Day 337 Belhaven to South End Alligator River Saturday April 20, 2019

Day 337  Belhaven to South End Alligator River Saturday April 20, 2019

The night was cool and the winds were strong till early morning.  The clouds from the passed storm remained to cover the sunrise.  Temperatures started low 50s and warmed to upper 60s.

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The storm that raked much of the SE arrived in full force mid evening last night. There were gusts of 40 knots and steady 30 knot wind for a long while. There was a thunderstorm that passed by that brought high winds for about 10 minutes but the winds shifted to the west from south and pushed us against the docks but no harm - but the tornado warnings had me watching the radar until after 10:30 when they were dropped for our area.

Saturday morning found the winds abated considerably. The forecast was for the wind to remain strong but let up by mid afternoon. So we departed Belhaven about 0800. The clouds were still thick.

We only had a short way in the open bay of the Pungo River off Belhaven and the wind was behind us so easy going.

After about 4 miles we approached the Alligator/Pungo river canal.

The canal is about 23 miles long and there is little signs of life - even few birds were evident.

Mile marker 125 for the Intracoastal Waterway - 0 is in Norfolk VA. We are getting close.

And along the canal we turned 5500 nautical miles for the trip - it is a long distance!!

The sun began to shine mid morning - here looking back at the long straight dug canal. I really would not wanted to be part of digging this through cypress swamps.

 At the end of the canal the Alligator River widens quickly and turns left to the north. The forecast increase in the wind again in the afternoon from the south had certainly arrived as promised. You can see it from the photo because the land to the right has limited the fetch and thus the waves, but it was again howling and we would have to slog over 14 miles to the next anchorage so we agreed that we would anchor here and see if the wind abated or likely just spend the night - which turned out to be the case. While we had planned to go more we still made about 30 miles today.

We had been advised not to expect cell coverage along this isolated place and it proved to be the case. We did have a 1X signal that I was able to get a few texts out but that was it. Hence the delay in this day's post.

But we found it to be a great spot. We had some company anchor nearby late afternoon so the isolated feeling was  mitigated a bit. But is was a beautiful location as you can see in the two photos below.

As we want to get away early on Sunday it is time to say ...........................

Good Night and May God Bless