East Lake Anchorage – All Alone

Elizabeth City is the blimp capital of the world - all blimps except Goodyear are made here

We only had about 30 miles to go so we took our time and was the last boat to leave Elizabeth City free docks in the morning. We are still not used to the four piers they call docks here. There is one for each corner of the boat and leaving the dock we at least were able to not knock against the sides of the boat. Coming in was a different story, we’re still learning.

We were told to not follow the magenta line which indicates the ICW on the charts but instead head directly for the entrance to the Alligator River via the green day marker outside the river from Elizabeth City, that route cuts about 5 miles off the trip and it worked fine with a minimum of 10 ft over the bar. Going down the ICW you learn to listen for shoaling reports and the best ones we’ve found are on Active Captain. It’s a website that allows boaters to update conditions they’ve encountered in real time.

Haven't had many sunset pictures

We are out in the boonies! We are the only boat and there are no lights on shore and we’re closer to the outer banks than inland. Taking Hoolie ashore was an adventure. The surrounding land is all marsh, little solid ground. The first stop was rejected by Hoolie! He didn’t like the looks of it. We moved on to grass rooted in about 6 inches of standing water and he made do by staying on top of the grass, he doesn’t like to get his feet wet. When we came back to the boat, the mosquitoes descended! They have formed a living coating over all external surfaces. They were never this bad in Maine. The full enclosure helped some but we eventually had to retreat to the lower level.

It’s perfectly calm now and Wednesday we’re headed for the Pungo River anchorage but we’re heard that the mosquitoes there are fierce too.