CROSSING ALBERMARLE SOUND

Wednesday, May 6

Got up this morning to a battlefield scene - thousands of dead bugs all around the boat. On the exterior, the bugs left little green spots all over, and I had to get all of that cleaned up so it wouldn’t stain the fiberglass.  On the interior, we had to clean up all the dead bugs and the smeared remains of dead bugs all over the bulkheads and overhead. The boat looked very nice by the time we got it all cleaned up. 

Remains from the "Attack of the Mosquitos" on our dinghy

We left Oriental about 8:30 AM and headed north on the Neuse River for a short day of only around 50 miles to Belhaven, NC. It was a very nice morning, so we kept the pace slow (around 7 knots) and listened to classical music up on the bridge, enjoying the weather and the calm water. The town offers a very nice dock complete with water and electricity for a very reasonable price. It’s located right in the center of town, so we walked around checking out the shops.

The grocery store is a couple of miles away, and I got out my little folding bike and pedaled over there for a few things.

The big discussion amongst our group was the weather forecast. A tropical depression has developed offshore and threatens significant, if not severe weather over the next few days and we need to decide whether or not we try to outrun the front as it heads north. The other option is to hole up in Belhaven for a few days - that would be OK, if we had to, but not our first choice. We decided to get together early in the morning, listen to the latest weather forecasts, and decide then.

The major factors in the decision to stay or go relate to the Alligator River and the Albermarle Sound. Both of these areas have a bad reputation for rough water even under moderate conditions, so an approaching storm with high winds could make the crossing very uncomfortable.

Late in the evening,one of the residents of Belhaven stopped by with gift baskets for all of us tied up to the town dock, We were all very impressed with the friendliness of the town and felt they were doing the right things to attract boaters.

Thursday, May 7

At the early morning conference, after reviewing the latest weather information, we decided to go for it, but to get as early of a start as possible. We pulled out of Belhaven around 6:15 in a moderate wind

NOT a sunset - this is sunrise this morning as we left Belhaven

of around 10 knots and reached the mouth of the Alligator River four hours later. The winds had picked up and were against the ebbing tide, so as we entered the Albermarle Sound we had around 15 miles of 2-4 foot high waves to head into before entering the North River and going up to Coinjock, NC to tie up at a marina. It was a bit bouncy/rolly, but we’ve been in worse conditions and did OK, so we just kept on going, making the crossing in under two hours. In conditions like this, Elaine takes the helm so she’ll keep occupied and not get seasick. It is difficult (and potentially dangerous) to move around the boat too much in this type of rough water, but we did manage to fix a lunch and eat it up on the flybridge during the crossing.

We arrived in Coinjock around 1PM, and since there isn’t much here besides the marina and restaurant, we spent the afternoon doing chores like washing down the boat, laundry and major engine checks. Tomorrow, we’ll actually do some planning (a little out of character for us) for the next week or so to assess the feasibility of taking a side trip up the Potomac River to Washington DC.