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We started and ended the day in River Dunes, but it's often what happens between the lines where the stories lie. We stopped paddling Thursday in Oriental and headed to River Dunes to sleep, connect with Andrew, Richard and Oliver, and organize our new support boat. Our plan for Friday was simple... go back to Bobby and Heather's, put in where we got out, and paddle 40 miles north... Bobby offered to boat with us until the guys could meet us out in the water... Bobby would take off, and we would just keep paddling. We were up at 4:30AM, on the water around 5:30, and paddled into the most beautiful sunrise. The morning 8 miles northward was spectacular and another one of those moments where we both said there was no place that we'd rather be than on our boards paddling on the water in which we were paddling. 

We made it to River Dunes, but  unfortunately had a valve issue with our new support boat and were unable to continue with Plan A... so had lunch on the dock and crafted Plan B (or are we on about G or H by now??). Because of a strong wind out of the north and 2 large open water crossing with no support boat, we decided to try to confuse those watching the spot tracker and drive north, put in and head south to connect back with our morning stopping point, where we could then figure out how to keep moving without a boat. 

It was set up to be a pretty sweet downwinder and we definitely got in a little bit of that... We crossed the Pamlico River, then hugged the marsh side as we watched ginormous yachts and barges push up the ICW. We caught some bumps, told stories to each other, giggled, and paddled our way down Goose Creek. As Goose Creek opened up onto the Bay River, we tried to set it up so that we would downwind across Bay River and around Maw Point where we would loop back into protected waters and have an easy paddle back to River Dunes. We got pushed too far west and holy sketchtastic, getting back out and around Maw point and the "fishing house" on the point was a paddle that will be etched in to the lifetime memory bank. But the special part of our paddle all along, and especially today, has been accessing points of our coast that are inaccessible by boat or car. The picture we posted of the "fishing house," the beat up wooden box on stilts... we now wonder how many people get to see that up close. It was worth loosing a hat and sunglasses, and some character-building moments to get to for sure. 

After we came around Maw Point, we tucked in out of the wind a bit and paddled another 5-6 miles back to River Dunes where we were we VERY happy to see Richard and Oliver who had commandeered the dock master to come out and escort us back in to a warm shower and a meal from Andrew. As you saw from our earlier post, the challenge now is to figure out how to make it up Alligator River unsupported where we have learned that gators and water moccasins are abundant. Plan J in the works. More soon...

Jackie
6/15/2013 05:57:49 am

Gators, maybe. Water moccasins, no way!

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