The month of June has been one of high heat and moving almost every day to a new location. We left Wrightsville beach heading for Washington, NC to spend some time with our friends who live there. On the way we stopped to see Dave's cousin BJ and her husband Craig and Jim and Ellen. We spent 4 delightful days in Washington in an air conditioned house with our friends. Ray and Helen, our buddy boat were not so fortunate, as they were in Oriental, NC with their boat hauled for some repair work. On Wednesday, June 9 we met up with them in Belhaven, NC at the Belhaven Marina. This is a small marina with great bathrooms, they supply the towels for showers. Belhaven is a small southern town with a good hardware store and ice cream within walking distance of the marina(and a couple of restaurants also.) From Belhaven we went to Alligator River Marina. Then onto Elizabeth City so we could motor through the Dismal Swamp. For those cruisers who might want to do this a word of caution regarding Elizabeth City, the slips which are free are very short, they are probably good for boats up to 30-35 feet, but not for us. We tied up to the bulkhead by the park and Rigamarole rafted with us. The city is nice but is was too hot to really want to walk very far. On 6/12 we were at the Welcome Center in the Dismal Swamp. This is the oldest hand dug waterway in the country. It connects Virgina to North Carolina. There are two locks that you have to go through. More info on website www.DismalSwamp.com( I have not been on the site so I don't know how good it is).
It was interesting going through the canal, but oh so hot, trees and bushes blocking the breeze. We spent one night in Norfolk anchored at Hospital Point, then onto Deltaville, Va for 2 days, then to Solomon's MD. On June 18 we went to Oxford, MD to visit a couple we met in Marathon. We spent the weekend, spending one night at their house. Then it was onto Annapolis where we met up with Rigamarole. We are now in the C&D canal heading out tomorrow with Cape May, NJ. From there we will go overnight to Block Island. It has been very hot, 90's most days. Hopefully we will have fair winds. Hope all is well with everyone.
