Day
9, Monday, April 24, 2017
Again
this morning, we began our day studying the weather and realized that there was
a really big weather event heading our way.
The forecast calls for extremely high winds in the area tomorrow night
along with a whole lot of rain. The rain
is not a problem for us but the forecast predicted wind to 50 mph off shore and
although we won’t be off shore, they will potentially be past our comfort
zone. So, we decided to head for a
marina located about 30 miles from here.
The harbor of the town of Belhaven is well protected by a breakwater so
we will not have to worry about wave action. We were not familiar with the
facilities at the marina but if they have a slip in which we can tie up, we
will be in good shape in case the storm hits with its predicted potential.
We
fixed chipped beef on toast (SOS) for our first meal of the day. After breakfast, as we were preparing for our
typical morning biological event, we realized that our head (toilet) was not
functioning. Jim spent a significant
amount of time trying to clear the plug but to no avail.
We
got under way and with me at the helm, Jim undertook the miserable job of
disassembling the facility. To make a
really long story short, it took us most of the day before we finally got the
thing functioning normally.
Interestingly, the system draws raw water for the outside to flush the
commode. Most of her life of this boat
has been in salt water and the hoses in the plumbing system are lined with
about a 3/16 inch coating of, I assume, hard calcium. It had broken away and along with a massive
wad of
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| Belhaven Waterwide Marina |
toilet paper, it had jammed in a valve leading to the holding tank (the
Y-valve).
The
traveling portion trip was for the most part a passage along the 25 mile long
Alligator-Pungo River Canal. It is
basically a long straight shot through the cypress swamp and salt marshes. We would periodically pass through patches of
ground that had obviously been burned
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| Entrance to the Marina Office |
over and is not in successive
recovery.
From
the canal, we broke out into open waters.
Although we were expecting rough weather, the only thing that we
encountered was some rain. We hailed the
Belhaven Waterside Marina and requested a slip for the next day or two. The helpful friendly dock master/harbor
master met us at the dock and helped us tie up deep in the well protected city
harbor basin. The remainder of the
afternoon was consumed with the commode repairs.
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| Add caption |
I
made a couple of trips to the local Ace Hardware located just across the street
from where we were moored. This was
truly your one stop shopping hardware shop.
They had furniture, plants, women’s clothing, souvenirs, household
decorations, and lamps along with a full supply of typical hardware store
supplies. This place was one of a kind!
I
asked the gentleman at Ace where the best place in town for dinner and he
informed us that we were in luck because although all of the restaurants were
closed the very best one is the only one open on Mondays and it is just two
doors up the street.
Back
at the boat we changed our shirts and headed for the Spoon River Artworks and
Market for dinner. We were surprised to
find a white table
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| Spoon River Artworks and Market |
cloth upscale eating establishment in this little town. The owner came over and sat down and
explained the assortment of beer that they had to offer. She offered that I could sample a lager and
that sample turned out to be a ½ glass of beer.
It was good! I ordered a glass. Janine ordered a “flight” of beer which
included three ½ glasses of
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| Janine's beer flight |
different beer.
The flight came on a long narrow plate piled high with orange slices,
strawberries, olives, peanuts, cheeses, and crackers. They also brought maybe a sour dough bread
with a butter mixed with several mixed roasted peppers. I ordered a halibut special and Janine and
Jim ordered trout. The presentation of
these dished was absolutely gorgeous. My
dish had a nice slab of fish atop a bed of wild rice and shrimp covered
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| Janine's trout | |
with
all types of greens including asparagus.
It was wonderful. After dinner,
the owner came to our table where we discussed the history of her wonderful
establishment and as the conversation ended, she sent to the kitchen an order
for a piece of “death by chocolate” cake for the table and a flute of bubbly
wine for each of us. As we left, she
hugged all three of us and thanked us for coming.
Back
at the boat, we listened to a bit of music before we stumbled into bed. It could be a bumpy night.
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