Day 271
2021 Linn Family Beach Trip in Navarre, FL (05/28/21 – 06/07/21)
Legacy was patiently awaiting our return to her from the Navarre Beach, FL family vacation on the late afternoon of Sunday, 06/07/21. After returning our rental car to Enterprise, in Washington, NC, we walked over to The Tavern at Jack’s Neck in downtown Belhaven, NC, for after-road trip drinks and appetizers, before starting preparations to leave Belhaven the following morning.
On Monday morning, 06/08/21, Legacy left Belhaven Marina a little after 8:00 am, in super-cloudy, muggy weather, headed for that day’s destination of Alligator River Marina in Columbia, NC. Due to the deep haze and lack of any kind of visible colors, my picture-taking opportunities were limited. Occasional showers were predicted to fall on us intermittently throughout the day. OH JOY. Steve turned on the radar so we’d have it handy (since our visibility was reduced) and we knew we’d be scrambling throughout our journey to zip and unzip the flybridge as necessary, trying to stay dry.
We traveled easterly along the Pungo River, headed for the man-made Pungo River/Alligator River Canal, which is a LONG, narrow cut that connects the Pungo and Alligator Rivers; it’s name being pretty self-explanatory. We cruised underneath the NC US Highway 264 bridge, as we entered the canal, which appeared very isolated, with little to no civilization to be seen. In fact, we found this canal gave us flashbacks of our travels along the TennTomBigbee, in its most remote and narrow sections.
We kept our eyes peeled for gators basking on the shores along this stretch, as there MUST’VE been a reason for naming this the Alligator River! 🙂 (Sadly, we never spotted any reptiles…) We did see lots of deer and wild turkeys along the banks of the Pungo River/Alligator River Canal, as the area was very lush and green when we came through. Invasive vines covered the trees and shrubs; it wasn’t kudzu, but appeared to be massive quantities of honeysuckle. Passing under the NC Highway 94 bridge, north of Fairfield, NC, and Lake Mattamuskeet, more prolific Spartina grass was on full display.
We were victims of an unwelcome horsefly ambush in the flybridge along this canal, though not nearly as bad as we’d experienced moving through South Carolina. Happily, Steve had become quite proficient with our hand-held bug zapper. So far that day he was 3 for 3! The horseflies were moving in because we had all the windows unzipped in the flybridge, to enjoy all the warm, humid, fly-laden air circulating around us. When we glanced down at the water, we saw the high level of tannins here were turning it a dark-roasted coffee color. (Not the most aesthetically pleasing…)
After traveling what seemed like 100 long miles, we left the canal where it opens into the natural Alligator River, which is very wide and shallower than the canal; we only saw an average depth of 5-10 feet beneath Legacy’s keel. We went through the Emily and Richardson Pryor Buckridge Coastal Reserve (try saying that fast three times!) in this part of NC, before we entered into an even wider part of the Alligator River, which runs directly west of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The temperatures might not have been ideal, but our cruising conditions were wonderfully calm on this day, with waves easily less than 1-foot and almost NO wind.
We arrived at the Alligator River Marina at 2 pm, to find a very small and basic marina with a gas station/diner for an office. The place might be small, but the diner is reputed to serve some tasty hamburgers. We’d find out later that evening. As we tied-up and got connected to power, we noticed that thunderstorms were starting to pop-up all around us. A rather strong storm finally did dump on us at 4:15 pm, and cooled the air down considerably, which was definitely a plus!
After showers and fresh clothes, we walked up to the diner for our burgers. Turns out we got there right before they closed, so we were the only diners in the place, but we enjoyed our meals, regardless. Just as we left, the diner closed down for the day and we headed back to our boat for the night. It felt good to be traveling on the water again, after all that driving in our rental car to and from Navarre.
Position: N 35° 54.329, W 76° 01.714
Distance traveled: 54 SM
Total distance traveled: 3657 SM
Total marina nights: 248
Total nights at anchor: 22
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27