We pulled into Joyner Marina in Carolina Beach. It's right near the ocean & it's a cool little beach town, but it's too cold to enjoy the beach.
Next we went to Swan Point Marina. It's under new ownership, and the owner really goes out of her way to welcome you. Al put on a show of his docking techniques when we entered the marina. The marina is pretty small, has a narrow opening & a strong current when coming in. Al came in really fast & spun the boat around quickly to make a perfect park. All the other boat owners were watching & were ready to fend off because they thought he was coming in too fast & wouldn't be able to control the boat in the wind & current. The other boaters told us later they had trouble controlling their boats when they came in. They were all amazed at how easy Al made it look.
The manager of The Riverview Restaurant provided transportation for dinner. The food was really good. We didn't realize the restaurant was on the water further up the river. We could have taken the dinghy to get there.
Next we went to Beaufort (pronounced "Bo-fort") & stayed at the Beaufort Docks. They have a nice historic town. The marina had several courtesy cars for boaters to use. The first one we tried had a dead battery. They had another car for us to try, but said it usually doesn't start when it's wet out. It had been raining all morning, but Al was able to get it going. Al loves having a car to beat on & considering the shape of this car, no one would ever notice anymore abuse. At least it got us to the grocery store & back.
The next day we stopped at Jarrett Bay Boatworks for fuel. They had the cheapest price around at $3.55. It turns out that the guy running the place retired from NYPD in 1998, and his son is currently on the NYPD. He gave us the police discount, so we got 4 gallons free. The guy also loved Hooper, so he took him for a walk & brought him into the store, while Al filled the tanks.
Next we went to Belhaven. The town dock is free & had electric & water. It's all fairly new, so not many boaters know about it yet. It was a shame to see most of the shops in the small town were out of business. We ate in the only restaurant that was open.
The next stop was the Alligator River Marina. It's also a truck stop, but it's the only marina in the area. We had a rough ride today because the Alligator River was so rough. To get to the marina we had to go through the Alligator River Swing Bridge, but they couldn't open the bridge because of a maintenance problem. The bridge operator couldn't give us any estimate on how long the bridge would be closed. While we were waiting the wind & waves continued to get bigger. It was getting so rough we were getting disparate, so Al lowered the Bimini top & mast, & decided to take a chance & go under the side span of the bridge, which looked a little higher than the center swing bridge section. The bridge operator said he had no idea what the clearance was for the side spans. We went for it & made it with room to spare.
To get to our next destination we would have to cross the Albemarle Sound, which is a big open body of water. The forecast wasn't good, but it was also scheduled to get worse. If we didn't leave we would be stuck at the truck stop/ marina for days. That wasn't something we were looking forward to, so we decided to leave at dawn before the wind picked up. Bad move! We got pounded. I can't believe an inland body of water could have waves so big! It was so rough I was afraid to look out the window at the big waves. The whole boat would shudder as we pounded through the waves. Al had to constantly adjust the wheel & throttle to try to get us the best ride, while also dodging crab pots that were extremely hard to see in the big waves. What a relief it was to make it through this section. We really considered turning back a few times, but were glad we made it. We also talked about selling the boat & getting an RV. We ended up at Coinjock Marina & the restaurant there had the best prime rib we ever tasted. They also had snakes lurking in the grass near the boat.
Next stop is Virginia.
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