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Alternative Trips: Chapter 1

Land Voyage 2003/2004

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2003 Home     Map                     Chapter 1    

22 Dec 2003, First Day on the S/V, 35 35.050 N/ 076 31.010 W

Just finished our first day on our Land Voyage.We left homeport (Vienna VA) at 0710 on 22 Dec. We certainly did not have our act together. Forgot a bunch of stuff. Our house battery is dead. Our primary GPS is on the boat (and we cannot get to it). How exciting.

We stopped at the Dismal Swamp Visiter Center at 1115
but of course they were closed (Sunday and Monday).
Lots of damage to the banks of the canal but the
channel	 looked pretty clear.  We arrived in Elizabeth City
at 1230 anxious to have lunch at Constack's.  Guess what,
no Comstack's.	Mr. Comstack decided to retire after 50 years
of business.  Ther is now a 'la-de-da' restuarant next door at
it isn't very good.

We got some local knowledge on Fred Fearing of Rose Buddy fame.
Apparently, he has been sick and was actually in the hospital
for a while.  We did not get any more information but they think he is
OK.
We arrived at our first campground (Riverview outside of Belhaven). It is located on the Pungo River about two miles NW of where the Pungo canal meets the Pamlico River. It is rustic.. better than the facilities at the Georgetown (Exuma) marina but not as nice as most other campgrounds he have visited. More like a fishing camp.

Well, talk to you guys in a couple of days.

23 Dec 2003, Day 2 of Land Voyage, 34 43.730 N/ 076 52.310 W

Day two went a bit better. We are getting our act together in the van. We left Belhaven around 0900 today (Tues) and met Blaine and Janet of Charbonneau in Bath NC. Had a good time with them. We heard the latest on their charity work under HogsforDogs (www.hogsfordogs.com). They are taking a year off from cruising to ... (they can say it better so checkout their web site.

They suggested that we use the NC ferry system instead of
Rte 17.	 We took their suggestion and crossed the Pamlico
and Neuss rivers via ferry.  Does that count for time on the
water?	We had a great time and probably saved two hours
of travel time.

We stopped by Beaufort NC and were profoundly disappointed
this time.  Sailboats were almost non-existent, the people were
flaky, and generally not how we remembered it in 2001.	Those
of you that have been following our adventures know that we were
disappointed in it in 2002 also.  Oh well, we cope.
We arrived here at River View Campground at 1630. This is one of our favorite campgrounds; it is family owned and always clean. Folks here are very friendly. Bob did a bonehead thing tonight. He decided to take a 'short cut' through another camp site and got stuck (akin to gojng aground). After some work, we broke through.

Well, that's for all tonight.  Catch you in a day or two.

Happy Christmas eve/eve.

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