Elizabeth City, NC to Belhaven, NC

October 24;
Long day did 73 miles. We were able to motor sail the first 15 miles to the Aligator River (anyone for a swim?) Then the wind was on the nose and we had to motor the rest of the way. The swing bridge a few miles in, opened on request. 20 knot head winds made the next 20 miles slow, but with the sun out the spray did not seem to bother too much. Made the entrance to the canal section at 4:30 so we decided to press on since this canal is around 200 feet wide. The moon was due up at 7 pm so with a 6:10 sunset we still had some twilight when we saw the moon. Although it took another hour before it was much help. The GPS started showing us on the land when we could plainly see we were in the middle of the canal, and furthermore the autopilot decided to start "loosing its' mind" and swerving off. Bad timing as we were counting on both these aids to keep us mid channel in the dark. To add to our worries we started to come into civilization at that point and there were unlit docks sticking out into the channel. A strong flashlight and Jason's eagle eye kept us out of trouble (unless you count the one dock we didn't see until the very last minute while I was supposed to be looking, oops!)
After we exited the canal the balance of the trip was much less stressful. Half the markers were lit. One little incident, though an unlit day marker happened to be located just under the fat course line on the GPS which obscured it Not seeing it there we weren't looking for it with the flashlight, so we only saw it when it was 20 yards abeam of us. Quite a little shock, we had to get back on one steering one watching again until we got into Belhaven. We anchored at 9:30 just inside the breakwater along with 2 other boats. Calm and restful spot after a tense time in the dark for the last few hours. Had left overs and crashed.