A Cold night, but warm day in Elizabeth City

Last night was seriously cold, with temperatures outside the boat dropping to 43 but with a balmy 51 degrees inside the boat. Happily I was comfortably warm in my sleeping bag...untill of course i had to get up!

We were treated to a beautiful sunrise as can be seen in this series of photos taken as the sun rose that Hayden took and was kind enough to share with me

With the sun up it quickly warmed and I was able to get up and about.

The first thing you see asyou leave the boat is this welcome banner

Which has an interesting history.

It turns out that Elizabeth city that has fallen on hard times. Many of the buildings in the area around the harbor - the downtown, are shuttered and the stores that are open are struggling. In an effort to boost the econommy a former Mayor, Mayor Fearing, had the idea of welcoming cruisers to town. The town created free docks, arranged for volunteerss to be on duty too help with docking, gave visint ladies a rose and had a cocktail reception every evening on a patie adjacent to the docks. The theory was that the vising cruisers, appreciative of the hospitalty, would support the local shops and restaurants. The problem is that cruisers, especiially sailors, tend to be a frugal lot, not quick to part with their money and would rather eat at home...they are not torists, they simply move their home about, more or less following the sun. Just as you mostly eat at home, so do cruisers.

The town keeps the tradition going, but the shops remain closed until someone figures out a way to revitalize what is really a very nice place.

I spent the day in small boat tasks - took the dirty cllothes to a laundry (drop off dirty and pick up clean), then cleaned to contacts on the engine tachometer which had been giving erratic readings, then cleaned the engine water strainer, removing all sorts of weeks and branches that had been sucked in as we passed through the Dismal Swamp.

That took till lunch, after which I read for a while, took a walk around town, joined the cocktail party hosted by the town and went to dinner in a local fish house..nothing at all fancy.

The town is nice, wiith some vicctorian type houses that spoke of an earlier more affluent time, but none of the houses were nearly as nice as Josh and Gretchens, so I quickly lost interest. 

Tomorrow we cross the Albemarle sound and go into the Alligator river. We'll go to an anchorage neear the beginning of the Alligator-Pungo canal - 28 miles and no place to stoo once you enter, so we save that for the next day. We plan to cast off at 8:30, with the expectation of getting to the anchorage at 4:30pm