Day 181: So Few Critters :(

Belhaven to Alligator River Marina, Columbia, NC (docked)

July 15, 2022

When I saw the bunny at Belhaven Marina, it felt like an omen of the wildlife we were going to see on the Alligator River.

I also thought that the red sky we saw last night meant that we would have a delightful weather day. I was wrong on both counts.

It was gray and cloudy most of the day with a few showers mixed in for special seasoning.

The Alligator River is pretty interesting – there’s a lot of tannins in the water, so it’s dark brown like tea or Dr. Pepper. There’s no waves at all and the dredged part is a very narrow ditch down the center of the river. Tree stumps poke out of the water on both sides.

There were few houses (although we saw a large flock of wild turkeys in the mowed yard of a home) and a lot of foliage. I find this landscape so beautiful – but it started to get pretty monotonous, especially since we were on this stretch for over 20 miles (which is over 3 hours at the rate we travel).

Aside from turkeys and a couple ospreys, we saw two bald eagles. That’s it. I was looking hard, too.

The Alligator Marina was another seawall style place (no slips). It’s behind a gas station that serves food and ice cream. There’s a replica of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse on the property which is right next to Lailia.

The dockmaster told us that a few years ago a black bear got on a docked boat and ate some blueberry muffins that were in the cockpit. While I want to see a bear, that would be far too close! The Johns Island raccoons trained us well to never, ever leave food in out cockpit.

Tomorrow we will travel about 35 miles to Coinjock, which is along the Virginia Cut. The alternate route through the Dismal Swamp has two locks on restricted openings (only four times a day) takes longer; it also is more shallow. The one lock on the Virginia Cut is used to control tide heights between the Albermarle Sound and the Chesapeake.