Monday, November 1, 2010

Two For The Price Of One!

SHIP'S LOG:

I may have forgotten to mention that cell phone coverage and online access can be a little spotty down here in North and South Carolina. You will just have to put up with these difficulties as do I.

Since last we spoke, I have journeyed up the Alligator River, through the Alligator river - Pungo River Canal and have drop the hook this night in Dowry Creek. Not much to say about the Alligator River except that for the most part is is untouched, which is strange when you think about it. Miles and miles and miles of water front property and nary a house in sight. Perhaps it is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any way to get here except by boat. Or Perhaps they named the river wrong. Truth be told, "Mosquito River " would have been more accurate. Still in all, at "39" QG, it was one of the most silent places I have ever experienced. You could hear the beat of the wings of a bird as it flew by. That's quiet!

The Canal is a straight as an arrow stretch some 29 feet deep, 10.8 miles long and not quite 50 yards wide, if that. Loose your concentration for a second. . . and it is easy watching the scenery go by . . . and you go from 19feet to 0 feet in a heart beat. No, I did not go aground today, I didn't even Kiss, but several times, I probably came close . . . looking for those Alligators. Actually thought I saw one, but it turned out to be a deadhead . . . not a fan of the Gratefully Dead, but a water logged log. Hitting one of those will ruin your whole day and hitting a partially sunken stump, well, you don't even want to think about that.

But I made it safely to Dowry Creek, just out side Belhaven, where I can actually get a signal on my cell phone and I can get online. Can civilization be far away?