Manteo City Free Dock
We caught another sunrise
this morning on our way up the Pungo River to the Alligator-Pungo Canal…a very
long cut between the Pungo River and the Alligator River. This part of the ICW
is tedious; you don’t even see any birds...you’d think you might see an
alligator or two since it’s called the Alligator River. All we saw were more
boaters moving north. Once out of the canal you come into the Alligator River,
which is very wide and can be very rough. There were scattered thunderstorms in
the area and we did get wet a couple of times, during those showers the wind
picked up and our ride got a little rougher, but nothing this experienced crew
couldn’t handle.
We decided we would go
east once we were in the Albemarle Sound and see part of the outer banks of North
Carolina. The Albemarle Sound was actually calmer than the river today, until we got closer to the outer banks. Then the wind picked up and we had to navigate through more crab traps than we have ever seen in one place. It felt nice to be tied up to the dock in Manteo. We’ll spend the
next few days doing a little exploring Manteo, which is located on Roanoke Island.
Here’s a little history of
Roanoke Island. In 1584 an English fort and settlement with more than 100 men
was established on the north end of the island, but it was abandoned the
following year due to weather, lack of supplies and poor relations with the
Native Americans. In 1587 another settlement was established, including women
and children. On August 18, 1587 one of the colonists, Eleanor Dare, gave birth
to the first English-speaking child in the New World, Virginia Dare. A week
later, the baby’s grandfather, Capt. John White, was forced to return to
England for badly needed supplies. Due to Spanish attacks on England, White was
delayed in England for three years, and when he returned to Roanoke Island in
1590 there was no sign of his granddaughter or the other colonists. Their
houses were gone, and the only sign of human presence was the letters “CRO” and
“CROATOAN” carved on two trees. This led some people to believe that the
colonists had sought the help of the Croatoan Indians on Hatteras Island, but
they were not there. The fate of the lost colonists is as much a mystery today
as it was then. Roanoke Island was permanently settled in the mid-1600s, and
ancestries of the original families are still on the island.
The Alligator-Punco Canal
Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse - our view for the next few days.
This video will give you an idea of what the canal is like.
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