What we could see of the shore on both sides was low scrub bushes and some signs of previously burnt off swamp. There were quite a few floating stumps and snag limbs around but they were easy to see in the calm conditions. At the head of the navigable portion of the Alligator R. the channel makes a few turns and then leads into the Alligator – Pungo Canal. This nearly straight ditch is 20 miles long and shows no signs of human life for most of its length. Even wildlife seemed scarce, this particular day. A few Ospreys and a Heron or two was all we could find. Even other boat traffic was scarce, we passed one small sail boat motoring south and one faster power boat passed us. Near the Pungo end we did see another trawler type yacht going north and a fast sport fishing boat blasted by us. That was it for nearly 3 hours.
The weather forecast for the area we are cruising through, as well as the next region south that we are headed to, was calling for heavier rain later in the day and then very strong NE winds developing late in the day with 20-25 kt. winds continuing through Saturday night. Based on this, we decided to change our plan for anchoring tonight and take a slip at Dowry Creek Marina. Dowry Creek comes highly recommended by a number of cruising boaters we have met, including Fred & Joanne Geiger, Monk owners who have made the snowbird trek many times. Fred and Joanne also gave us their ICW guides and charts that we are using to back-up our electronics.