DAY TWENTY-FOUR -- BELLHAVEN TO ELIZABETH CITY, NC
DAY TWENTY-FOUR -- BELLHAVEN TO ELIZABETH CITY, NC
We had another very interesting, long, and quiet day on the water. We got underway at nine headed for Elizabeth City, which is pretty much the only place to stay if one is going to travel the Dismal Swamp Canal option on the ICW. This was another day when we were astonished at how remote and undeveloped parts of the intracoastal can be. We ran up the last bit of the Pungo River out of Bellhaven and then entered the Pungo River-Alligator River Canal. This canal was the last stretch of the ICW to be completed back in 1928. There were just a handful of houses along this 21-mile canal -- the rest was just a mix of pine forest and salt marsh.
The canal ended in the Alligator River, which was completely undeveloped. Not a sign of civilization anywhere except for the occasional ICW marker. There weren't even local boats around. And then all of a sudden four military jets came roaring overhead behind us -- one chasing another in some sort of training maneuvers. You could hear them before you could see them. They went past three times in different patterns of lead and response. We did some Google searching but couldn't figure out what from which base they came.
At the north end of the Alligator River, just before it emptied into Albemarle Sound, there was a long causeway with a swing bridge in the middle. A very odd thing to encounter given what we had seen so far during the day. There was plenty of traffic across it, so there must be some civilization somewhere around here, but we sure couldn't see it from the water we were traveling.
The wind was out of the NE at about 10 knots and the moderate chop that we faced in the Alligator River got heavier once we entered Albemarle Sound. We decided to slow down to about eight mph to lessen the effect -- and to just enjoy the ride. After about an hour at this pace we were close enough to the north shore that the seas had diminished, and we went back up to cruising speed (16-18 mph depending on conditions) for the rest of the ride to Elizabeth City. As we approached the Pasquotank River leading into Elizabeth City, we saw this enormous building on the western bank, and I furiously but unsuccessfully Googled to figure out what it was. A friend of mine with deep roots in this part of the country later let me know that this was a dirigible hangar from a WWII naval air station that was part of the effort in fighting German U-boats.
When we reached Elizabeth City, we passed three different fleets of little racing sailboats, and then encountered a double bascule bridge right in the middle of town, which the bridge-master opened on demand. I've never seen a double like this before. The bridge gearing was very impressive.
Feels like you got through North Carolina faster than it looks on a map. But I guess viewing the journey through a handful of blog posts makes it seem faster than it actually is!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting day. Guessing jets were from Lejune or Bragg ??? Rick D.
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