LON: W 76° 37.2'
today's sunrise, today's sunset
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LAT: N 35° 31.7' LON: W 76° 37.2' |
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50s-60s, sunny, winds NW 5-10 kts today's sunrise, today's sunset |
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Summertiiiime, And The Cruisin' Is Eeeeasy |
Captain's Log830 - We bring up the anchor and get in front of a couple of sailboats so that we don't need to pass them while in the canal. 908 - In the fairly wide Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. 1012 - Just past under the Fairfield Bridge. 1202 - We turn into the Pungo River, now out of the canal and the water opens up. We pass billboards for Belhaven Marinas. 1305 - Tied up at the River Forest Marina. We get diesel, gas for "Genny" and fill up the water tanks. It's nice to do the dishes after a day of them piling up in the small sink. 1650 - We leave the marina and putt over to the other side of the harbor where we anchor out for the night. Arggg me maties, Ace be the place.
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 A dredging barge sits in the middle of the canal. We hope they've done the job so we don't run aground! A Visit From Spiderman!Evidence In The AirUnhelpful Librarian - Guest Editor We enjoyed the sunrise that looked just like yesterday's sunset until we decided to keep sleeping for a bit. At the end of our Grapenuts breakfast we noticed some sailboats heading our way so we picked up the anchor and headed out. We were soon in a small canal with plenty of trees but not much noticeable wildlife. We got up top on the fly bridge and readied ourselves for another calm and pleasant day of cruising. Generally, it's an easy day except for the couple of times we are passed by boats going way faster than need be. The guide book even talks about how the wakes of motorboats are speeding up the erosion which causes the trees to fall into the canal. We shake our heads but still enjoy some Chex snacks as the day heats up. Among the other boats we pass on the two-way canal were a tug boat and some dredging boats (main picture). We weren't far from the tug as we hugged the shore as much as we could so that we wouldn't run aground. It was pretty shallow, especially when we went by the dredging equipment. It was interesting to see these workers deepening the channel that is constantly filling in elsewhere: the never ending tension between man and nature. Being in a boat, it was nice to know that the dredging was there to help keep us off the bottom. The past few days we have been collecting a good amount of floating spider webs/eggs. The air has been full of these little bits of white cotton candy, each we think, with a little spider dangling from the end. Arriving in Belhaven, we learned of two boats that had run aground in the canal, and saw many boats covered in the spider silk thread. Speaking of boats speeding in the canal, we learned that one boat that ran aground did so while passing the dredging barge at 18 knots. It seems to us that he got his just desserts. After filling up our diesel and water tanks, we set out to explore Belhaven. This is a single traffic light town, with a library and an excellent hardware store. We ran into the regular problems at the library trying to upload the website [Thou shalt not upload from thine own devices. -Ed], and ended up buying a small USB disk drive and borrowing a computer at the local Ace hardware (and much more) store to upload our latest web content. We are learning now to look for places besides libraries to get our internet upload access. Once triumphant at the hardware store, the warm summery day turned into a brisk fall evening. We walked back to the boat and headed out to anchor in the harbor. It was a pleasant and quiet night. We cooked dinner and watched some more of our Two Towers DVD.
Belhaven was attractive, but there really wasn't much to it. We prefer a little more meat on our cities, and give Belhaven 2 and half propellers.
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Fun Facts! Propellers aren't just a rating system. They are also known to boaters, or at least power boat people, as "wheels." Often people will ask us "What size wheels do you have," and the answer is "24 inch." Slowly has two big two foot diameter four blade bronze propellers from a company, "Federal." Luckily they weren't actually made by the federal government, or we would have surely sunk by now. Each wheel spins in a different direction which helps so they counteract each other's tendency to push the boat sideways when they go in reverse. Animal of the Day One of the most obnoxious things ever: the Mosquito, Family Culicidae. Mosquitoes are flies (they certainly both sound annoying) that have a sharp proboscis (blood sucking tool). They have antennae and their wings are scaly. The gals are the ones that bite. They must do so before they can produce eggs. But don't feel bad for them (not that you do), they are very dangerous because of their ability to spread disease. We encountered some of these miniscule vampires today when we returned to the boat at dusk. Grub Report The big news tonight is that we decided to forego the last batch of sausages we have for now and eat broccoli instead! Amazing! However, we are having Near East Rice Pilaf Mix with Roasted Chicken & Garlic and Birds Eye chopped Broccoli, Kraft Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Natural Cheddar Cheese, yellow onions, green peppers and fresh thyme.
Wine Review: Little James' Basket Press, Patrick LeSec Selections, table wine from France. This is a mild tanniny wine, with a light fruity flavor. We give it three propellers. |
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