Belhaven – Adventures on the Club

We had made it from Great Sale Cay in the Abacos to north of Georgetown, SC in exactly one week – and that included a two night stop in Jacksonville Beach to get rid of our dirty fuel. But now that we were back on the ICW with Oriental and Belhaven coming up, it was time to slow down a bit.

The days leading up to our arrival in Oriental were uneventful, save for one thunderstorm shortly after we left Cow House Creek. We had the anchorage in Calabash Creek to ourselves that night which was quite a change from when we stopped there in the fall!

**A stunning sunset at Calabash Creek, NC.**

The next day’s adventure came when we pulled up to a fuel dock at a marina in Southport, NC. The wind had been light all day until our arrival. I should have docked with the bow into the wind but I didn’t, and the wind steadily increased during the 20 minutes we were there. By the time we were ready to leave, it was honking on our stern at 20 knots. Hmm. What to do? Continue reading “Time to slow down a bit.” →

In order to continue down the ICW from Elizabeth City, you must first cross the Albemarle Sound. With a depth of about 15 feet, this can be a nasty bit of water if the wind is over 15 knots because of the chop that builds up, and people have been known to wait for quite some time to get the right weather window.

It had been pretty windy in Elizabeth City on Saturday but the winds were supposed to die down and be 10-15 knots on Sunday. Monday was supposed to be even lighter, but a weather system was going to move in later on Monday with strong winds for several days. Given that, we decided to head out on Sunday and hope for the best. The wind direction was going to be mainly behind us, so we hoped that would help.

Continue reading “Belhaven, NC – a love letter.” →