Pungo Creek Marina: Old Salts, Southern Dogs, and Pink Flamingos

For the past couple of days, we have been anticipating the southwesterly blow that started last night, continued all day today, and is expected to turn westerly tomorrow.  To play it safe, we had found a well-protected anchorage yesterday and had decided to hunker down and not move on today.  Well, as usually happens when we make plans, we did just the opposite.

Being windsurfers, we are not used to sitting still when the wind is up.  On a cruising sailboat, however, it is preferred to make miles when the wind direction favors you and when the wind and seas are calmer.  We passed several other boats in the anchorage as we left this morning, and I swear I thought I saw one of the sailors trying to wave us back.

We motorsailed around ten miles down the Pamlico River, and as it turns out the going was relatively smooth and quite fun.  We furled the main, and with the motor on, had a ton of speed with uneventful sailing and the river all to ourselves save one boat heading north.

Our plan was to move ten miles down, get some gas from the Pungo Creek Marina, and anchor in Pungo Creek for the night.   We didn't follow that plan either, and ended up docking at Pungo Creek Marina due to a "special on the special" that dockmaster Allen offered us.  What a serendipitous move.

Pungo Creek Marina is located around 4 miles south of Belhaven on a quiet and peaceful creek.  The marina has 48 slips, and it looks like in its heyday it must have been the place for boats to be and to be seen.   Unfortunately, Hurricane Irene in 2011 brought a nine foot surge and covered the marina and the whole surrounding area under four feet of water.  Allen told us how he with one of his dogs was sitting on a counter in one of the marina buildings during the storm, watching the waters rise, and thinking, "I could get myself, an old man, up onto the roof if I needed, but how do I get this 80 pound dog up there?!"

The owners have since decided to sell the marina, and it seems to be in a sort of limbo at this time, but of the sort that should not be missed.  Allen's friendliness is hard to describe in words (how do you capture a twinkle of the eye?).  He and the other old salts at the marina entertained us with stories and conversation, and we had multiple offers for rides into town if we needed anything.   The girls loved playing with Allen's dogs, Buffy and Jengo, who showered them with licks and southern dog hospitality.

Dockmaster Allen at the Pungo Creek Marina

We enjoyed talking to Rocky, a local sailor living on his ketch at the end of the dock and preparing for his trip to the Bahamas.  Rocky is an engineer who has been sailing for more than fifty years and had great tales about sailing around the world.  "I wouldn't do it again...Thirty-six days alone across the Indian Ocean with no company except for a few bugs.  My friend was a praying mantis that liked drinking cola."   He taught the girls that it's important to always know where north is, and teased Jamey about being on a boat with five girls and only one head.

Having checked satellite maps on our phones, we saw that it was too far to walk to Belhaven and too far to walk to anything else.  We were basically docked in the middle of nowhere with only one small neighborhood close by.  We started walking down the empty roads, a fun thing for us to do as the girls can run around and do flips without worry of cars.

The fabulous four

C. Spirit is docked in the background behind the razed corn field.

We did not make it very far before we started seeing clumps of pink, plastic flamingos at the edges of the corn fields we were walking by.  Random, right?!  Luckily, we also saw the start and finish markings on the road clueing us into a race that Jamey aptly guessed must have "Flamingo 5K" in its name.

This summer we learned that there is an annual festival in Maine that celebrates the plastic pink flamingo.

Sage is working on her straddle handstands.  The aftermath of these efforts is not always pretty. 

Nickel was very genteel.  Dixie, the terrier, ran circles around us.  I told the girls how "Dixie" was on my list of baby names for them. 

We were able to follow the pink flamingos for a couple of miles, and had the pleasure of being accompanied on our walk by several dogs with the girls' favorites being a mellow black dog named Nickel and a hyper little terrier named Dixie.

The race route is beautiful, and Jamey and Phoenix are planning to run in "Darleen's Flamingo 5K" tomorrow!
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WHERE WE STARTED: Crabtree Bay

WHERE WE ARE: Pungo Creek Marina, usually $1 per foot.  The marina currently has an "ICW Southbound Special" going on for $29 per night.  The marina has fuel, water and electricity.  There is a bathhouse for showers.  Rocky told us there used to be a pool on the grounds before it was filled in with a septic system.  Allen said there used to be laundry facilities before the machines were sadly "taken without authorization."

THERE TO HERE:  Ten miles, upwind motorsailing in fun SW wind with gusts to the lower 20s.  Pamlico River has a lot of shoals, so care has to be given to monitoring your depths.  Nancy at the helm.

This scene makes me a little homesick for my hometown, New Orleans. It's good to be south of the Mason-Dixon line again.