Evening star., 1938-01-09
COAST WAY IS READY
Protected Route for Water Graft on East
ern Border of Country Is
.. Inviting to Tourists.

Bay. Nothing more was done, with
the exception Of an additional survey
in 1875. until 1911, when work began
in earnest. The 200-year-old dream
of q great inland water route reached
its fulfillment in April of last year.
We will pass quickly over the 200
miles down the Potomac and Chesa-
peake, for it is best covered with
dispatch in the fall of the year, when
weather Is unreliable. Save for an
occasional cargo boat on its way to
Washington or clusters Of oyster boats
longing, the Potomac River will be
deserted. In the early morning river
banks are lined with heavy mists, like
great smouldering fires. that dispel the
rising sun. Or on the second day,
when entering the bay and laying q
course for Norfolk. you might sight
to the eastward numbering schooner
running up to Baltimore or q lone
freighter bound for some foreign port
Right at the outset Of the waterway
at Norfolk, where the route leads in
a southerly direction through the
Elizabeth River and Deep Greek to
the Albemarle g. Chesapeake Canal.
grizzly old Cape Hateras is cheated
Of some of its choicest morsels. From
here down to Beaufort Harbor, where
the coast line begins to curve west
ward, there is sufficient depth-l2
feet-for the majority of yachts on
the Eastern Seaboard. While those
forerunners of winter gales howl off
Devil Hatteras and drive limp passen-
gers to their staterooms, you can be
cruising in comparative comfort miles
from the barrier reefs that keep out
the Atlantic.
You are now in the rich hunting
and fishing country OF North Carolina,
| where Northern sportsmen maintain
large lodges as base for seasonal
cunning of seemingly unlimited sup
ply of game. 1t is not rarity to see
large black bear scramble for the
brush or the antlers Of deer, like
some piece of driftwood, moving across
the canal ahead of your boat All
about are innumerable flocks of ducks,
geese and swans that make the waters
of Albermarle and Pamlico Sounds
their winter feeding grounds.
Beaufort Harbor is ITS miles from
Norfolk and cannot be reached In a
single days run. It means one night
anchored in the lonely Alligator River,
reputedly the home of alligators, but
more distinguished for its water, which
is the color of very dark coffee. Roots
OF cypress and juniper cause the dis
coloration.
AS boon to the rough water wary,
the 20-mile cut of the Alligator and
Pungo River Canal eliminates the pas
sage down the wide Pamlico Sound,
which. with fresh winds, can be an
uncomfortable body Of water. When
you have safely put behind the 20
miles where the Neuse River enters
Pamlico Sound. between Goose Creek
and the entrance to the last land cut
before Beaufort, worries Of exposed
stretches are about over. For the
many miles below Morehead City the
1ntracoastal Waterway hugs the coast
line through dredged channels on the
series of narrow sounds.
nN THE second day out of Morehead
City, at the boundary line be-
tween North and South Carolina, the
Waterway swings inland. where. with
few exceptions, it continues to the
Florida State line. Along winding
rivers it twists and turns, at times
l80 degrees from the course just
traversed, through South Carolina and
Georgia. As you turn westward up