Oliver Sails South: Norfolk to River Dunes

10/30 , Happy Halloween everyone. This is the decoration I brought for this holiday.

Who would have thought such a powerful storm would hit this late in the hurricane season! We were so blessed to have made it as far as we did. River Dunes, NC is a lovely place to be stuck. It is just north of Oriental. We have the Pamlico Sound and barrier islands to our East that helped protect us from the ocean. Just to our East a large Sailing vessel used in movies and tours went down with 2 lives lost. Waves were 15-20 feet. We experienced high water levels that the floating docks handled well and howling wind which almost knocked me over. Oliver donned his life jacket to walk down the docks through it all to do his business. He was a trooper. The harbor has had dinners for us and I actually did some laundry before it all began. Many of us used the courtesy car for grocery runs before it hit. We were snug in our boat except for the dog shore trips. We tried to time them by the winds and rain. Now we are just experiencing wind and cold temps, so we are looking at Thursday or Friday to leave. Here is the update I am finally getting to with sporadic wifi.

On October 16 we left Norfolk. It had to be timed so we made bridge openings. We had 5-6 boats traveling south with us. We went under one bridge that masts just made it under. We were so intent watching boats that we missed the turn to the Dismal Swamp. We spent the night at Great bridge and the next day turned around the 3 miles and found the turn off to Deep Creek.

Deep Creek Lock, 8 feet up, 13 boats all in together.

MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk ( a little late)

Dismal Swamp sign we missed the 1st time.

Dismal Swamp welcome.

Ollie tied up at Welcome Center wall. Boats raft off each other.

We had "get togethers" each night. We met the Mark and Diane Doyle that write Waterway planning books, and others to help us "new" cruisers out. We met lots of knowledgeable people and 2 new dog friends for Oliver, Bailey and Murphy.

Moondance, Skip and Harriet's boat going down the swamp.

The next stop on the 20th and 21st was Elizabeth City. They have Rose Buddies and a wine and cheese reception often for boaters. However, not on weekends, so we had our own with friends we had met . We did meet a Calvin College alum, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter pilot and another coast guard sailor and friends from Sweet Escape, Brian and Judy from Wisconsin.

The 22nd we moved on across the Albemarle following Moondance. Shoals are a problem so we followed those with experience. They continued on, but we stopped at the Alligator River Marina. We would have liked to anchor somewhere, but there were not spots we could find to get Ollie off. Lots of swamp land here. At the marina we had a lovely dinner at the diner and Wanda was a gracious hostess. Her son runs the docks and was excellent getting us in.

Alligator River Marina light

Looking out at Alligator River in the early morning.

Alligator River/Pungo River Canal- no place to take Ollie

ICW mile marker

The next night, because of swamps, we stopped at Dowry Creek Marina. We were also told of bears and wolves. I was worried about alligators, but was told there were not any here.

From there we headed down the Pungo River on the 24th, across the Pamlico River to Goose Creek. past Hobucken to Gale Creek and the Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River.