November 20th:  We've arrived to Oriental, NC.  We decided to stay at a Marina tonight after four days without shore services.  During my last post, we were at the library in Elizabeth City.  We headed over to the visitor centre hoping to find a pay phone.  We had been told about a grocery store in town that offered a pick up and drop off service for boaters.  There were two nice ladies at the visitor centre and no pay phone.  They offered us to use their phone so we called the grocery store and as luck would have the driver had left for the day.  Elizabeth City is the "harbour of hospitality" and they sure do live up to their name.  The kind lady at the visitor centre offered to drive us to the grocery store which is about a mile and half away.  We said we could walk, but she said "no one walks in this town".  Mabel is a 71 year old volunteer for the visitor centre and talked a mile a minute the whole way there.  She offered to drive us back when we were finished shopping - just give her a call.  Being our independent selves, we decided we would walk back.   We hadn't shopped for about 10 days, and were a bit loaded down (a case of beer neatly stacked in Jens backpack, a box of wine plus milk, juice, and other groceries).  Walking for about 10 minutes and wondering if this was such a great idea, when thankfully a young fellow stopped and offered us a lift back to the docks.  We jumped in, happy for the lift.
Friday night in Elizabeth City turned out to be great fun.  Mabel told us about a show at the local restaurant / wine bar.  Paradox was playing .. it turned out to be two doctors (pair of docs ... get it?) playing some great music.  They played from 7 till 10PM and promptly at 10, the restaurant closed and we all cleared out.  Maxwell and Jen from SY Anastasia joined us as well.

Leaving the Elizabeth City Docks

Ok - now back to the Great Dismal Swamp Canal.  Yes, it was a bit dismal, but only because the first day we had cold rain, frost overnight and the second day, sunny but still bitterly cold at about 0 degrees C.  It is said to have the best drinking water in the world even though it is the colour of strong tea. I think I'll just take their word for it.  There were some really pretty parts, but the last bit I was sure the trees were in a competition for the ugliest tree in the world award.

After the great night at Elizabeth City, we headed for Little Alligator River.  Didn't see any alligators - they must have gone south for the winter.  We found a nice quiet spot to anchor - no city lights, no noise; but lots of mosquitos.  We left our door open a little too long and Jens and I shared the evening with about 1,000 of the locals.  By morning they were all bloated from their fine dining experience and we were both a little spotty.

A beautiful sunset that evening.  Here you see Anastasia and another boat that anchored at Tuckahoe Point together with us.  

A nice shot of Anastasia.  We hope to meet up with them further along our journey, but for now they are heading out to the Atlantic.

We travelled about 67 miles today.  Got into the marina just at sunset and docked at the Oriental Marina.  We'll probably be out of email / internet connection for the next few days.  Stay tuned.