Day 258 – 270
We both slept in on Wednesday morning, 05/26/21, relishing the fact that we weren’t up early and throwing off our lines for the 7th day in a row. 🙂 The weather in Belhaven proved to be hot and humid while we were there. We explored the marina and found the two restrooms to be clean and amusingly decorated, with all kinds of nautical decor and humorous signs. Belhaven Marina even provides its guests with shampoo, soap, and fresh towels next to the showers in the restrooms, as well as free laundry facilities and products. The dock-masters at Belhaven Marina are some of the nicest and helpful we’ve met on this trip, offering to drive us anywhere we needed to go, since the marina doesn’t provide a courtesy car. I felt very comfortable leaving Legacy in their care for a week’s time.
The small town of Belhaven is right next to the marina, so we could walk around it easily. There are several restaurants in town, but most are only open the latter part of each week, being closed Monday through Wednesday. We heard wonderful things about a farm-to-table restaurant called Spoon River that we definitely wanted to try, so our dock-master courteously called and secured us a reservation for dinner there on Thursday night, 05/27/21. Score!
Most of Wednesday morning was spent doing boat chores and laundry, then we walked directly across the street to a rather sketchy-looking restaurant called Farm Boys to eat a couple of decent-tasting cheese burgers for lunch. I strolled through a couple of downtown shops while Steve waited outside for me, but it was so very hot and humid out – highs in the mid-90s – that we soon opted to stay onboard the boat and inside the salon, being cooled by Legacy’s awesome air-conditioners. That evening we consumed another lack-luster meal at Fish Hooks Cafe, since it was still the only place open in town.
On Thursday morning, 05/27/21, we walked up to Gingerbread Bakery and O’Neal’s Shack Bar for a small-town, southern-style breakfast. That afternoon, a representative from Enterprise drove all the way to Belhaven to pick us up and take us back to their office in neighboring Washington, NC, so we could acquire the rental car Steve had reserved earlier. We drove our little Hyundai Kona to Walmart to do some last minute provisioning before we left early the next morning for the Florida panhandle. While we were out, I was finally able to mail-off a whole box full of newly-crocheted sections to Warm Up America’s headquarters, from the USPS office in teensy, Pantego, NC.
Thursday night, we took advantage of our dinner reservations at Belhaven’s famous Spoon River restaurant for simply a delightful meal and evening. The service was impeccable, food scrumptious, and the atmosphere light, airy and welcoming. Perfect 5-star experience! I enjoyed myself so much, that I posted a shining review of Spoon River restaurant on The Great Loop Facebook page, suggesting that all Loopers not miss that hidden gem, when stopping there in Belhaven, NC. 🙂
NOTE: Unfortunately, the remaining pictures I took during our time in Belhaven somehow got deleted from my phone, so I cannot add them to this blog entry. SORRY! 🙁
Position: N 35° 32.187, W 76° 37.317
Total marina nights: 236
Total nights at anchor: 22
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27