After several days of perfect weather, a front was coming through with winds and scattered showers. We stayed at the dock for a couple nights to let the front blow through, while we entertained ourselves with the two walking tours of the city, one of historic houses and the other the historic businesses. We also visited with good friends and a great dinner at the Hoppin Johnz and craft beer at Ghost Harbor Brewing.
Elizabeth City is a nice, small town and the walking tours were interesting and often amusing. Its interesting to observe the conditions of the towns along the ICW and their struggles to transition from thriving port cities to declining urban centers where most of the money has moved into the suburbs and remote shopping malls. Tourism is one way to bring in money as the towns try to showcase the Coastal Living history and life with large, old houses turning into B&Bs.
Following the frontal passage, it was time to head on south. We were up with the rising sun for the lengthy trip across the Abermarle Sound, down the Alligator River and through the Alligator-Pungo Canal to the Belhaven area where we would anchor for the night. Several other boats had the same idea and there was a gaggle of us heading down the Pasquotank Sound.
After a couple hours I made a standard check of all the boat systems and once again found the alternator not charging the batteries. This time it wasnt a fuse problem. The alternator was overheating and barely putting out any output. We decided to turn around and return to Elizabeth City as there is no mechanical help further on for several days.
Once again it was back to troubleshooting the charging system. We have a spare regulator and spare alternator onboard so were able to swap them out. Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem so it appears we still have a gremlin in the system that is not at all obvious. That is the worse kind of electrical problem.
At this point we decided we better go back home and get our portable generator which can charge the batteries instead of the engine. Since we were only 2hrs from home by car (3 days by boat), we borrowed a car and were back to the boat that night with generator (and several other items including a hot shower) in hand.
Staying in Elizabeth City gave us another night to try the local restaurants (their free dock paying dividends for local businesses). We grabbed a take-out pizza (take-out mainly because of COVID) and ate in the adjacent alley which has been decorated with tables atop decorated fire hydrants. How cute. Towns need to be inventive like Elizabeth City.
With generator onboard, we were off again for Belhaven and through the Elizaeth City Bridge for the third time in two days.
With no wind it was a smooth motor across the Albemarle Sound and four hours later we were at the Alligator River Swing Bridge. On this Sunday afternoon there was a great deal of traffic returning from the Outer Banks along this route, but the bridge was able to open without us having to wait only a couple minutes for a group of 3 sailboats to pass through.
Its quite unusual for the Albemarle to be this flat but we had the luxury of picking our day to cross.
By the end of the day we had reached the end of the Alligator - Pungo Canal and were anchored in a protected bay.
