Alligator River Marina - at a dock

Miss Wanda's house

The storm clouds parted this morning enough for us to reach the Alligator River Marina with the famous Miss Wanda. Whenever we visited the marina we would always get a Christmas card from the owner, Miss Wanda. She lives in the house with view of the river by the entrance and now knows us by name.

Surprisingly, we're all alone in the marina

The crossing of the Albemarle is always a little chancy. It's a shallow stretch of water but it's 12 miles wide and can be really nasty with winds over 15 kts. Today was no such day. The winds were 5 to 10 kts and the thunderstorms were all around us but not on top of us. So we had a leisurely start and were the last ones to leave the dock, as usual. We're in no hurry.

A sunset peeking through the woods

We're fond of the Alligator River marina after we had a bad experience several years ago when we anchored out nearby. When we awoke in the morning the boat was covered in "fuzzy bills" which look like mosquitoes but don't bite. If that's all they did it wouldn't have been a problem but when they expired, they left a green goo all over the boat. It took me five hours to clean it off, nothing much would touch it except bleach at full strength. So now we just avoid the problem and take a slip. Many people have no problems. It's only bad if you just happen to hit their spawning time. Otherwise, it's just a pleasant anchorage.

We will head for either the Pungo anchorage or RE Mayo depending on the weather on Saturday and then take another look at Matthew.