Belhaven to Alligator River Marina

First view of the morning – left Belhaven at 5:30AM hoping to beat the weather – weather guys got it wrong again today, it was already rough, supposed to be 6mph.
Got to the protected part of today’s journey – just got passed by Done Diggin, the large Lagoon power cat. Started off at 55 degrees this morning, and stayed that way until 10AM – the high for the day was 61.
I thought the Neuse was bad – this was worse. Almost turned back about a third of the way up the Alligator River. Some of the waves were so big that the boat launched off them and about half of the boat was out of the water before it came back down – I actually had to slow down. The only reason I kept going was that it was supposed to get better, and I was heading almost directly into the waves – the boat’s best direction. Turned out the wind did not get better…
After 3 hours of getting beat up, the Alligator River bridge came in site – near the end of today’s journey.
The Alligator River bridge – just 11 feet clearance but I only need 8, so I got under it no problem.
The Alligator River Marina is basically a gas station on a highway with a marina – really laid back and inexpensive. So glad to be here!
The marina. Bella Gatto is here now as well.
Adagio’s spot – the building to the left is the laundry, restroom, showers and lounge.
This was my route today. All the pain of the last three days is to get across the Albemarle Sound (over 20 miles across, and a body of water I couldn’t get across in Catitude for three days last year). The weather tomorrow is supposed to be ideal – really hoping so…