Elizabeth City, NC

Woke to a brilliant sun and blue sky and proceeded to pull up anchor. The muddy bottom made for very good holding but the flip side of that is someone has to clean the two days worth of mud off the anchor chain. It took thirty minutes to get the anchor up while hosing off the North Carolina mud.

A short ninety minute cruise down the river brought us to Elizabeth City, NC. We pulled into Pelican Marina for a much needed holding tank pump out. Stayed the night there as it was only $1.00 a foot.

Walked into town and saw it was a very old town. It was first visited by the English in 1585 and settled in 1793 by Adam and Elizabeth Tooley (hence its name). Not a whole lot here with a number of vacant storefronts downtown. We walked 1 ¾ mi out to the Food Lion for a big grocery buy. It was only a $6 cab ride back to the marina.

Departed E City (as we ICW veterans call it) at 0830. Eleven sailboats had already left ahead of us. Gorgeous day with calm seas across Albemarle Sound. On the way down the Pasquotank River we passed the Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City which surprisingly, is the largest is the country. There was also a large blimp hangar built in WW II which now houses a blimp making company. I assume the blimp in the photo was built here.

The Krogen Manatee “Just The Two Us” (Tom & Peggy Horachek) passed us enroute to their homeport of Conche Key. The have a car rented in New Berne, NC to drive to the Keys to access the damage to their home.