Elizabeth City has free docks along the waterfront so we were looking forward to yet another night’s reprieve from the drudgery of anchoring. Unfortunately, and we should have realized this, the docks are narrow slips with finger piers in between so with our 21-foot beam we couldn’t fit. We were hanging in the harbor trying to figure out what to do when we were hailed on the VHF by someone who told us to tie up to the sea wall by the park.
“You mean where it says ‘No Docking’?” I asked. Yep. That’s what he meant. Well, all right! Our cruising guide warned that all of the waterfront would be uncomfortable in any wind with an east component, and we did have a bit of SE wind that night, but eventually it calmed down and we were quite comfortable. Except for getting on and off Escape Velocity.
This involved stepping outside the lifelines onto the very edge of the deck, boosting up onto a narrow finger pier, climbing over a railing, then jumping down to the walkway. Tough enough in daylight but even more challenging after dark.
When we got ashore to explore, we discovered Elizabeth City’s claim to fame: the Wright Brothers were here. Notice Jack in the background doing the EV dismount.
We stocked up on some produce at the Farm Fresh supermarket and had a Mexican dinner out with John from Sarah but that was the extent of our shore leave. We forget that most small towns in the south pretty much shut down on Sundays.
Jack took Izzy off the boat for a little walk but open spaces make her nervous and it wasn’t long before she wanted to be back home again.
There’s weather moving in tonight and we need to be on the other side of Albemarle Sound and in a protected anchorage by the end of the day. We pushed away from the dock while there was still fog lingering on the water, heading down the Pasquotank River.
