May 23-24 Slade Creek Anchorage mm 140 Belhaven NC

This is one of the streets in Ocracoke and the sign says "Drive Real Real Slow"-good idea on this road. We pull anchor at 7:45 am. It appears the wind is blowing briskly out of the NE but it is not apparent in our cozy anchorage. We again make our way out to Pamlico Sound and as we venture away from the protection of the Banks we think we are on Lake Erie. The Sound is shallow, anywhere from 10-25' deep, so the waves are short and steep. The 3' beam waves roll us around on this very cloudy and almost chilly morning --- it is not the most pleasant ride for the first 20 miles across the Sound but the wind dies a little and we get the advantage of land protection as we approach the mainland. This time we are headed north and west towards the Pamlico River where we will rejoin the ICW at mm145 (145 miles from the Chesapeake Bay) as it enters the Pungo River. A short distance up the Pungo River we turn east into the very wide Slade Creek which is deep and tree lined but since it is wide there is not much wind protection. Viola-- as we drop anchor, the wind dies and the clouds part and it is an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. The water cooling pump relay for the air conditioner died a few weeks ago so I had one sent to us back at NW Creek marina. Today I replaced it. As accessibility for replacing parts go this was pretty easy-didn't have to hire a midget or stand on my head. The project was finished in an hour and now we have AC and heat again. But we have only used either a couple of times since the trip started. It is now very calm as I write this but rain and a possibility of a storm is predicted after midnight. Lobster (from the Bahamas) jambalaya was the fare for dinner tonight.

We are going to stay here another night. Light rain today (Saturday) but no wind and it is very peaceful. We were hoping Our Time would catch up with us but it looks like they are headed for the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras and so it appears we will now rendezvous in the Chesapeake somewhere. The anchorage here is so quiet even the fish don't realize we are here. They cruise the surface around us seeking prey oblivious that we have invaded their territory. The scenery could be Tennessee, North Carolina, Canada or anywhere you sit in the middle of an idyllic lake, looking at a tree lined shore without a hint of civilization in sight. A fishing boat might cruise by occasionally and we were visited by a crab pot fisherman trying to sell us some fish yesterday but this is truly backwoods country.