From Dowry Creek Marina

BELHAVEN — “The Boats Stop Here” continues to be the mantra for Belhaven, as evidenced last week at Dowry Creek Marina. They were visited on Feb. 12 by one of the largest ships to pass down the Pungo, the Grande Mariner cruise ship.

Commissioned in 1998, the Grande Mariner is 184 feet long, 40 feet wide, 55 feet tall, and has a 6-foot, 6-inch draft. She has cabin space for 84 passengers, plus a 17-person crew. She is owned and operated by Blount Small Ship Tours.

After years of river and lake cruises in the Great Lakes and along the Northern Atlantic Coast, the Grande Mariner is en route to the Bahamas, where she will be cruising as an “adventure yacht.” The captain brought her into Dowry Creek Marina for a couple of days on the trip south, and the crew enjoyed a short R&R at the marina while the chef restocked the galley at local markets. They departed south for the Outer Banks on last Friday, where they planned to head back into the ocean and make the trip down to Florida.

Dowry Creek Marina is the largest marina on the Pungo River, located just three miles by water east of Belhaven along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and just off U.S. Highway 264. While most Dowry Creek Marina boats range from 26 feet to 70 feet, they have 73 slips that hold boats up to 80 feet in length and include several with boat lifts for boats up to 10,000 pounds. Dowry Creek also has more than a dozen face dock locations and, as evidenced last week, can handle boats up to 200 feet in length and 50 feet in width, with a draft up to 7 feet. For boats under 100 feet in length, the draft can increase safely to 8 feet. They are open to the public year-round, seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (later from May through November); and have Valvtect Marine Diesel and Unleaded Non-ethanol fuel at the pier, offer pump-outs year round, an LP tank refill station, a large convenience market/ship store and a swimming pool and tennis court. The Marina boasts comfortable showers and restrooms, a large boater’s clubhouse lounge with all the amenities and is beginning construction on a large waterfront restaurant planned to open later this year.