Friday - 11-11-11

 A big THANK YOU to all our veterans today – past, present and future for giving us freedom and keeping us safe! God bless you all…..and on this patriotic day of 11-11-11, Catrina and crew traveled 111 miles from Arbuckle Landing to Dowry Creek Marina near Belhaven, NC. It was sure nippy this morning (42) but bright and sunny and with the generator we were warm and toasty. We went thru our 2nd and final lock leaving the Dismal Swamp Canal at South Mills, NC. We so enjoyed all the beauty of this man-made canal and the entire 22 mile trip was straight on except for one very slight left bend. The speed thru the canal is only 5 mph. While the colors were so picture perfect yesterday with leaves falling on Catrina, today was very little color and most of the leaves had already fallen.

Just as we were coming into Elizabeth City and out of the canal, the Coast Guard came along and stopped us. Two of the men came onboard asking to see our life preservers, fire extinguishers, paper work and checked our bilge. They were on their way and we were soon on the Pasquotank River as we meandered around many twists and turns. That brought us to Albemarle Sound – the winds picked up and while they were behind us, the last hour of the 2-hour trip was pretty rough as we turned and had beam seas! Alligator River is very wide and was somewhat choppy but nothing like the Sound. Finally we were in the Alligator Pungo River Canal and that brought us to Dowry Creek. We had blinding sunlight for part of this afternoon making it really difficult to pick out buoys and markers! All in all….a good day on the water!

Tomorrow we’re off to Swansboro and planning to meet friends, Mark and Barbara for dinner.

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