallen down have left their stumps 40 feet out of from the shore and it’s like a mine filed. Even if you try to get close to shore it is pretty tough and I was really getting frustrated. Finally about 8:45 that night I got into the marina.
Later, a green 36 foot sail boat called the Transom that I have been noticing for a while, invited me for dinner. As I was changing, they left me a note on my boat saying they had noticed me as well and invited me to dinner on their boat with their cat named Mr. Mischief. They served me some fantastic goulash and we exchanged stories. Its funny, I have noticed that a lot of these cruisers have cats instead of dogs because it’s easier. They clean themselves and they aren’t interested in jumping into the water.

My body hurt badly from the past couple days, especially from the rough day yesterday. I have been contemplating which way to go because the waterway splits; there are two waterways from here up to Norfolk. I am about 80 miles from the end so I am in a pretty good mood! Tomorrow will be the most open water yet, it will be about 20 miles across. I decided to go up to Elizabeth City, its more scenic and pretty. It is going to be a big day; I am planning on leaving early and get going first thing.