Two Days at Alligator River Marina

I must say that I was sorely disappointed that we saw no alligators while on the Alligator River. Alligators have been rather elusive during our trip. We only saw the one in Alabama and then heard a few more. None have been seen or heard since leaving the Alabama bayou.

The Alligator River Marina was a little different in that it was at a Shell Gas Station in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Now I will admit that it sounds much worse than it truly was…The facilities and the marina itself were very tidy and quite nice, but I just could not get over the fact that the marina was an addition to a gas station.

For the first time since leaving Chicago, we had a docking problem. We encountered a situation that we had not yet had to face with the wind and marina configuration. When we arrived at the marina, we needed to fill the fuel tank and in order to do so, we docked parallel to pier. Then we needed to make a starboard (right) turn to enter our slip for the evening. This is where we ran into trouble. The wind was very strong with even stronger gusts hitting us directly on our starboard beam. As Captain Mark tried to pull away from the dock, the stern (back end) of the boat was slammed back against the dock with the force of the wind. No damage was done, but it was frustrating all the same. So here is when Geometry once again becomes crucial in our adult years. I must digress for a minute now to say that Geometry was the one class in high school that I should have paid alot more attention in. I often wish that I could go back to repeat Geometry as I have found that as an adult, I have used those silly formulas over and over again. Whether it was in order to determine how much carpet or wallpaper to purchase, playing pool or docking a boat, I can not think of any other single high school class that taught me as much as Geometry. So what Captain Mark did was to use the wind to our advantage. He had me cushion the port (left) side and the bow of the Lolligag with bumpers and hold a line very tight around a pole on the pier. He used the single engine and bow thruster to pivot the stern away from the pier while I held the bow tight against the dock. It worked perfectly. He was able to get away from the pier to turn the boat in a 45 degree angle so that we were far enough away from the dock to be able to negotiate the turn into our slip. It was like magic and this deck monkey was verily impressed.

As it was again beastly hot and Captain Mark wanted to rest, we stayed an additional day at the marina comforted by the air-conditioning. Once again I was able to work on the blog and address the laundry.

Hours on the water: 7
Nautical miles traveled: 50.3
Number of bridges to be opened: 1
Time spent waiting at bridge: 10 minutes
Next Destination: Elizabeth City
What we're listening to: Finished The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
What we watched: ILR Racing & Army Wives
Lesson for the day: I should have paid much more attention in Mr Volk’s class
Obligatory knitting report: Hats & Scarves for the Wunder Kids