On Friday Oct 28 we exited the canal through a lock (down) and went down the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City, NC.  This town is the most cruiser friendly place we have ever visited.  There is free dockage at the pier downtown.  Each berth has four pilings to tie off the boat at each corner.  There is a number painted on the wall of each berth which we assumed was the berth number.  We picked number 12.  I nosed the boat between the two rearmost pilings perfectly centered and continued forward at idle speed.  All of a sudden we were stuck at the widest part of the boat.  There were two men at the bow to whom Genie passed the bow lines.  They said keep coming and we would make it into the berth.  The combination of their pulling and the engine popped Island Time into the slip.   We later talked to the dockmaster who informed us that the 12 is the width of the berth.  Since Island Time has a beam of 13 ft 4 inches, its no wonder we popped into the berth.  Needless to say, the boat did not move around that night.

Every night the welcoming committee hosts a wine and cheese party for the boats docked in Elizabeth City.  It’s a great way to meet fellow cruisers going down the ICW.  This tradition started in 1983 and has continued.  Fred Fearing started and still hosts the party at age 91.  He is quite a character and has been featured on TV in a show done by Willard Scott.  They used to give each lady from the boats a rose but stopped that as roses became too costly.

Saturday dawned gray and cold with a strong north wind.  We decided to stay in Elizabeth City for another night.  Friday night I started the generator so we could run the heater.  Island time has an air conditioner with a reverse cycle heater so you need 110 v to run the heater.  The generator stopped after a few minutes.  High temperature in the exhaust caused the shutdown.  Starting it again showed no cooling water exiting at the rear of the boat with the exhaust.  Since it was dark any further troubleshooting was put off until Saturday while we put on more layers to cope with the cold.

Saturday we went to the hardware store to get some nuts and bolts needed for the watermaker installation.  We saw a Verizon Wireless store and went to buy batteries for our phones as the batteries were not holding a charge.  They did not have batteries for our model phone at this store and we also found out our model phone is obsolete and they are less than 1 year old. They called around and found batteries at the store in the next town.  One of the Verizon employees volunteered to go pick them up for us.  Great service from Verizon in Elizabeth City, NC.  Everyone we met in this town was very friendly and most helpful.

After getting the batteries I started to determine the cause of the generator problem. It turned out to be a broken water pump impeller.  Fortunately, I had a spare on board and replaced it.  With the generator working again we had heat on Island Time Saturday night.  After another wine and cheese party, we ate at a restaurant recommended by the locals.  The bill was $16 for a good meal.  In NYC it cost us $25 for hamburgs for lunch.

We left early Sunday Oct 30 morning squeezing out between the piles and headed for the Alligator River.  Another claim to fame for Elizabeth City is the blimp manufacturing facility located south of town.  There is a huge hangar visible for miles located on the shore of the river.  All the blimps you see with the exception of the Goodyear blimp were manufactured in Elizabeth City.

The Alligator River started with a bridge.  I started to type drawbridge, but this bridge actually rotated on a turntable assembly.  We have seen many types of opening bridges on this trip.

At the south end of the Alligator River we entered the Alligator-Pungo River canal, which goes for 20 some odd miles thru the swamp.  Since it was getting late and we could not make the next anchorage before dark, we anchored just off the ICW at the start of the canal out in the middle of nowhere.  There were no background lights so it was pitch-black outside.  The stars were visible like I hadn’t seen before.

On Halloween, we completed the trip through the canal into the Pungo River.  We read about Belhaven,NC in one of the guide books we are using, which raved about the quaint little town Belhaven.  We needed fuel and an anchorage, so we stopped in Belhaven.  The marina (River Forest) where we stopped for fuel was a nice old Victorian style house converted to a marina.  As we were paying Miss Lily for the fuel, we were convinced to eat lunch at their buffet.  It was very good with, of course, southern fried chicken and fried flounder, both were prepared well.  It was a good choice.  The rest of Belhaven was forgettable.  There wasn’t even a store in town to buy eggs and bread.  It was at least 2 miles outside of town.

From Belhaven, we proceeded down the Pungo River to the Neuse River where we stopped at Oriental, NC which has quite a fleet of sailboats along with some commercial fishing boats.  We anchored in the small harbor and went ashore.  They have a nice dinghy dock to allow cruisers access to town. Oriental is a good place to stop.  There is a marine store a few blocks from the dinghy dock, where I found a check valve I needed to install on the water feed line to the generator to avoid burning up impellers in the water pump.  The generator is above the waterline on Island Time so when it stops, the water drains out of the pump.  When the generator is started, there is no water in the pump to lubricate the rubber impeller so it heats up and after several starts it disintegrates. The check valve will keep the water pump full of water at shutdown so it will be lubricated on the next start.  We walked about a mile to the grocery store to buy eggs and milk.  It was good exercise.