Belhaven

 TRAVEL DAY 35 - Oriental to Belhaven

April 23, 2023

6 Hours/47.4 Miles

    The interesting people we have met on this journey. The day we pulled into Oriental, a guy in a 32' sailboat nosed in to the slip beside us. He looked pretty rough and tired. We helped him with his port stern line. After he got settled we chatted some. He said "Do you like sailing books?", "Sure, I love boating books" I replied. He handed me a copy of his book, Sailing Into Oblivion. In 2017-18 this guy sailed his 32' sailboat "The Mighty Sparrow", solo, non-stop and circumnavigated the globe. 271 days at sea! I said "Dude, you're going to need to autograph that book for me!"

Jerome Rand

   We pulled out of our slip Sunday around 9 am with the intention of traveling 3 hours to an overnight dock. R.E. Mayo Seafood has a cheap ($30) overnight dock, the best inexpensive fresh seafood and best of all, the cheapest diesel. It was about noon when we got there, and seeing that is was in the absolute middle of nowhere and nothing to do for the remaining 8 hours of sunlight, we decided to move on to Belhaven, another 3 hours. 

RE Mayo Seafood

    The weather was a little cool but perfect traveling weather and the broad Neuse River had a slight chop. We turned north to the Bay River then turned east into a narrower Goose Creek. 

"Ineffable"

    By-passing RE Mayo, we eventually turned into the Pamlico River. Monitoring the VHF on channel 16, we could hear the Coast Guard boarding some of the vessels ahead of us. As we turned into the Pamlico River I could see the Coast Guard boat on the AIS and it was headed our way. Beth and I had a quick briefing about what to do if we got boarded. We got out our "boat book" which is a notebook I put together with all the information about our boat and systems, checklists for anchoring and leaving, emergencies, etc. I had a section with the Coast Guard equipment requirements and we went over it. The orange Coast Guard boat passed us by and waived. Drat! I was ready for a safety inspection.

Belhaven Municipal Dock

    As we pulled into Pantego Creek and Belhaven, we located the Municipal Docks and slowly turned in, There was one other Looper there, Karl and he walked down the dock to give us a hand with our lines. This was a cheap dock with electric and water and a just a few steps from the downtown area.

Belhaven

   We walked over to Belhaven Marina and talked with the handful of Loopers there, many of which we had spent some time with at other ports. Most of the businesses were closed today as it was Sunday.

Belhaven Marina

We finished the day with a nice dinner aboard and the ever awe-inspiring sunset.

Belhaven Sunset

Oriental to Belhaven


Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 30, 2023 at 1:23 PM

    Lucky you. Wow what a trip you guys are having. God bless and be safe. Carol Crawford

    ReplyDelete

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