We have been having a steady weather pattern for the last week. It is calm in the morning, with afternoon winds gradually picking up around three in the afternoon, blowing harder in the evenings, and then slacking off during the night.
We left our cute little anchorage in the creek, and went out into the Pungo River, meandering around until is became a ditch connecting the Pungo to the Alligator River.
I had mentioned to Ellen that there was a looong ditch, that takes several hours to get through. I must confess, today the ditch seemed, um... I tell people I'm never bored, but, the ditch was pretty uneventful. Didn't see any spectacular wildlife. There were a few turtles sleeping on logs. There were no boats for as far as you could see. The ditch is narrow enough, with stumps on either side, that it demands a helmwatch that doesn't allow wandering around all over the boat.
By the time we'd entered the Alligator River, another boat overtook us, and we saw an anchored sailboat. It also triggered my memory that on my southbound trip, Abermarle Sound, and then the Alligator River, had been rough enough that the ditch had seemed a very welcome calm. We had also been in a line of a steady procession of migratory boats, all heading south for the winter. It seemed very different today.
By the time we got down to the swing bridge on the Alligator River, the wind had picked up on our stern. We turned immediately after clearing the bridge, and dodged crab traps that steadily increased in number until the inlet at South Lake had them placed about 50' apart in every direction. When we entered South Lake, the traps suddenly all disappeared, and we worked our way up to a great little anchorage, just off a duck blind.
We launched the RIB and explored up a canal we'd seen on Google Earth, that we would have never found from a chart. You get the feeling there is no one for miles around.
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