{"id":547,"date":"2013-08-13T15:34:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T19:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/?p=547"},"modified":"2013-09-11T23:19:36","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T03:19:36","slug":"oriental-to-elizabeth-city-nc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/2013\/08\/13\/oriental-to-elizabeth-city-nc\/","title":{"rendered":"Oriental to Elizabeth City, NC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Idle<\/a>
Idle Queen is the middle of the three anchored boats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sunday, August 4, Idle Queen<\/em> finally sailed out of Oriental’s harbor. \u00a0And I do mean “sailed”. \u00a0The last errand to run in Oriental was to bring the boat in to the fuel dock to top off all of our tanks before heading out. \u00a0I was planning to sail off from the dock, but a power boat came in just as we were finishing with fueling up, so I elected to motor out instead of keeping him waiting. \u00a0Once clear of the dock, though, we put up sail and slowly gathered speed as we left the inner harbor.<\/p>\n

\"Sailing<\/a>
Sailing north on the Neuse River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wind was blowing from the north, and turning to the northeast. \u00a0This meant that the Neuse River was smooth as we sailed along a mile from shore. \u00a0Unfortunately, this also meant that the wind would be against us once we turned the corner to head into Pamlico Sound. \u00a0I had wanted to head up the sound to visit Manteo on the way north, but the wind stayed northeast, which would have been on the nose, making the decision to motor north on the ICW route an easy one. \u00a0I have discovered that ol’\u00a0Idle Queen<\/em> is not terribly fond of going to weather. \u00a0We anchored for a day to try to invent storage solutions for a few troublesome pieces of gear, and get the depthsounder working.<\/p>\n

\"Snag<\/a>
Snag pile on the Alligator-Pungo Canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nearing<\/a>
Nearing the northern end of the Alligator-Pungo Canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Scenery<\/a>
Scenery on the Alligator-Pungo Canal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I generally dread hours of motoring, I do enjoy the canals for their close views of the landscape. \u00a0Smooth waters are a bonus. \u00a0We still set sail at every opportunity and didn’t transit any of the legs between Oriental and Elizabeth City entirely under power. \u00a0That didn’t do much for our speed, though. \u00a0We met a fellow sailor in Elizabeth City on a 20′ Pacific Seacraft “Flicka” who was amazed that, #1- we were sailing in the cuts; and, #2- he was pulling away from us. \u00a0Well, the wind isn’t all that consistent when surrounded by all those trees, but a fair breeze is a fair breeze.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of wildlife to hold our interest and take our minds off the heat as we motored and sailed north to anchor up past Belhaven. \u00a0The cuts were well-populated with birds, turtles, dragonflies, and loads of butterflies. \u00a0I also enjoy looking at the trees along the banks of the canals. \u00a0It is amazing to look at the size of some of the stumps that are all that remain of old cypress and juniper trees from long ago–those stumps are huge. \u00a0The trees growing along the cuts today are just babies in comparison with the monsters that were cut down to leave stumps of six feet and more in diameter.<\/p>\n

We sailed past Belhaven. \u00a0Even though the promise of a free city dock was slightly tempting, we had a good breeze and made 10 more miles before anchoring in the dark just outside of the channel.<\/p>\n

\"Approaching<\/a>
Approaching Elizabeth City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next day, we arose early to start before the day heated up. \u00a0Before leaving, I checked the engine over and pulled the zinc to have a look. \u00a0It was not much more than mush. \u00a0Hmm… \u00a0Well past time to change it. \u00a0I pulled a new pencil zinc from my stock only to discover that it was much too long and had to cut it down. \u00a0I thought I had bought a half-dozen zincs of the correct size, but it was obvious that I hadn’t. \u00a0At least I had something that would work. \u00a0A few frustrating minutes with a hacksaw and some trial-and-error fitting had a new zinc anode in the engine. \u00a0I tightened the alternator belt as well and we were soon underway. \u00a0We made it a very long day, as the wind turned fair while we were in the canal. \u00a0We sailed up the Alligator River, through the bridge, across Albermarle Sound, and up the Pasquotank River to anchor just a mile from the downtown waterfront of Elizabeth City. \u00a0It was 0200 before we had the anchor down that morning.<\/p>\n

\"Idle<\/a>
Idle Queen at the Elizabeth City docks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arising before the wind came up the next day, we motored down to the free city docks and backed\u00a0Idle Queen<\/em> in to one of the slips. \u00a0We received a most friendly welcome from the assistant harbormaster and a couple of interested bystanders.<\/p>\n

Our stay in Elizabeth City was delightful. \u00a0We arrived only planning to stay for a day, but ended up staying for three. \u00a0How could we leave, what with invitations to drive down to Edenton and Rocky Hock; head out to a mud boggin’ competition in Currituck; and let’s not forget the awesome farmer’s market on Saturday morning… \u00a0Besides the personal connections, there are great services for boaters: \u00a0free city docks; strong wifi; access to water; free loaner bikes; and access to nearby toilets. \u00a0All of this is right in a beautifully maintained waterfront park just a short walk from restaurants, art galleries, and more. \u00a0We made wonderful friends and memories during our brief stay in Elizabeth City and look forward to visiting again soon.<\/p>\n

\"Clock<\/a>
Clock in downtown Elizabeth City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Interesting<\/a>
Interesting building in downtown Elizabeth City, NC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, August 4, Idle Queen finally sailed out of Oriental’s harbor. \u00a0And I do mean “sailed”. \u00a0The last errand to run in Oriental was to bring the boat in to the fuel dock to top off all of our tanks before heading out. \u00a0I was planning to sail off from the dock, but a power… Continue reading Oriental to Elizabeth City, NC<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[36,39,45,44,28,3,40],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dreadnought-32-idle-queen","category-uncategorized","tag-cruising","tag-dreadnought-32","tag-elizabeth-city","tag-icw","tag-idle-queen","tag-sailing","tag-setforsea"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ztFW-8P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setforsea.com\/barrystravels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}