Days 351

Belhaven NC - Columbia NC

• Start 7:45 AM
• End 2:40 PM
• Underway 6:10 Hours
• Distance 47 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 5662
• Av Speed 7.5 knots
• Weather Rain , 71 Degrees, Wind 9 Knots ESE

It was a wet cold ride from Belhaven to Columbia NC. We were not in a hurry to get to Alligator Marina, there is absolutely nothing to do there. The only thing there is a gas station / convenience store /restaurant. Even with the rain it is good to get moving again. Both Angel and I are looking forward to getting back to Bordentown. We both know that soon after we get there, we are going to be itching to do something, but we still want to get there.

Because of the weather delays, the boat traffic was brutal today. It was almost as bad as driving during rush hour, except most boaters are more relaxed than the drivers during rush hour. There were constant request from the faster boats asking if they could pass the slower boats. (Most courteous boats ask to pass, and both boats slow down, to minimize the wake as you pass) For the most part everyone was polite, but there were a couple of rude encounters. Happily they did not involve us, and they were not close enough to us to bother us, but we could hear them on the radio. We had one swing bridge that we needed open for us, but that bridge opens on demand not on a schedule. Even with it opening on demand several groups had to wait. The bridge tender would open the bridge, let the waiting boats go through, the close the bridge. No sooner than he would close, there would be more boats to go through. The bridge tender could not open the bridge again until, the car traffic cleared up. I think he did a great job of balancing the car and boat traffic.

Alligator River Marina, is right after the swing bridge, and at least five boats that went through the swing bridge with us, went into the marina. Once again we were in a traffic jam. The marina only has one dock hand, and the "office staff" is also the cashier and cook in the "gas station / convenience store /restaurant". They are the only marina in the area, and they do not seem to put a lot of effort into the marina. When the dockhand told us to come into our slip, he walked away and went to the other side of the marina. The docks were in very good shape, but there were a lot of problems with the electric.

The first slip the put us in, we only had power on half the boat, and the half that had power I had warning lights come on. When I asked the dockhand, he mumbled something about, the "electrician screwed something up". The response in the office was "He told me it was the other slip that did not work, not yours". They said you can try moving to two other slips, but they did not know if they were any better. We finally ended up moving into a third slip, and again the power did not work right. We were able to get power to the entire boat, but had to turn off most of the breakers on the boat, so we did not overload their circuit. It was usable for one night, but there is no way we would stay here more than that. This dock is also where the commercial fisherman unload their catch. We had a crab boat slip in right behind us to unload his boat. He was not very happy that we were there, he said "I hate when I hit pretty boats on my way out". I know he was joking, I watch how easily he got around our boat on the way in. I also knew that he would be leaving very early in the morning, and would wake us up.

Other than the electrical issues the marina is pretty good, The wifi was pretty good, and they have laundry, and a boaters lounge with a TV and cable. While we don't need the laundry, many loopers do and some will pick a marina based on if they have laundry or not.

Mark & Karen (Kay Dee) did warn us, that this marina was just a place to stay for a night, but they had great "gas station" chicken. We probably would have elected to eat dinner on the boat, but Mark has been hyping the "Gas Station Fried Chicken" for several days and had to try the chicken. Mark was right, it turned out to be very good fried chicken, cooked fresh as we ordered it. The best part was dinner for both of us was only $18, the cheapest dinner yet. We also decided we would get breakfast sandwiches before we leave in the morning.

After dinner we meet in the boaters lounge for docktails. There were about 12 loopers, most of which we had not met before. Everyone was leaving in the morning, and the plans were to head out around 7:30 or 8:00, as long as there was no fog.

Leaving Alligator River there are two route options for going north. The first is "The Dismal Swamp" it is the more scenic route and has a free dock, but it is most of it is only five feet deep. In addition to being very shallow there are waterlogged trees on the bottom that will can get sucked off the bottom by the prop wash of the boats in front of you. Almost everyone who takes this route, bumps something at some point of the route. The second option is "The Virginia Cut" this route is slightly longer, but is ten to twelve feet deep the entire way. The best part of The Virginia Cut, is Coinjock Marina & Restaurant. They are the home of the infamous 32 ounce Prime Rib Dinner. This is the route that we are taking.

Our next stop is Coinjock NC.