Leaving Alligator River marina going south to Belhaven NC

Well we are finally on the move again and heading SOUTH- not fast enough to beat the cold, but maybe fast enough to stay ahead of the frost.  Just a note - we will be traveling on the ICW  or Intracostal Waterway (official name) which Officially runs from the Annisquam River in Massachusetts north of Boston all the way down the east cost and along the shore of the gulf coast to Brownsville,, Texas. It was constructed to provide a protected route for vessels that would otherwise have to travel on more exposed bodies of water.  We started at Norfolk and are now at mile 136.9 at Belhaven Waterway Marina.

We woke to 41 degrees and a sharp wind but blue skies. The first obstacle  was the bridge - we had one other boat ahead of us, the bridge swung open and off we went down the Alligator river to the Alligator River  Pungo River Canal to the Pungo river to the Belhaven channel. 

The cork has been pulled and the pent up boats trying to get south was released. We were soon sharing the canal with other sail boats and large ( really large) yacths. Of course the power boats can not motor behind a sail boat and MUST pass, some powering down, others not so much. 

Besides being chilly - hot soup at lunch helped - the trip was relatively uneventful. We are staying at Belhaven to have a diver look at our prop and hopefully put a grease fitting on it so that it will go in reverse easier. Also I have a ton of laundry to do. 

Hoping for WARM SUNNY SKIES.

Tom and Laura
https://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Belhaven,+NC,+USA&aq=0&oq=bel&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=30.854033,86.572266&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Belhaven,+Beaufort,+North+Carolina,+United+States&ll=35.57915,-76.412659&spn=1.212942,2.705383&t=m&z=9&ei=7wmTUL66JIfQxQHqvIDQCQ&pw=2

click on this for a map and our current location.

fair well to Alligator Marina

NO NO DONT TAKE MY PICTURE

The Alligator Rive-Pungo River Canal

The Pungo River is a river in eastern North Carolina, USA. It originally began in the Great Dismal Swamp in Washington County, North Carolina; the upper part of the river has since been supplanted by the Pungo River Canal, dug in the 1950s to improve drainage of local farmland. The river flows southeast and forms part of the boundary between Beaufort County and Hyde County. The river then widens dramatically, turns west, and flows past Belhaven, North Carolina before joining the Pamlico River near Pamlico Sound.

A 21-mile canal connects the Pungo River with the Alligator River to its east.

ICW mile marker

in the middle of no where an advertisement

The water is really that color - coffee with cream

The power boats coming down the river

Wilkerson Highway Bridge with vertical clearance of 64' 

our mast is 60 - nothing clinked or clanked or fell off going under :

safe - tied to a dock watching the sunset