First view of sunrise – I can barely see the markers at this time, left at 5:40 AM. I needed to get to Belhaven before the weather (wind and waves) moved in.Sunrise greeting me as I enter the Pamlico River – even wide than the Neuse River from the day before. Once again, it appears the weathermen were not exactly correct in their forecast.Here, the waves are almost sideways to me before I round the point to the Pungo River – the boat is rolling pretty badly at this point, although not as badly as yesterday.The wind was supposed to be 8 to 8 mph at this point, but here is sailboat heeled over with so much wind that they had to reef their sails.This is the weather from weather.com – obviously wrong, and the conditions are getting worse…Luckily I only had 4 hours to go today, so I was able to get to the sheltered harbor in Belhaven before it got really bad.My spot at the Belhaven Free Docks at the end of town – nice new docks, except they didn’t make the finger piers long enough, my boat is sticking out and it was hard to figure out how to tie it to the dock with the wind and tides that would occur during the day.My view of Belhaven industry.I did manage to tie the boat well, and the tide and wind did not cause me any issues.These Canadian Geese greeted my as I came off the dock.My view down the road towards town from the lot the dock is on. I decided not to get the bike out today, because everything was not too far away, and I had gotten here early and had all day.The Police Station – a caboose from the now-defunct railroad is used by the town from time to time for festivals.And the town of Belhaven welcomes me – pretty small place, and most of it was closed because it was Sunday.The view of downtown – very close to the marinas all the rest of my Great Loop friends who were here today stayed at.A collage of Belhaven highlights on the side of a business.The Food Lion was 1 miles away – so I walked there, and then found out that no beer could be bought there until noon (I was lucky it could be bought at all today – North Carolina has very strict alcohol laws). So, I went back past the boat and to the marinas half a mile past that, then toured the town. By then, it was a good time to head back to Food Lion and buy the beer, so I walked the mile and a half back there and bought a 12-pack of Yeungling Black and Tan. I had them put it in this paper bag so I could carry it back to the boat…As I was walking through the Hardees parking lot next to Food Lion on my way back to the boat, this guy asked me if I could use a lift. I said sure, that would be great, and he drove me back to the lot where the docks are. Very nice guy. Actually ran into him later in the day at the Ace Hardware – the largest one I have ever been in. Also in there was the guy on the sailboat sharing the free docks with me.This is the empty 12-pack case on the boat – loaded all of the beers into the refrig, it was getting empty.The crew from four Great Loop boats having happy hour on the biggest one in the marina – a very large Lagoon power cat. Turns out we are all leaving in the morning and going to the same marina – so we will see each other again tomorrow.The end result of all of the walking today – almost 23000 steps, about 11.5 miles…My route today – a relatively short one. Tomorrow will be 55 miles to the marina on the Alligator River, staging for the Albemarle Sound crossing the next day.
