Day 42. May 13. On to Belhaven. 40.4 Nm. Total. 1043 miles

Headed out of Oriental to travel east, going down the Neuse River for 10 miles. The river is about three miles wide and if you follow it all the way up river you come to the city of New Bern, NC. The north shore is sparsely developed with homes. As it is cloudy, I can not see the south shore. About one hour into the trip we ran into a shower. Decided to go below to drive to stay drier for about an hour til the rain cleared.

Turning into the Bay River off the Neuse River, we changed our course to north to go behind Rockbill and Bull Islands and avoid cruising through the much larger Pamlico Sound. On the Bay River, the shore is filled with tall pines. It is still drizzling, but the seas and winds are calm.

From the charts, we can tell there is a large commercial fish farm on an island we passed, just past the tree line.

The further up the Bay River we go, the more homes are scattered on the mainland side of the river. There are even a few homes on the islands on the east side, which would be only accessible by boat.

The river narrows to a dredged channel that connects the Bay River to the Goose River, a branch of the Pamlico River. This channel is undeveloped on the side of the channel. The only building on this stretch is RE Mayo, a large shrimp operation and fuel dock. Cruisers can call ahead for an order of fresh shrimp and stop to get fuel.

We had to slow to share the waterway with this guy!

As the channel ends we turn east down the Pamlico River and then turn north on the Pungo River to the town of Belhaven NC. We will anchor here for the night. As we traveled this last leg the sun reappeared!!

Belhaven is a small town, home to the River Forest Manor which in its glory saw many famous people stay here- Walter Cronkite, James Cagney, Harvey Firestone, and Roy Clark to name a few. The manor has carved ceilings, oak mantels, eleven fireplaces, leaded glass windows and crystals chandeliers. The town and the manor were built by John Wilkinson, a lumber and railroad magnate. We will dinghy ashore and see the sights this little town has to offer.

We took a couple of fellow Loopers, Jim and Kayce, that we met in Charleston into town with us. We walked around town visiting the “hardware store that is like a small department store, a few shops, and River Forest Manor.

We met the owner of the farm to table restaurant Spoon River. Unfortunately we were not able to eat there as the restaurant was being renovated and expanded, but the owner took us on a tour of the renovation in progress and apologized for not being open.

Ate a lite dinner at the Tavern at Jack’s Neck and were joined by two other couples, one from Tennessee and the other from Michigan. Enjoyed talking boats and sharing travel stories.

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

Day 98. 2nd year. August 27. On to Manistee. Miles 25 Total miles. 3910.

We weighed anchor on a sunny 50 degree morning. So we put on our sweatshirts and drove from below as we left Frankfort. Going through Frankfort’s channel and breakwater we encountered a few intrepid fisherman and further along as we cleared the breakwater there must have been over a hundred fishing boats. Almost like playing bumper cars, but with boats. Had to negotiate a path between them as the fishing boats were all trolling fishing lines behind them. We were still seeing fishermen 4 miles south of Frankfort. These guys sure take their fishing tournaments seriously! The shoreline that we pass heading south are still sand dunes bluffs some as tall as 200 feet. As we travel, we pass the small town of Arcadia and Portage Lake, each situated on an inland lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a dredged channel. Interesting to note that the dredged channels were originally small rivers connecting the inland lakes to Lake Michigan. As we passe...

Crustacean Travels

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