Dowry Creek Marina, Belhaven, North Carolina

Got ready early and pulled away from Dowry Creek Marina. No more than left the entrance channel and our port engine stopped, so we turned around and came back in again. Wayne spent the day cleaning fuel lines and changing filters. The engine seems to go well now, we hope to leave again in the morning. In the meantime, we can't say enough good things about the people at this marina. They were very helpful and concerned with our problem. A couple bought this marina a few years ago with a dream of making it a very nice place. Shortly after they bought it, the man died very suddenly, and his wife has been running this place ever since with the help of several other people. It is a nice place with good bathrooms, nice boaters lounge, good laundromat, all of the things that people travelling look for. They are also very helpful and knowledgeable when helping you dock. Crawdad came back in with us this morning, and we all took the vintage courtesy car to Belhaven this afternoon. Wayne wanted some washers, which he was finally able to find. The place has a sign saying boat yard, although the sign is quite faded. When we went in, Wayne described what he wanted, the man said that he had packed things up for the hurricane last September and so would have to dig the washers out. He did eventually find them.
There is a forest fire north of here, we could smell the smoke when we were at River Dunes, and it was bad here last evening. Just depends which direction the wind is coming from. This morning was nice and clear, then by mid-morning the air was all hazy and full of smoke, the wind had changed. That lasted a couple of hours, then the smoke cleared again. We are hoping not to have too much smoke tomorrow.
Get together for appetizers and drinks with all of the boaters here tonight, then came back for a combined dinner with Jim and Gloria. We plan to leave in the morning.

One of the boaters brought his guitar to the get-together tonight and entertained us, very nice.

This is the marine boatyard where the gentleman had packed things away for the hurricane last September and apparently hadn't yet gotten around to unpacking it.  And we actually are not sure which year that hurricane threat might have been in.